In 5:9 John goes on to say, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; because this is the testimony of God that He has testified concerning His Son.” The testimony of God here is the testimony by water, blood, and the Spirit that Jesus is the Son of God. This testimony is greater than that of men.
Verse 10 says, “He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony which God has testified concerning His Son.” God testified concerning His Son that we may believe in His Son and have His divine life. If we believe in His Son, we receive and have His testimony in ourselves. Otherwise, we do not believe what He has testified and make Him a liar.
In 5:11 and 12 John continues, “And 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.” 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 to give us His eternal life, which is His goal with us. Because the life is in the Son (John 1:4) and the Son is the life (John 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.
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.
Confucius taught that the highest learning was to cultivate and develop what he called the bright virtue. But 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 shall 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 shall 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 shall spontaneously practice righteousness and love and simultaneously overcome all negative things.
In 5:13 John says, “I write these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life, to you who believe in the name of the Son of God.” The written words of the Scriptures are the assurance to the believers, who believe in 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 of our eternal salvation. We are assured and have the pledge by them that because we believe in 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. Praise the Lord that we have salvation and eternal life and also the title deed to prove it!