SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/22/2017
10:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Relationship
He Offers
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:3
Message of the
verses: “3 “This is eternal life,
that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
Once again I want to quote from the last paragraph of
John MacArthur’s introduction to this chapter in his commentary “Jesus’ Prayer and
the Eternal Plan of God,” where he writes “In these opening expressions, Jesus referenced
four facets of the saving purposes of God, each of which centered on His
glory-producing work of redemption at the cross.” We look today at “The Relationship He Offers.”
I remember listening to the sermon that John MacArthur
preached on this section which took place back in the 1970’s, but they have
taken this sermon off of their website and have replaced it with one of his
newer sermons he did on these verses which he did last year. In that sermon he took a fairly long time explaining
the aspects of eternal life, in fact there were two sermons on these verses and
he stated that he wanted to talk at more length on the aspects of what eternal life
was about and so he waited for the next sermon to do that. I may go back and try and listen to that part
of the sermon to be able to add to what he has written in his commentary.
We want to look at the word “know” as we begin to talk
about this verse and the word in the Greek “implies not mere intellectual
knowledge, but a deep intimate love relationship; (cf. v. 25; 10:14-15, 27…the
only true God (Jer. 1)10; 1 Thess. 1:9; 1 John 5:20; cf. 1 Cor. 8:6) and that
is possible only through ‘Jesus Christ whom’ he ‘has sent (cf. 5:23, 36, 37;
10:36; 1 John 4:10, 14). As Peter boldly
declared to the Jewish leaders, ‘There is salvation in no one else, for there
is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be
saved’ (Acts 4:12; cf. 1 Tim. 2:5).”
I think that after reading over what he has in his
commentary I will quote this, and the reason that I will do this is because
when a person thinks about what eternal life is they talk about it in time, but
we must remember that it was the Lord who created time as there was no time
before God created it when He created the earth and all the rest of the
stars. Time consists what happens when
the world circles the sun and also when the world makes a complete turn as it
rotates the sun. One rotation takes 24
hours and one orbit around the sun takes one year and so that is how we get our
time. We learn from 2 Peter chapter
three that God will one day destroy or un-create all that He created as far as
planets and the stars and that will be the end of time so eternal life has to
be more that just time.
“The essence of ‘eternal life’ is participation in the
blessed, everlasting life of Christ (cf. 1:4) through union with Him (Rom.
5:21; 6:4, 11, 23; 1 Cor. 15:22; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:3-4; 2 Tim.
1:1, 10; Jude 21). It is the life of God
in the soul of man (Gal. 2:20). Because
believers have Christ’s life in them, they also possess His peace (John 14:27;
16:33; cf. Phil. 4:7), love (John 15:10; cf. Rom. 5:5), and joy (John
15:11). The life that God predetermined
to give the redeemed is a life of shared communion with Him.
“Eternal life refers to a quality of life, and not just a
quantity of life. It is much more than
living forever; it is enjoying the intimate fellowship with God both now and
forever. It cannot be reduced merely to
endless existence, since the unredeemed in hell will also live forever (cf.
Matt. 25:46 where the same word, aionios,
describes both the eternal life of the righteous and the eternal punishment of
the wicked).
“Because eternal life is a quality of life, it is not
only a future possession, but also a present reality. In 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,
and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.’ ‘These things I have written to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God,’ John wrote, ‘so that you may know that
you have eternal life’ (1 John 5:13).
Thus, believers enjoy eternal life even now as they experience the rich
blessings that come through their personal and intimate fellowship with Christ
(John 15:1-11; 1 Cor. 1:9; Eph. 1:3; Phil. 3:8-11; 1 John 1:3; 5:20). Of course, they will most fully experience
that life in the age to come (Eph. 2:6-7), when they see Christ face-to-face (1
Cor. 13:12) and worship Him in the perfect, unbelieving glory and joy of heaven
(Rom. 8:19-23, 29; 1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2; Rev. 22:3-4).
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful
that the God of heaven has given to me, as a free gift, through His Son, who
purchased for me eternal life, and it is my desire to enjoy this eternal life
for all of eternity including today and forever.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
To trust the Lord who has given me
eternal life to accomplish the things that He has chosen for me to do from
eternity past.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John” (Luke 1:63).
Today’s Bible
question: “About how many men did God
inspire to write the Bible?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/22/2017 10:52 AM
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