1 John 5:9-13
“That’s Life”
Rev. Melissa D. Ramos
Some of the most basic
elements of life are also the most profound.
The sun rising each morning with the break of dawn; the sun setting in
the west amidst orange clouds as darkness deepens, and the heat of day
lifts. We see these things most every
day, but when we stop to see them, really see them, we are aware of the
handprint of God. We are aware of the
complexity and the simplicity of the natural world and its rhythm of life.
The flower and plant
life all around us also bears the handprint of a God who loves beauty, a God who is full of creativity and
imagination. When
I was in junior high school my family moved into the house in
I would never have
guessed way back when I was in the eighth grade when my dad planted that tiny
redwood sapling that 17 years later that same tree would be full of hanging
lanterns and white sparkling lights at my wedding reception. Trees and flowers, backyards, and our homes
also shape the rhythm of life in all its ordinary and extraordinary moments.
The birth of a child is
part of everyday life. People are born,
babies are born every day. And although
birth is clearly one of the most basic, the most fundamental elements of life –
there is nothing ordinary about the birth of any child. Every baby born holds something of the
miracle and the mystery of life.
Just as familiar to us
as birth is death. Someone we love dying
is part of the rhythm and cycle of life.
And yet death may be an aspect of life that can seem familiar, but
doesn’t seem natural to us. But in birth
and death, in the sun rising and setting, in summer and winter, in the created
world around us we are aware that there is more to life than what we see. We can understand the biology, the physics,
much of the mechanics of the natural world, and yet life itself is more than
the sum of biology and chemistry and physics.
Life and its events are carried by a mystery, a force behind the mere
moments themselves.
In this passage from
Scripture, John writes to the church about some of the most basic and
fundamental elements of Christian faith, and at the same time, these same
basics of faith are mysterious and profound.
John writes to the church, to our church, about life and more
specifically about eternal life in the Son of God.
(Read Passage.)
The opening verses of
this Scripture text talk about the “testimony of God.” For us, this may be a strange way of thinking
about faith. Normally we hear the
language of “testify” and “testimony” in courtrooms where witnesses testify
before a judge or a jury. But the word
“testimony” is also the language of faith.
Think for a moment about the Bible.
The Bible has two main parts to it.
What are those parts? The Old
Testament and the New Testament. They are all part of the same word
family.
The word “testament”
can refer to a declaration made before a court, or a public declaration of
faith. John, who wrote this letter to
the church, is playing on these definitions of testimony. John writes, “If we receive human testimony,
in other words, we accept as legally valid the words of other people, John
finishes, “the testimony of God is far greater; for
this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.”
If John is writing to a
church, a group of Christian believers, why does John need to use this kind of
legal language to back up the claim that Jesus is the Son of God? Wouldn’t we think that the people in the
church already believe that? At the time
when John wrote this letter, it seems that there was a special need for John to
write because there was a faction in the church. This faction had broken itself off and was
teaching that one can know God without Jesus, that one can have fellowship with
God without accepting the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as atonement
for our sins.
So John’s letter is
directed at the believers in the church who are grappling with this faction
promoting another gospel. This new
gospel claimed that Jesus was not the Son of God. And we might think that after all these years
the church has finally gotten clear what we believe about Jesus. But have a look around us, there are new
gospels popping up all over the place.
The Gospel according to Judas presents a Jesus who is divine, but not
really human. The Gospel according to
Dan Brown presents a Jesus who is very human but who is not divine, not the Son
of God.
Reading these books or
watching the film Da Vinci Code is not wrong or threatening
to Christian faith in any way. In fact,
these books and the film might even cause us to ask some new questions about
our faith.
But at the end of the
day, John urges us not to believe what others may tell us, not to count on
human testimony, but to believe what God has said, to accept and trust the
testimony of God.
But how can we really
know what God has said? God is
mysterious and invisible, unseen and unheard.
How can we really know what God’s testimony is, what God has said?
