Ques. Why?

J.P. Because in chapter 5 Christ is the "Lord" – the great Administrator, and you get what He administers – seven things, and they are all through our Lord Jesus Christ, so eternal life is through our Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 5.

• But chapter 6 presents Him as the second Man out of heaven, so that what is true of Him personally is true of all those who are in Him. Ponder that! The more you ponder it, the more it will dawn upon you.

• Eternal life is primarily connected with "the world to come"; sin and death will not reign then.

Sin; death; that is the order.

• "By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death".

• Then eternal life is brought in by Christ Jesus, and He is the Son of God.

• There are two questions involved in the question of eternal life – the questions of sin, and of death.

1. The only thing that meets sin – which is lawlessness – is righteousness,

2. and the only thing that can meet death is the One who is the Resurrection and the Life, who has abolished death and brought to light life and incorruptibility.

• You have to face the questions of righteousness and life.

• God can never give up His rights or claims as God; and anything in which He sets forth His rights and claims in regard of man can never be set aside.

• So that the answer of the Lord to the lawyer in Luke 10 is more direct than we might think from a cursory reading. The lawyer's question – What shall I do to inherit eternal life? is simple and direct, and the Lord's answer is –
  • "What is written in the law?"

  • The lawyer said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart", etc.,

  • and the Lord said, "Thou hast answered right: this do and thou shalt live".

• Why? Because God gave the law, and it was the embodiment and expression of God's claims in regard of man. Hence the language of the law was "This do and thou shalt live".

• Man's title to live is found in that connection. You cannot set it aside.

• The law as given amounted to a test; the question raised by it was a question of righteousness – the rights of God. Israel broke down in it, and so in Romans 3 the summary is
  • "there is none righteous, no, not one".

But has God set aside His own rights and claims? It is impossible.

• That shows that if it is a question of eternal life you have to take account of the question of sin and of righteousness. So if the wages of sin is death, the act of favour of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son".

Every believer has title to eternal life, but one's desire is that we may know that we have it, and be practically in the good of it.

• The point is eternal life is brought in in contrast to sin and death. The two – sin and death – must be reckoned with; and they have both been met in the righteous One. See verse 17 "reign in life".

• You could not think of life apart from righteousness; it would compromise the character of God. "Reign in life", by One – who? – the righteous One.

• If the lawlessness of one man has entailed death upon all connected with him, so the righteousness of One brings in life for those connected with Him.

• We want to get our eyes off ourselves to see that eternal life is the act of favour of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, or – as it is put in 1 John 5 – "in his Son".

• This question was brought out in the life of the Lord here. He did not set aside the law and the prophets. He came to fulfil them, to establish the fulness of all the rights and claims of God.
  • "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous".

• That does not refer to His atoning death. In that He is alone. It refers to Him as the Man here – the righteous One. At His baptism when John objects He says,
  • "Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness".

• In the temptation in Matthew He takes and maintains the ground of the rights of God and refuses to be moved one hair's breadth. He asks
  • Which of you convinceth me of sin?"

• There He stands the righteous One. And in 1 John 2 – who have we as advocate with the Father?
  • "Jesus Christ the righteous one".

• He established the title of man to live; He has brought in righteousness in the very scene of sin. It is wonderful to see the Lord in that light – how as Man He took up in His path here every feature of man in responsibility and met it all.

• He was perfectly righteous; I am not speaking of atonement, or of His bearing the wrath of God against sin, but of Him as the righteous One in His path here.

• It has been said that God met the two worst things in the world by the two best things – lawlessness and hatred by righteousness and love.

"Son of God" describes Him as Man born in time,

• "That holy thing … shall be called the Son of God".

• Then resurrection is the attestation, the marking out, of the fact that He is Son of God. See Romans 1: 3-4.

Then there is the other question – that of death.

• "By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death".

