1 John 5:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Who is the one who has the Son of God, and who is the one who does not have the Son of God? The one who has the Son of God is the one who truly believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The one who does not have the Son of God is the one who either does not believe in the Son of God at all, or does not have true and living faith.

True faith, expressed in the fulfillment of God's commandments, unites with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It causes the Lord Jesus to dwell in us, or we, by His boundless condescension, are as it were clothed in Him.

Jesus Christ says, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him" (Jn 14:21).

Again, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (Jn 14:23).

The Apostle Paul writes, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal 3:27). Both the indwelling of the Lord in those who love Him and putting on the Lord mean the communion in grace of believers with the Lord.

"The Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom 8:9). The one who has the Son of God has life, and the one who does not have the Son does not have life.

What does it mean to have life and not to have life? Jesus Christ says, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (Jn 3:36).

The Theologian said, "This life is in His Son" (1 Jn 5:11). In separation from God, man is dead in spirit. Through faith in Jesus Christ, he comes alive again in spirit.

He is regenerated into spiritual and grace-filled life by the power of the Spirit of Christ, and becomes an heir of eternal life in heaven.

The Apostle Paul unfolds this teaching when he says, "God, Who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

"By grace you have been saved. He raised us up with Him and made us sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:4-6, 8).

But the one who does not believe in Jesus Christ does not have the life of grace. The grace of the Spirit of Christ does not overshadow him, because through unbelief he separates himself from Christ the Savior.

Apart from Jesus Christ there is no other Mediator or Intercessor through whom salvation can be received. The Apostle Peter teaches, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:11-12).

This life is called grace-filled because it is acquired not by the merits or works of man, but through faith in Jesus Christ, according to His merits and according to God's boundless goodness.

This life is called spiritual because the Spirit of Christ dwells in the believer, regenerates and renews his spiritual nature, and governs him. The Apostle teaches, "If you live according to the flesh, you will die.

"But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Rom 8:13-14).

The Apostle depicts this life in Jesus Christ in these words: "The Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom 14:17).

"The Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." This is the depiction of the regenerated man who lives by the life of grace.

Of him Jesus Christ says, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me" (Jn 14:21). Truth, or righteousness, is the keeping of God's commandments.

Peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are the fruit of the Holy Spirit acting in the regenerated man, and the grace-filled reward for keeping God's commandments.

In another place the same Apostle more fully reveals the inner state of the man who lives in Christ. "The fruit of the Spirit," he says, "is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control.

"Against such there is no law" (Gal 5:23-24), because they fulfill their duties according to the spirit of love.

This life in Jesus Christ is called eternal, as the Apostle says, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 Jn 5:11).

Jesus Christ also says, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life" (Jn 3:36). "He who believes in Me has eternal life" (Jn 6:47).

Again, "He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life" (Jn 6:54). It is called eternal because it leads to the eternal life of the age to come.

It is also called eternal because it is the pledge of the future eternal life, and its beginning or foretaste.

Peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, if a Christian remains faithful to Christ the Savior until the end of life, will not cease with the end of the present life.

They will be exalted and changed into eternal joy and gladness, into eternal blessedness, in the heavenly mansions prepared for those who love God and keep His commandments.

And if we receive human testimony, the Apostle adds, "the testimony of God is greater" (1 Jn 5:9). That is, should we not all the more rightly receive the greater testimony from God? For is not this testimony concerning the Son of God, that is, Christ, from God Himself? (Theophylact).

So it ought to be, yet it is not always so. Unbelief and faith have always divided people, and will divide them, into two different camps.

Therefore, however important and reliable the witnesses named above may be, their voice reaches only pure, uncorrupted hearts capable of faith. Thus the Apostle says further: "He who believes" in the Son of God, that is, the man with a pure and uncorrupted heart, "has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God," that is, the man with a corrupt and proud heart, "has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has borne concerning His Son" (1 Jn 5:10).

He does not believe that "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 Jn 5:11).

Christians, on the contrary, being alive, perceive everything rightly. Sensing within themselves the pledges of eternal life, they hope unwaveringly to attain that blessedness when their communion with eternal life will be as full as possible (cf. 1 Jn 3:2, 14).

This hope already lives within Christians themselves. Yet by his reminder the apostle awakens it in them and desires that it be not only a matter of obscure feeling, but also of firm consciousness.

The gift of eternal life is bound in the closest connection and dependence upon faith in Jesus Christ. From this it is evident that He possesses great divine dignity. Otherwise, how could the bestowal of eternal life depend upon Him?

By this argument, both the eternal divine dignity of Jesus Christ and His saving significance are affirmed with equal force. He is our Redeemer from eternal death and our Guide to endless life.