Tag: Eternal Security

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Now This Is Eternal Life

Today’s reading: John 17

 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 

John 17:3
Eternal Life

When we talk about glorifying something or someone we typically are referring to making them known – drawing attention to them or to what they’ve done – and giving them the place of honor. In this first section of John 17, Jesus lifts up His request to the Father to make Him known – not that He may boast but that He may glorify the Father. However, there is a second reason that I see and that is found in our focus verse today (3). God’s purpose in sending Jesus was so whoever believed in Him would have Eternal Life. Jesus has been making Himself and the Father known during His time on earth both to the disciples and all who would listen to the message or saw the miracles. Having come to the end of His time on earth He points out to the Father, that He has been successful in what He was sent to do. His reasoning for deeming it successful was that the disciples had accepted the message God had sent Him to give and they knew with certainty that He came from God. And this, by Jesus’ definition, is eternal life – that they know both the Father and the Son whom He sent.

For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

John 17: 8
Our Mission

Our mission as believers is to keep the message going. It’s a mission made possible, according to Jesus, by the spoken testimony of the believers that God sent Jesus to save. The mission is accomplished with more than words though, it is to be the action of loving others as Christ has loved them, (John 13:34-35; 15:8, and 17:20). We accomplish the mission by living in a way that the world will know Him through us – just as He lived in a way that the world would know God through Him. Don’t miss the passion Christ had for the mission to save the world and to make the Father known. We’ve seen it throughout the book of John and we see it here as He prays and emphasizes His hope that the world will believe that God has sent Him. I believe it is clear from His words in this prayer that Jesus’ hope was that we would share in His passion.

my Prayer

Father I don’t have to feel like you are using me. I don’t have to know anyone is listening – I only have to live and love like Jesus, who kept the message going so the world would know You – the only true God and Him, who You sent to save us.

The Emotions of Jesus

One final thing I can’t help but point out – and that is how Jesus prayed and longed for those who had believed in Him. We can feel His excitement in verse 7 over them truly understanding His relationship with the Father and the Father’s real and present role in all that had been happening. I could also feel His true longing for those who belong to Him to be with Him. This is how He longs for all of us who are His. May we equally long for Him and for the Father; and may we pray for the lost to believe.

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Living Water – The Hope of Eternal Life

Suggested Reading: John 4:1-42; SOAP John 4:13-14

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:13-14

Before and After Notes

I believe to fully appreciate and grow from verses 13 and 14 it is helpful to stop and look at some things that happened before and after Jesus’ well known words, “Everyone who drinks some of this water will never be thirsty again”.

Before
  • First, there’s the fact that Jesus, a Jew, asked the Samaritan woman for water at the well. I believe we do ourselves an injustice if we do not attend to the fact that the woman entered into conversation with Jesus (9). She could have simply given Him a drink and gone on about her business or either of them could have ignored the other altogether, instead she entered into conversation with Jesus – and so it began.
  • Second, enhancing the conversation, is the fact that the woman was versed in some of the history and truth and hope of God’s people – which was the Messiah to come – the very One who stood before her.
After
  • As their conversation continued she began to realize who she was talking with and she left her water jars and ran to tell the people in the town. (28-30) You see, when we “see” Jesus for who He really is we will share Jesus – and when we share Jesus others will see Him for who He is – and they will believe … and they will “know” for themselves that He is the Messiah, the Savior of the world (41-42).
  • While there may be many other things I haven’t noted from these 40 verses that surround our focus verses – there is one other thing did jump out at me … The woman was changed when she realized that Christ knew everything about her and yet he did not turn away from her or condemn her (29, 39). (On a personal note: This is the very thing that forever changed my relationship with Christ from one of a religious nature to an intimate one.)
In Between

Packaged neatly in between the before and the after are the words Jesus spoke to the woman in verses 13 and 14. It is here where we see that not only did she enter into conversation with Him – but He took time with her. He listened and answered and guided her to the TRUTH of who He was and what it meant for her.

Our Response

When we read or listen to the Word and engage with Him – we will hear and see the truth and be forever changed. Hopefully, in turn, we will want others to Know the TRUTH and be forgiven and set free and so we will tell others who He is and what He’s done.

Prayer

Father, thank You for Your Word and the hope it reveals. Help us to stop, to pay attention, to enter IN – so that we might hear and see the TRUTH and be forever changed – and then Father, grace us with the courage and the passion to share the TRUTH with others – so that they too might be saved. Amen and Amen!

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