What is salvation?
Salvation is deliverance -- deliverance from something bad
to something good.
Salvation is basically
Because God loves us, He has acted in the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ for the salvation of man from death, sin and wrath
to life, righteousness, and peace.
Reconciliation is salvation from death to life.
Redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness.
Propitiation is salvation from wrath to peace.
These
three aspects of salvation
are accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Gospel tells us about this act of God for our salvation in the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:3-4). And in the preaching of
the Gospel, God exerts His power for the salvation of men by bringing them
to faith in Jesus Christ (
Rom. 1:16).
That is, in the preaching of the gospel the
righteousness of God is revealed (
Rom. 1:17).
The righteousness of God is manifested in death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to bring us to faith in God. And when one believes in Jesus Christ, they are set right with God and are justified through faith. That is, justification is essentially salvation; to justify is to save.
This salvation is the gift of God and you can have it, if you will accept this invitation.
If there is any one word that can characterize or describe our world it is the word "death." Death casts a pall of gloom over all of our lives. It is the end of all plans, the frustration of all hopes. Death has a finality about it that no human power can overcome. Man by his science and medicine tries to prevent it. But against its inevitable arrival no human power can prevail. It is appointed unto man once to die (Heb. 9:27). Death has power, and through the fear of death man is subject to lifelong bondage (Heb. 2:14-15). Death is not just an event which comes upon us and puts an end to life. Death is a power, a ruler. Death is a tyrant who does not ask man whether he will serve him, but claims everyone with absolute authority. We may choose to be or not be the slaves of sin; but there is no choice as to the reign of death. From birth we are subjects of King Death. Ever since Adam's horrible choice in the garden, death has reigned over man. The Apostle Paul says,
"...because of one man's trespass,Death is a sovereign who rules over all men. Such is the common lot of all men since Adam.
death reigned through that one man,..."
(Rom. 5:17; see also Rom. 5:12)
Death is more than just the end of physical life, the dissolution of the body, the cessation of physiological functions of this organism. Physical death is the separation of man's spirit from his body. In this state of physical death, he awaits the judgment (Heb. 9:27). But death is more than the physical separation of man's spirit from his body. It is also the separation, alienation of man's spirit from God; this is spiritual death. It is the opposite of spiritual life which is knowing the true God personally as a living reality ( John 17:3); spiritual life is fellowship and communion with God; spiritual death is the absence of this life. In this state, man thinks that God doesn't exist, that God is dead. But it is not that God is dead; it is man himself that is dead.
Even though the distinction between spiritual and physical death is not made explicitly anywhere in the Scriptures, the distinction is implied by (Gen. 2:17; 3:8) and assumed by the Scriptures (Matt. 8:22; Luke 9:60; I Tim. 5:6). Jesus recognized this distinction between spiritual death and physical death when he said, "Let the dead bury their dead" (Matt. 8:22 KJV; Luke 9:60), that is, "Let the spiritually dead bury their physically dead."
Spiritual death is the present reign of death over man. King Death separates man from God. The reign of King Death is not only exercised in the inevitable physical death of man; King Death rules every moment of man's existence before the event of physical death. Spiritual death is the present reign of death which separates, alienates and isolates man from God. Just as man does not choose physical death, that is, whether he is going to die inevitably or not, so he does not choose spiritual death. Man is born into this world already spiritually dead. He is automatically under the reign of death. He has no choice about it. According to Romans 5:12, we receive death from our first parents, Adam and Eve. When they sinned, they died spiritually as well as physically. God said, when he gave them the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that in the day that they ate of it they would surely die (or literally, "dying, you will die", Gen. 2:17). Since they did not die physically on that day, they must have died spiritually on that day. And this is clearly what happened because they hid themselves from the presence of God (Gen. 3:8). Their fellowship or communion with God was broken and this is spiritual death. Later, after they were driven out of the garden away from the tree of life, lest they eat of it and live forever (Gen. 3:22-24), they eventually died physically (Gen. 5:5). And this death, both spiritual and physical, was passed onto the whole race of Adam's descendants, you and me.
