May 12, 2024 Text: 1 John 5:9-15
Dear Friends in Christ,
About 15 years ago Anthony Esolen wrote this in an article entitled “Nowhere Man.” “’Behold,’ says the Psalmist, ‘I searched for the place of the wicked man, and he was no more.’ It is the second clause (his place knows him no more) that expresses the greater dread, of a death beyond death. It is the terrible prospect of a total and unalterable severance – expressed as a loss of place. How should it be, if one were wiped clean from the memory of earth and heaven and all that dwell therein? How should it be, not to cease to live, but to have one’s few days of life delivered over – in their essence – to nothingness?”
Western Civilization has succeeded. It has reduced the Christ to a minor player on the stage of human history. What has been, what is, and what’s to come will not be altered by Him who sits in the heavens and laughs. When it comes to Christ and possessing eternal salvation . . .
“EITHER YOU DO OR YOU DON’T”
John writes, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.”
Concerning these verses, it has been correctly noted by Mark Jeske: “People of all cultures are used to hearing human testimony in court and assigning great weight to it. How much more impact does the Christian message have since God is talking!” And this insight. “There is only one truth – God’s truth…Christianity is not one of many philosophies that you can select interesting views and ideas from as though in a cafeteria.”
Well, our text says it, “Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar.” The hatred may grow in intensity against Christ and the Church, but Paul gives this chilling truth. “Do be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” (Gal 6:7)
I want to live forever, don’t you? Not here though. In heaven, with the Triune God. The older I get the less I want to put up with the crap of this world. It all ends eventually at the grave. But John gets us past the grave when he writes, “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” Either you do or you don’t. There is no middle ground in Scripture. The wages of human sin is always death. Christ alone enters humanity and offers the alternative. It’s a gift. Given to the sinful and undeserving. God has given to us eternal life in his Son.
Many of you know George Orwell’s book 1984. Orwell was a socialist. In 1940 he wrote of Europe’s rejection of God, and he approved of that. But listen to how he expressed his approval: “For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. (Like the present pruning going on in America). And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake: the thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all, it was a cesspool full of barbed wire . . . It appears that amputation of the soul isn’t just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency to go septic.”
Wow! Man does reap what he sows. Either you believe in the Son or you don’t. You can’t straddle the tree branch. “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (v. 12) There are a lot of people around us crashing to the ground who need our prayers.
Friend, you have got to do something with Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit embrace Him. Or by human might reject Him. Either hang on to Him or throw Him out. There is no in-between. Another way. A something else.
We are identified with Christ. You sang it with belief, didn’t you? “The Church’s one foundation Is Jesus Christ her Lord…With his own blood He bought her, And for her life He died.” He died for our sins and then rose for our eternity. Christ comes to you and I again and again in the Word and the Sacrament. He did it all…for us. We are so identified with Him that it isn’t an issue of either we do or either we don’t know and find comfort in His mercy and eternal life. It is not “either you do or you don’t” for us.
We do. Forever.
Amen.