"...this life has its source in His Son." 1 John 5:11-12

"The testimony is this: God has given us eternal life," another way to say this is “The Godhead has reached out to bestow upon us an unending forgiven (zōē) life, and this (zōē) life has its source in the Son" (Huios).  Further references to life in this post will mean zōē life.

One of the things that stands out to me in this bible passage is the word Son.  In the Greek language, there are two words which are commonly used in scripture to speak of the word Son, they are “Teknon” and “Huios” which can speak of the same thing but in different ways.

“Teknon” speaks of an immature, young adopted child, it speaks of the baby stage of one's walk with Christ where they are still immature, they are not any different from a servant. They are not yet ready to handle all the blessings that belong to them, all the inheritance the Father wants to bestow to them may take some time before they are ready to receive them. This is a child who has not yet reached puberty in their walk as a child of God and cannot properly handle the Word of God.

This passage uses the word “Huios” which has a different meaning, which in this case means a child who has been marked as son or daughter as belonging to specific parent because of the similarity of facial features, character, or attitude.  To become a “huios” doesn’t automatically happen, it takes experience, discipline, and obedience. 

Jesus was the “huios” Son of the Father God, He had become fully formed and had experienced all that was necessary in His growth and development to become an obedient Son.  This growth and change mentioned is the life of Christ as it matured Him and brought Him into an active relationship with the Father.  That is the example of what we are called to become.  Just so I am clear Jesus is the man, Christ is the anointing that comes from the spirit of God which rested upon and in Jesus.

Our source of this life is Jesus alone.  We cannot become a fully formed child of God without the life that flows from Jesus.  Though many have tried to grow up as a Christian without the life of Christ residing in them, which has left them weak and dependent upon the bible and other Christians to become their daily source of strength.  Though the bible is a good source of inspiration, it alone does not produce life, that life flows from Christ alone, the Bible is our roadmap which always points us to Jesus Christ. 

Along that same subject line, believers can become stifled in their own gifting when they put men or women as authorities in their lives and trust these teachers to instruct them about Jesus instead of allowing Christ to speak to them directly.  This is also spoken of in 1 John:

"But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as His Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For His Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit's teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ."  

1 John 2:27 (GNT)

We are a priesthood of believers who have giftings of the Holy Spirit to share with each other, each one has different giftings.  Our portion of Christ is essential to share when we meet together, this way each person is edified and receives what Christ has apportioned to each believer through our sharing.

This passage at the beginning of this post makes it abundantly clear that whoever has the Son has life.  The word ‘has’ means “to have and to hold, to possess, in a sense of wearing”.  It takes on a deeper meaning which correlates to what Paul has said in Colossians:

"You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you. And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity."   Colossians 3:12-14 (GNT) emphasis mine

In the natural (or the flesh) this would be impossible, but in Christ all things are possible.  We are the Children of God (huios) who are ever-growing in relationship with Jesus to become more like Him. For we see Him as He is.

"Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things." Colossians 1:15 (GNT)

In Jesus we have the life of Christ which speaks to us and empowers us to trust Him to take us deeper in relationship with Him.  Oh, that we may know Him more fully.

We will become like Him!  
In the Son there is Life, that is my confession.

Be Blessed;

Stephen Barnett