Unless a man is delivered from spiritual death while physically alive, after physical death and the judgment, he will be eternally separated from God. This is eternal death, the second death (Rev. 20:14; 21:6-8).
But God has done something about this reign of death over the human race. In His love for us, God sent His Son to enter into our death so that He might deliver us from the reign of death. On the cross, Jesus died not only physically but spiritually. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46) He was forsaken for us; He died for us. He tasted death for every man (Heb. 2:9). But God raised Him from the dead. That is why He died; Jesus died for us so that we might be raised from the dead with Him. He entered into our death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive with Him ( Eph. 2:5). Christ's death is our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection. We who have received Him are made alive with Him and in Him; we have passed from death into life ( John 5:24); we have been raised from the dead spiritually. God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves; He has made us who were dead spiritually alive.
Jesus Christ acted as our representative, on our behalf and for our sakes. "For the love of Christ constraineth; because we thus judge, that one died for [on the behalf of] all, therefore all died" (II Cor. 5:14), that is, in Christ, who represents all. Adam acting as a representative brought the old creation under the reign of death. But Christ acting as our representative brought a new creation in which those "who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:17)
"15:21 For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
15:22 For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Cor. 15:21-22)."Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature:
the old things are passed away;
behold, they are become new" (II Cor. 5:17).Jesus said, "Because I live ye shall live also" (John 14:19).
Acting through our representative, God has reconciled us to Himself in and through Christ; that is, God has changed our relationship to Himself and brought us into fellowship with Himself.
"5:18 Now all these things are from God,Reconciliation is salvation from death to life.
who reconciled us to Himself through Christ,...
5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,..."
(II Cor. 5:18, 19 NAS; see also Rom. 5:10-11; I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:2-3).
Thus salvation may be viewed in three different ways.
Life is not a "thing," but is a person -- Jesus."I am the way, and the truth, and the life;Jesus is the life and the Way to God the Father.
no one comes to the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
"This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God,Eternal life is to know personally the true God and His Son,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3)
"He that has the Son has lifeIf we have God's Son, we have eternal life since He is the life;
and he that has not the Son has not life."
(I John 5:12)
"Truly, Truly, I say to you,Thus salvation is basically from death to life.
he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life;
he does not come into judgment,
but is passed from death to life."
(John 5:24)
And salvation is not only deliverance from death to life but also from sin to righteousness. What is sin? Sin is any choice contrary to faith and trust in the true God (Rom. 14:23) and the basic sin is unbelief (infidelity, not incredultiy) in the true God. It is not just any unbelief but unbelief in God. Unbelief as such is not sin. Unbelief is sin only in reference to God; it is sin only when it is God who is not trusted. Sin must be defined in terms of the true God. Now the basic sin is not just negative, unbelief in God, not trusting the true God; but it is positive. it is trust in a false god(s); it is idolatry. Idolatry is not just the worship of graven images made of wood, stone or metal (Col. 3:6; see also Eph. 5:5). The false gods whose worship is idolatry are not always so crude or absurd. Many things such as pleasure, wealth, power, education, the family, society, the state, democracy, reason and science, which are good in their proper place, may become a false god when it becomes a person's highest value, his ultimate criterion of his choices. The choice of a false god and consequent personal allegiance and devotion to it is what the Bible calls idolatry. An idol is a false god, and a false god may be anything that takes the place of the true God, anything a man chooses as his ultimate criterion of decision, exalting it as God in the place of the true God. It is any substitute or replacement for the true God in a man's life. Since a false god usurps the place of the true God in a man's life, idolatry is the basic sin. This sin is directly against God; it is a direct insult to the true God and an affront to His divine majesty. No more serious sin could be imagined than this one. Since it is the most serious sin, it is therefore the most basic. This is the main reason that idolatry is the first sin prohibited by the Ten Commandments.