• Eternal life involves the establishment of the opposites. Sin and death are set aside and righteousness and life are brought in. There is only One who was competent for that – the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

• Going into death He abolished it, and brought life and incorruptibility to light. Now, you have not only righteousness, but a Man of another order, out of death.

• Eternal life is in the One who is perfectly righteous – in that Man as out of death.

Rem. As the righteous One, He has established the right of man to live.

J.P. Yes; it is wonderful. Scripture goes back before His death, where it says,

• "He that says he abides in him ought, even as he walked, himself to walk".

• He has established righteousness, and gone into death. Then it is available to those who believe. In Himself, He has established the right of man to live.

Ques. As to the thought of "the true Man"?

J.P. We get in scripture

• "The same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him", John 7: 18;

• "We are in him that is true", 1 John 5: 20;

• "These things saith … he that is true".

• He is true; never was there a claim of God that He did not answer to. He has established His title as man to live here, being clear of death here, and God has brought in eternal life for man in His Son.

• I do not care about definitions, because I do not know them; but the Lord says of eternal life,
  • "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent".

As to love, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love".

• If you do not love, you do not know. Can you be in the sunshine, and not be bright and warm?

Ques. When did the Lord establish man's right to live?

J.P. When did He fulfil the law of God? He could say,

• "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart".

• He was the ark of the covenant. When did He establish righteousness? When He was here. All that was in Him becomes through His death available to us in resurrection. That brings in the thought of headship.

• In Romans 5 there is Adam, and the effects of his act, and then there is Christ and the effects of His act. We cannot separate righteousness and life.

• In His death He established righteousness; in His life here as man He took up the responsibilities of man here, but at the cross He took up man's liabilities – death and judgment; He did not take up responsibility at the cross.

• There He took up the question of what rested on man – judgment and death. It was in His life here that He was the righteous One. His resurrection did not constitute Him the righteous One.

• I see in His life here righteousness fulfilled, the conditions of life as established for man, and I see in Him, as the risen One, that righteousness and life are available for man. So in that One there is eternal life.

Rem. The difficulty of some is that eternal life is said to be in Him, and as He is in heaven, eternal life must be there.

J.P. But forgiveness of sins and justification are in Him, and we enter into that here.

• I ask for a scripture as to eternal life being in heaven. I asked F.E.R., in Chicago, "Do you know any scripture which connects eternal life with heaven?" and he said "I do not".

Ques. Is there no sense in which eternal life goes on to heaven?

J.P. I do not think so. I say it humbly, not dogmatically.

• "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God".

• I cannot see the force of that in heaven; I can understand it here. Then He goes on –
  • "And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent".

• He was sent from heaven, not into heaven, He is the second Man out of heaven.

  It is never said that He was sent from heaven; He came from heaven but was "sent" as already here on earth.  GAR

Rem. You said the former was to abolish idolatry, the latter lawlessness.

J.P. Yes; it is where these things are that we need eternal life; there are no idols in heaven.

Eternal life is not the knowledge of divine Persons as such. We can speak of the divine Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost – but eternal life is not that;

• it lies in the knowledge of the only true God, and of Him – the sent One – who addressed Him as "Father".

• He always addressed Him as Father save on that one occasion when He was the sin-offering. Then it was, "My God".

So, "These words spake Jesus … and said, Father … and this is life eternal", etc.

• He is speaking of the knowledge of God, who is His Father, and of knowing Him down here as the "only true God". That is salvation from idolatry; the knowledge of God will abolish all idolatry from our hearts.

Ques. What about "He is the true God and eternal life"?

J.P. We must not mix John's epistle and his gospel.

• Here – chapter 17: 3 – it is to "know the only true God". It is a question of knowledge; it is not feelings, but what you know.

• You know the "only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent", and in Him you are perfectly righteous and saved from all lawlessness.
  • "He that abideth in him sinneth not".

• We want to know the reality of it.

In the last part of John's epistle it is a question of testimony; not of His person, but of what is set forth in Him.

• He was the perfect setting forth of the true God and of eternal life.