EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/26/2025 8:50 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Response
to God’s Testimony”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 John 5:10,12
Message of the verses: “The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son…He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”
I begin this Spiritual Diary with a statement from
John MacArthur’s commentary which quite possibility could be the most important
statement facing a person who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their
Savior and Lord: “What people do
with God’s testimony to Jesus Christ determines their eternal destiny.”
(Effects added) I go on by stating that
there are only two possible responses: 1) to believe God’s testimony or 2) reject
it. There is no one who can remain neutral,
for as Jesus said, “He who is not with me is against Me” (Matt. 12:30). The one who believes in the Son of God has
the testimony in Himself. Now saving
faith in Jesus Christ results in a lifelong hold on eternal life, (cf. 3:23;
4:2, 15; 5:1, 4-5). Since true faith
perseveres, those who turn away from the gospel that they were never saved in
the first place. MacArthur goes over
this in an explanation found in his commentary on 1 John 2:19, something I went
over then while looking at that verse.
MacArthur writes “On the other hand, the one who does not
believe God has made Him a liar. To deny
that Jesus Christ is who God said He is, to refuse to believe in the testimony that
God has given concerning His Son, renders God a liar—which is the severest of
all blasphemies since God is perfect truth and cannot lie (cf. Num. 23:19; 1
Sam. 15:29; Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18).
Rejecting God’s witness concerning His Son is not a misfortune to be
pitied, or overlooked in the name of tolerance.
It is a heinous, damning sin and an affront to God’s holy nature. Those guilty of it must not be patronized, comforted,
or reassured, but confronted and called to repentance. This is no trivial issue; the integrity of
God is at stake.”
We have been looking at this section in 1 John for a while and not John closes this section by setting out the eternal results of the only two possible responses to God’s witness to Jesus Christ: He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. That is another statement that needs to be looked at and thought about, for the way it is answered may be the most important thing a person can do in his life. MacArthur writes “Here again the exclusivity of the gospel is evident. Only those who believe the Father’s witness to the Son and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have eternal life; all who refuse to do so do not have the Son, and consequently do not have eternal life.”
Now the wonderful, glorious promise to those who
believe God’s testimony is that “as many as received [Jesus], to them He gave
the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name”
(John 1:12). However there is a sobering
warning to the ones who reject it and that is “How will [you] escape if [you]
neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb. 2:3). 3/26/2025 9:13 PM
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