"Thou shalt have no other gods besides me" (Exodus 20:3).Idolatry is also the basic sin because this sin leads to other sins. It leads to other sins since a person's god, being his ultimate criterion of decision, ultimately controls the direction and character of a man's decisions. The choice of a wrong god will lead to other wrong choices. That is, the idol that a man sets up in his heart (Ezek. 14:3-5) will affect the character and quality of his whole life. In other words, if in his heart a man clings to a false god, his actions and speech will show it. In this way also idolatry is the basic sin.
Now all men have sinned because they are spiritually dead. This is what the Apostle Paul says in the last clause of Romans 5:12, which clause is incorrectly translated in our English translations ( NAS, NIV) as "because all sinned". In the Greek of this verse, there is a relative pronoun which has not been translated. If it were translated, the whole clause in English would read, "because of which all sinned." In the Greek, it is clear that the antecedent of the relative pronoun "which" is the word "death" in the preceding clause. (The antecedent of a relative pronoun is the word to which the pronoun refers.) The last clause would then be equivalent to "because of death all sinned" and would mean that all men sinned because of death.
"Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man
and death through sin, and so death spread to all men,
because of which all sinned --" (Rom. 5:12 ERS)
But how is this possible? How can men sin because of death?
Let me explain how this is possible by referring to
another passage in the writings of the Apostle Paul,
Galatians 4:8. In this passage, Paul is reminding the Galatian
Christians of their condition before they became Christians.
"Formerly, when you did not know God,Not to "know God" personally as a living reality is to be spiritually dead. And a man is "in bondage to beings that are no gods" when he chooses them as his gods. He is in bondage to them because he does not personally know the only true God, that is, because he is spiritually dead.
you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods."
(Gal. 4:8)
Let me put it another way. Every man must have a god. Man, by the very structure of his freedom, must choose something to be the ultimate criterion of all his decisions. This is because every choice a man makes is made with reference to some criterion. That is, behind every decision as to what a man will do or think there is a reason, a criterion of decision. And the ultimate reason for any decision -- practical or theoretical -- must be given in terms of some particular criterion, an ultimate reference or orientation point in or beyond the self or person making the decision. This ultimate criterion is that person's god. In this sense, every man must have a god. Every man, if he hasn't already, must choose something as his god. Now if he doesn't know the true God personally as a living reality, that is, if he is spiritually dead, and since he must have a god, he will choose a false god. He will choose some part or aspect of reality as his god, deifying it.
"They exchanged the truth about God for a lie
and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator."
(Rom. 1:25)
Now we can understand how death leads to sin. If one is spiritually dead, separated from God, and since he must choose a god, he will usually choose a false god. If one does not know the true God, the true God will not be a living reality to him. And lacking this personal knowledge of the true God as a living reality, one does not have the adequate reason for choosing the true God as his ultimate criterion of decision. God Himself is the only adequate reason for choosing Him. He cannot be chosen for any other reason than Himself. For then He would not be God but rather that reason for which He is chosen would be god. Only a living encounter with the true and living God can produce the situation in which God Himself may be chosen. If God Himself is the only adequate condition for the choice of Himself, then apart from a personal revelation of God Himself, man will usually choose as his god that which seems like god to him from among the creation around him or from the creations of his own hands or mind. Man does not necessarily have to sin but he usually will. Spiritual death is not the necessary cause but the basis or condition for his choice of a false god. (The Greek word translated "because" in the last clause of Romans 5:12 means "on the basis of" or "on the condition of".)
Man is not responsible for becoming spiritually dead because he did not choose this state. He inherited spiritual death from Adam just as he inherited physical death. But he is responsible for the god he chooses. The true God has not left man without a knowledge about Himself (Rom. 1:19-20). This knowledge about God leaves man without excuse for his idolatry. But it does not save him because it is a knowledge about the true God and not a personal knowledge of the true God. But even though a man is not responsible for becoming spiritually dead, he is responsible for remaining in the state of spiritual death when deliverance is offered to him in the person of Jesus Christ. If he refuses the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, he must reap the harvest and receive the wages of his decision, eternal death.
