In 1 John 5:11-12 we are told that “this is the testimony, that God gave to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” God gave to us His eternal life, and this life is in Christ, the Son of God, and is even Christ Himself.
The testimony of God is not only that Jesus is His Son but also that He gives to us eternal life, which is in His Son. His Son is the means through which He gives us His eternal life, which is His goal for us. Because the life is in the Son (John 1:4) and the Son is the life (11:25; 14:6; Col. 3:4), the Son and the life are one, inseparable. If we have the Son of God, we have eternal life, because eternal life is in the Son. We may say that the Son is a container of eternal life. When we receive the Son by believing in Him, we have eternal life. Hence, he who has the Son has the life, and he who does not have the Son does not have the life.
We may say that eternal life, the divine life, is the “capital” of our Christian life. Actually, this eternal life is the Son, and the Son is the embodiment of the Triune God. By this we see that eternal life is the Triune God. Now the Triune God is moving and working within us as the anointing. This anointing is also the moving of eternal life. Eternal life is not a thing; it is a person who is the embodiment of the Triune God. Now this person is moving within us to anoint us with Himself, that is, with eternal life and with the essence of this life, which is the Triune God. The Triune God is the content, the essence, of eternal life. Therefore, when eternal life anoints us, it anoints us with the Triune God. This gives us the basis and the means to live a life that practices the divine righteousness, practices the divine love, and overcomes the world, death, sin, the devil, and idols.
God’s New Testament economy teaches that eternal life is the embodiment of the Triune God and that this life is anointing us with the essence of the Triune God. Eventually, through continuous anointing, we will become the same in life and nature as the Triune God, in that His essence will become ours, making us the same as He. Then we will live a life full of righteousness and love, a life that spontaneously overcomes the world, death, sin, the devil, and idols. There is no need for us to try to live such a life. As long as we dwell in the fellowship of eternal life according to the anointing, we will spontaneously practice righteousness and love and simultaneously overcome all negative things.
In 1 John 5:13, John says, “I have written these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life, to you who believe into the name of the Son of God.” The written words of the Scriptures are the assurance to the believers, who believe into the name of the Son of God, that they have eternal life. Our believing to receive eternal life is the fact; the words of the holy writings are the assurance concerning this fact—they are the title deed to our eternal salvation. By them we are assured and have the pledge that as long as we believe into the name of the Son of God, we have eternal life.
The word of the Bible is the pledge of eternal life. The Bible is also the title deed of our salvation. This is why the Bible is called a covenant, or testament. We not only have the fact of eternal life; we also have the pledge, the guarantee, the title deed, to prove that we have eternal life. We should praise the Lord that we have salvation and eternal life and also the title deed to prove it!
Verse 18 says, “We know that everyone who is begotten of God does not sin, but he who has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him.” According to the context of chapter 5, the word he in this verse refers to our regenerated spirit. This indicates that our spirit has been regenerated and that this regenerated spirit keeps itself from the touch of the evil one.
Sin interrupts the fellowship of the divine life (1:6-10) and may even bring in physical death (5:16-17). In order that we might avoid sinning, the apostle John assures us of the capability of the divine life and stresses our divine birth, which is the basis of the victorious life. The basic fact of our divine birth prevents us, the regenerated ones, from practicing sin (3:9), that is, from living in sin (Rom. 6:2).
In 1 John 5:18 John says that everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin. Then he says that he who is begotten of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him. Regenerated persons can keep themselves from sinning. Their divine birth with the divine life in their spirit is the basic factor of such a safeguard.
This understanding of the pronoun he in verse 18 is supported by John’s word in verse 4: “For everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world.” Strictly speaking, this verse refers to our regenerated spirit. It is this regenerated spirit that keeps us from sinning.
Verse 18 says that the evil one does not touch the one who has been begotten of God and who keeps himself. Here touch means “to grasp, to lay hold of, for doing harm and fulfilling evil purposes.” The Greek word rendered “evil one” is poneros. This word differs from kakos, which refers to an essentially worthless and wicked character, and also differs from sapros, which indicates worthlessness and corruption, degeneracy from original virtue. The Greek word poneros means one who is pernicious, harmfully evil, affecting and influencing others to be evil and vicious. Such an evil one is Satan the devil, in whom the whole world lies (v. 19).