John the Gospel writer
has already answered that question, in the opening chapter of the Gospel of
John. The Scripture says, “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and
without him not one thing came into being.
What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of
all people… And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory…”
God has spoken once and
for all, and the Word that God spoke was Jesus of
When Jesus heals the
blind man by the side of the road, that is God’s Word of healing to us. When Jesus said,
“Love your enemies and pray for those who curse you, “that is God’s Word, God’s
testimony to this world full of violence. When Jesus turned over the tables of
the moneychangers in the temple and said, “This is a house of prayer for all
nations,” God spoke God’s Word to us that the church isn’t just for the rich
and the powerful. The church isn’t just
for those who can pay, but the church is to be especially a refuge for the
poor, for the sick, for the alien resident, and for those who are weak in their
faith. That is the testimony of God
revealed in the life and death of Jesus of
And by the miracle of
Grace we have seen and we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the light of
the world, the way, the truth, and the life.
We know this Word of
God made flesh in Jesus of
This testimony of God,
the Word of God made flesh in Jesus still speaks to us, and we know it when it
happens. How many of us have sat in
church, or been reading the Scriptures, or praying, or just driving our car, or
talking with a friend, when the Word of God “strikes right home to (us) like
lightning splitting a tree.” Or maybe
you’ve known something of God your whole life, but somehow through an
experience or an encounter God is made real and present to you in a fresh way.
John writes of this in
the Scripture, verse 10: “Those who
believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts.”
And John writes in
verse 13: “I write these things to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have
eternal life.” This
life, this Word made flesh in Jesus is eternal life because Jesus is risen and
reigns with God. The
life God gives is eternal because Jesus was not only a man but also the Son of
God, the Word of God, outside of time, made flesh, entered
into our history in Jesus of
But the Word of God
cannot be conquered by death; the Word of God rose on the third day from the
tomb, defeating death and darkness and fear.
And again John is
writing to the church, to us, about the basics of Christian belief. But sometimes the simplest, most fundamental
elements of life are the most mysterious and the most profound. The Scriptures speak to us about eternal life
because one of the most basic, natural human fears is the fear of death and
dying. I don’t’ mean fear of pain or
fear of being killed, but the question “what happens when we die”? Science and philosophy can answer many of
life’s questions, but death eludes us.
Death presents a barrier that we cannot penetrate, except by faith.
What happens when we
die? It’s not a question we can figure
out the answer to by thinking harder, or making calculations. The only way we can know the answer to that
question is by receiving the testimony of God, the Word of God. Jesus’ life could not be conquered by
death. By dying himself and rising, our
sins are forgiven, and Jesus offers to us fellowship with God who is eternal. We are then called
to participate in God, who is the source of all life. God in Christ dwells in us. God can never die,
and so neither do we in the Spirit when we receive the testimony of God.
John writes: “And this is the testimony of God; God gave
us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not
have life.”
John writes this in
order to reassure the believers in the church that there is nothing more to
earn from God, and nothing to fear. One of our 8th grade
Confirmation Class students put it very well in his statement of faith. He wrote, “God reserves a place for me in
heaven.” The eternal life given to us by
the Son of God – that eternal life doesn’t start when we die, but it starts
now, and it’s already ongoing.
“Like lightning
striking and splitting a tree, or more gently like a seed falling into the
earth.” When we believe in the Son of
God we have the testimony in our hearts.
The testimony of God, the eternal Word of God comes to dwell in us. The light of the world makes a home in us,
and shines out into the world.
Receiving the testimony
of God, the eternal life of God is not just a one-time event of conversion, but
we receive the life of God anew over and over in fresh and new ways all the
time. And God reassures our hearts that
there is a place in heaven reserved for us, for whoever has the Son has life.
Let’s take a moment to
pray silently. Let us pray for the first
time or the hundredth time for God to fill us afresh with God’s life-giving
power, to encourage and reassure our hearts.
Let’s pray silently.