"For the wages of sin is death,If a man refuses the gift of spiritual and eternal life in Christ Jesus and continues to put his trust in a false god, remaining in spiritual death, then after he dies physically, at the last judgment he will receive the result of his decision, eternal death, separation from God for eternity.
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Rom. 6:23)
Now we can understand why man needs to be saved. As we have seen, man is not responsible for the spiritual death nor for the physical death that he has received from Adam; they are not the result of a man's own personal sins. On the contrary, a man's personal sins are a result of spiritual death. That is why he needs to be saved. Man is dead spiritually and dying physically. He needs life; he needs to be made alive -- he needs to be raised from the dead. And if he receives life, if he is made alive to God, death which leads to sin will be removed and man can be saved from sin. Thus salvation must be understood to be primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness.
Now this salvation (primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness) is exactly what God accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus entered into our spiritual death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive together with and in Him ( Eph. 2:5). And by saving us from spiritual death, Christ saves us from sin. It is by taking away the spiritual death which leads to our sin that God takes away our sin. Jesus died for our sins -- literally -- to take them away (John 1:29). What the Old Testament sacrifices could not do (Heb. 10:1-4), the death of Christ has done. The blood of Jesus (His death) cleanses us from our sins (I John 1:7). We are delivered from sin itself, not just from its consequences. We were saved from our trust in false gods when we put our trust in Jesus Christ and the true God who sent Him. Did we not "turn from idols to serve the living and true God" (I Thess. 1:9)? When we were spiritually dead we trusted in and served those things that were not God -- money, power, sex, pleasure, popularity, education, science, etc. But when we turned to the risen Christ, we entered into life, leaving behind those false gods. The risen and living Jesus Christ is now our Lord and our God (John 20:28).
The death and resurrection of Jesus was the means by which God removed spiritual death -- the barrier to knowing the true God personally and knowing His love. Now God can and does reveal Himself to us in the preaching of the gospel, making us spiritually alive to Himself when we receive Jesus Christ who is life ( John 14:6; I John 5:12). To be spiritually alive is to know God, and to know God personally is to trust Him. For "God is love" (I John 4:8, 16) and love begets trust. The trust in God that God's love invokes in us is righteousness, the righteousness of faith; faith relates us rightly to God. Just as trust in a false god is sin, so trust in the true God is righteousness.
"4:3 For what does the scripture say?And just as sin flows from death, so righteousness flows from life.
'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.'
4:4Now to one who works,
his wage is not reckoned as a gift but as his due.
4:5But to the one who does not work
but trusts him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned as righteousness."
(Rom. 4:3-5 ERS).
"Is the law against the promises of God?That is, since the law cannot make alive, the law cannot produce righteousness. In other words, just as sin flows from death, so righteousness flows from life. And because the law cannot remove death, it also cannot remove sin. Therefore, since the law cannot make alive, salvation cannot be by the law. And since the law cannot make alive, it cannot produce real righteousness. The righteousness of the law, that is, the merits earned by keeping the law, is a false righteousness, dirty filthy rags (Isa. 64:6; Phil. 3:7-9; Rom. 10:3-4). Just as trust in a false god is sin, so trust in the true God is real righteousness (Rom. 4:3-5), the righteousness of faith. And just as sin flows from death, so righteousness flows from life. And because the law cannot remove death, it also cannot remove sin. And since it cannot make alive, it cannot produce real righteousness. Therefore since the law cannot make alive, salvation cannot be by the law. God never gave the law for salvation, but for the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20).
Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive,
then righteousness would indeed be by the law."
(Gal. 3:21).