At least one version says, “The evil one cannot touch him.” To say that the evil one cannot touch you is different from saying that the evil one does not touch you. The correct translation is, “The evil one does not touch him.” The thought here is not that the evil one is not able to touch us; the thought is that the evil one does not touch us. Here John is saying that as long as we abide in our regenerated spirit, this spirit will keep us from sinning, and the evil one does not touch us. He knows that if he tries to touch us when we are abiding in our regenerated spirit, he will accomplish nothing. Hence, the thought here is not that the evil one cannot touch us, but that he does not touch us when we are in spirit. We know from experience that when we are in the flesh, forgetting our regenerated spirit, we become prey to the evil one. The evil one will not only touch us—he will devour us. But when we are in our regenerated spirit, he will not waste his time with us.
The thought in verse 18 is that we have been born of God and have the divine life. This divine birth took place in our regenerated spirit, and now the divine life is in our regenerated spirit. Therefore, we should simply stay in our regenerated spirit. Regeneration with the divine birth and the divine life keeps us from sin, failure, and defilement. When we stay in our regenerated spirit, Satan knows that there is no way for him to touch us, and he will not try to touch us. As long as we stay in our regenerated spirit, we are in a refuge, a place of protection and safeguard, and the evil one does not touch us.
Christians often complain about how strong the devil is. But John’s writings tell us that we have been begotten of God and that the devil does not touch us. The devil knows that his efforts will be in vain if he tries to touch one who has been begotten of God and who is keeping himself.
John also tells us that the whole world lies in the evil one (v. 19). The world includes the events, things, and people of the world. In God’s eyes the whole world, including all human beings and societies, are under the hand of Satan. The only exception is our regenerated spirit. We should not think that the unbelievers are under the authority of Satan and that we are not. Our mind may be still under Satan’s authority, but our regenerated spirit is not. Actually, even our reading of the Word and our prayer may be under Satan’s authority because they may come not out of our regenerated spirit but out of our mind, emotion, and preference. Aside from our regenerated spirit, all the other parts of our being may be under the hand of Satan.
Consider the day that the Lord Jesus went to the little house in Bethany, where He fellowshipped with His disciples. While the high priest was offering sacrifices and burning incense in the temple in Jerusalem, God was not there—He was in the house in Bethany. The high priest’s service, the burning of the incense, and the worship in the temple were under the hand of the evil one. For this reason, although the Jews were worshipping God and learning the Scriptures in their synagogues, the Lord Jesus said that those who called themselves Jews are actually “a synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9; 3:9). Although the Jews worshipped God, studied the Scriptures, and served God in their synagogues, God was not there. When the Lord spoke those words, He was in the believers’ spirit, today’s Bethany, where He fellowships with them. This indicates that any worship or service that is without the Lord Spirit is of the devil. This is a solemn matter.
We must ask ourselves whether the Lord is in our prayer, our reading of the Bible, and our bread-breaking meeting. If we are not in the spirit, then the Lord is not in these things, and all these things are still under Satan’s hand. Not only are immoral and worldly entertainments under Satan’s hand, but even our reading of the Word, our prayer, and our attending church meetings can be under Satan’s hand unless they are done in the spirit. This is because the only thing in the universe that does not have Satan in it is our regenerated spirit. Unless we are in our spirit, whatever we do is under Satan’s hand.
Today God is in our spirit; our spirit is God’s Holy of Holies. The three parts of our being—our spirit, our soul, and our body—correspond to the three parts of the tabernacle: the Holy of Holies, the Holy Place, and the outer court. Our spirit is the Holy of Holies, and God’s habitation in the heavens is also the Holy of Holies. These two realms are connected. Only our regenerated spirit as the Holy of Holies is not under the authority of Satan. Besides our regenerated spirit, everything else in the universe has been defiled by Satan.
In the universe God has drawn a boundary around one thing—our spirit. God has set a limit for Satan, forbidding him to transgress this boundary. As long as we remain in our regenerated spirit, we will be kept, and Satan will have no way in us and cannot harm or touch us. Only our regenerated spirit is not under Satan’s hand. Besides this, everything else, including our flesh, our mind, our emotion, and our will, are all under Satan’s hand.
Furthermore, the totality of all the believers’ regenerated spirits is the church. The church is not in a physical building. The church is in our spirit (Eph. 2:22). The church is God’s Holy of Holies because the church is the aggregate of our regenerated spirits in which God dwells. Therefore, when we pray, read the Word, worship God, and serve Him, we must be in our spirit and in the church. Satan cannot touch the church as the aggregate of our spirits. He knows that whenever he touches that church, he suffers a loss.