What the law could not do, God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. God has made us alive to Himself in the resurrection of Jesus and set us free from the slavery of sin. Since the basic sin is idolatry (trust in a false god) and sin is a slavery to a slavemaster (John 8:34), the false god is the slavemaster. We were all slaves of sin once, serving our false gods when we were spiritually dead, alienated and separated from the true God, not knowing him personally. But we have been set free from this slavery of sin through the death of Christ. Jesus entered into our spiritual death and died our death. His death is our death to sin. Now when a slave dies, he is no longer in slavery; death frees him from slavery. So we likewise have been set free from the slavery of sin having died with Christ. We have died to sin with Christ (Rom. 6:1-7). We have been redeemed from the slavery of sin through the death of Christ. But we have been made alive to God together with Him in His resurrection. His resurrection is our resurrection. We are no longer slaves of sin but have become slaves of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Now that we are alive to God in Him, we have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18). For just as death produces sin, so life produces righteousness. Since we have passed from death to life, we have been saved from sin to righteousness (I Pet. 2:24).
Thus by taking away death, God takes away sin. By saving us from death, God saves us from sin. By making us alive to Himself, God sets us right with Himself through faith. Life produces righteousness just as death produced sin. By making us alive together with Christ, we are saved from sin and are put into right relationship to God through faith, the righteousness of faith. When you receive Christ, you are made alive to God and in that choice of faith you are set right with God. We are saved from sin to righteousness; we are redeemed from sin. Redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness.
Now that God has redeemed us from sin, we are also delivered from the wrath of God. The wrath of God is God's opposition to man's sin; wrath is caused by sin.
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heavenGod's wrath is specifically directed against idolatry.
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."
(Rom. 1:18 ERS)
"6:14 You shall not go after other gods,The wrath of God is God's "No" to man's sin. It is the other side of God's love and it is not opposed to his love. In wrath, God's love opposes man's sin and in grace God's love saves man from his sin. Peace with God is the opposite of the wrath of God.
the gods of the peoples who are round about you;
6:15 for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God;
lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you,
and he destroy you off the face of the earth."
(Deut. 6:14-15 RSV)
"Being therefore set right by faith,
we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ."
(Rom. 5:1 ERS)"Much more then, being set right by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him."
(Rom. 5:9 ERS)
Salvation is not only deliverance from sin but also deliverance from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9). God put forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation through faith in His blood (Rom. 3:25). The death of Jesus Christ is a propitiation because it is the means that God has appointed for turning away His wrath from man. While God in His love could have mercy on man and turn away His wrath from man (Psa. 78:38; Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:19-20), He has appointed means whereby His wrath will be turned away. In the Old Testament, God's appointed means for turning away His wrath were the sacrifices and offerings. When these sacrifices were offered in true repentance and faith, they were an atonement or propitiation. But these sacrifices could never take away sin (Heb. 10:4, 11); that is, they could not bring about repentance and faith because they could not make alive ( Gal. 3:21). On the contrary, there is in those sacrifices a continual remembrance of sin year by year (Heb. 10:3). That is, the worshippers, not having been cleansed of their sins, still have a consciousness of sin (Heb. 10:2). Therefore, those that draw near could never be made perfect by those sacrifices (Heb. 10:1).
But Christ has put away sin once for all by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9:26; 10:12), and He has made perfect them that are being sanctified or set apart to God (Heb. 10:14). Now there is no more remembrance of sins (Heb. 10:17), since those drawing near having been cleansed from their sins have no more consciousness of sins (Heb. 10:22). It was to accomplish our cleansing from sin that Christ "gave Himself for our sins" (Gal. 1:4) and "died for our sins" (I Cor. 15:3). God has acted in Jesus Christ to redeem us from sin, thus to cleanse us from our sins. And since there are no sins to cause wrath, the wrath of God is turned away. No sin, no wrath. Thus Christ's death is a propitiation because it is a redemption.
Neither could the Old Testament sacrifices reconcile man
to God; they could not make man alive to God (
Gal. 3:21).
But through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
man can be made alive and reconciled to God and his sins
are taken away, redeemed from sin.
Christ's death is the perfect sacrifice for turning away God's wrath
because by it man is redeemed from sin.
Thus Christ's death is a propitiation because it is a redemption;
it is both a propitiation and a redemption.
Propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of Christ's work of
salvation that saves us from wrath to peace with God.
Redemption is the liberation aspect of Christ's work of salvation
that saves us from sin to righteousness.
And salvation is a propitiation and a redemption because it is
a reconciliation to God.
Reconcilation is the representative aspect of Christ's work of
salvation that saves us from death to life. Being made alive to God, death,
the cause of sin, is removed, and sin, the cause of wrath, is removed.
Propitiation, Redemption, and Reconciliation are the three aspects of
salvation.
These three aspects of salvation are accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; they are the three aspects of Christ's work of salvation.
The source of salvation is the love of God.
And the love of God in action to bring man salvation is the grace of God.
"2:4 But God who is rich in mercy,According to these verses, the grace of God is God's love in action.
out of the great love with which he loved us,
2:5 even when we were dead in our failures,
made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved)" (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS).
Salvation is the true expression of the love of God. Since salvation is the act of the love of God, it is a gift of God's love. And because salvation is a gift, salvation is free and is not something that can be earned. Being a free act of God's grace, salvation has nothing to do with the works of the law.
"2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith;According to the Scriptures, man cannot save himself by his works because he cannot make himself alive by the law, not because he cannot do meritorious works.
and that [salvation] not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
2:9 not of works, lest anyone should boast."
(Eph. 2:8-9 ERS)
"Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not;Since the law cannot make alive, there is no salvation by the law. The law cannot deliver one from death nor from sin, neither can the law produce life or righteousness.
for if a law had been given which could make alive,
then righteousness would indeed be by the law." (Gal. 3:21)
God gave the law, not for salvation from sin, but for the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19); that is, to show what should be man's right personal relationship to God and to his fellow men (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:37-40). This knowledge does not save man but only shows man what he ought to be but it cannot make him to be that. Salvation is only through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, not by the law and not by human self-effort (the flesh) to earn it. Man is spiritually dead and the law cannot make him alive ( Gal. 3:21). But the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes alive those who are spritually dead when they receive by faith the risen Jesus Christ as their Lord and their God. Jesus Christ is Life, and he who has Him has life and is alive to God (I John 5:11-12). Thus salvation is basically from death to life through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.
This salvation is the gift of God and you can have it, if you will accept this invitation.
Jesus died for you so that you may be made alive to God
with Him in His resurrection and be saved from your sins.
If you have not believed in Jesus as the Son of God,
accepting Him as your Lord and God, then do it right now.
"Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved"
(Rom. 10:17).
To call upon the name of the Lord is to pray to Him.
Here is a suggested prayer by which you can call on the Lord.
"God:If this prayer expresses the desire of your heart, pray it right now.
I know that I am separated from you and
I need the new life you want to give to me.
I have sinned in trying to find a substitute for you.
I believe that you sent your Son to die for me and
that you raised him from the dead
so that I might have new life.
I receive Him now as my personal Saviour and
I will obey and follow Him as my Lord and my God.
Thank you, Father. Amen."
Did you call on the Lord just now and receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord? If you did, you are now saved from death to life and have eternal life. How do you know that? Because God says so in His word.
Romans 10:17 -If you made a decision for Christ, as suggested above, we would like to hear from you. Send us an E-mail message at rshelton@fromdeathtolife.org.
"Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord is saved."I John 5:10-13 -
"5:10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself;
the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar,
because he has not believed in the witness
that God has borne concerning His Son.
5:11 And the witness is this,
that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
5:12 He who has the Son has life;
he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
5:13 These things I have written to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God,
in order that you may know that you have eternal life."
(I John 5:10-13)(John 5:24) - Jesus said,
"Truly, Truly, I say to you,
he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life;
he does not come into judgment,
but is passed from death to life."
