A few days back I posted to Twitter:
via Google’s new Buzz, a friend responded with,
What are you thoughts on 5:1 ‘s verb-tense’?
In my tired 3:30am self I didn’t really want to think theologically, but I went ahead and responded back with a quick cut and paste from a syntax glossary,
present — The verb tense where the writer portrays an action in process or a state of being with no assessment of the action’s completion.1
But then I was thinking, “Maybe I should put a little more thought into it.” So here’s a rundown of a quick passage study I did this morning and what I took from it.
The Breakdown
Let’s focus on just two words of the passage. The first word is repeated four times in different forms and the second is repeated twice. My teachers always told me that if something is said more than once, its going to be on the test. So I’m going to assume these two words are important.
1. has (x2), not have (x2)
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Both of these words and their repetitions come from the Greek word echon which basically means, “To have, to hold, i.e., to have and hold, implying continued possession.”3 It’s the continued possession part that intrigues me.
The word also implies a special relation or connection.4 Refer to the above and you see the present tense shows that it is in the state of being – not completed.
The second usage has the same terms, but this times throws it into the negative, i.e., not possessing, not having a special relation or connection to.
Both the positive form and the negative refer to having the Son – put simply: Christ. Having or not having that special relation to Christ either qualifies you or disqualifies you for the result, the effect, the reward for having – that is life.
Now take a look at life.
2. life (x2)
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
The word defined in English as life is the Greek word zōḗ which breaks down as:
Generally, physical life and existence as opposed to death and nonexistence.5
and
In the sense of existence, life, in an absolute sense and without end (Heb. 7:16).6
Put them together and we see that this life that John speaks of is an endless, physical existence – life without end.
Interestingly, in the original Greek the words are not “life” but “the life”. The word ὁ ho is used, meaning “the”. When I taught English I would often remind my students that the difference between a/an and the is that with the first it could be one of many, but with the second, the there is but one.
Not only that, but the form of the word is singular, meaning, again, that there is but one life. One possibility. One path. One Way.
Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? He who has the Son, has the life.
The Takeaway
We fight about so many things in life. Don’t believe me? Check Google News. Its all fighting. What do we fight about the most? Religion. Some follow God through Christ. Others reject Christ. Some say that “you do as you do and I’ll do as I do” as though we could actually not offend each other – when both of our very beliefs are in themselves offensive to the other.
Jesus offends people. He’s alright if he is just a moral teacher. Or even an all around good guy. He’s not alright if He’s God. Or the Son of God. Or the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No. That’s too far.
John makes it pretty clear here though. If you have a relationship with Christ – you get life – endless, physical, complete life. If you don’t, you don’t. Offensive or not, it is. What you do with that knowledge – that’s on you.
Footnotes:
1. Michael S. Heiser, Glossary of Morpho-Syntactic Database Terminology ( (Logos Bible Software, 2005; 2005)).
2. Everything comes from Logos 4 – you can score the free iPod/iPhone version with 31 free books.
3. Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.; Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).
4. ibid.
5. ibid.
6. ibid.
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Hello Sir…
As a Christian, I know that each person is responsible for his choice to accept or reject Christ. I just want to ask you, what is your opinion about predestination? Because, from this concept, we know that God saves those whom He chooses from eternity apart from human actions and perspective.
Thank You Sir…
God Bless You
Hmmm… predestination… not exactly the easiest of doctrines to tackle is it? And yet most of us do have some serious questions about it. How do I have free will and yet God chooses me prior to my birth? I’ll give you this: I trust that predestination is true.
Why?
Because it is the what the Bible teaches – when it is taken in context and through proper study.
Do I understand it?
Not completely. I don’t fully understand how God allows me to choose Him freely, yet He’s already chosen me. However, I trust that the infinite all mighty God whose power created me and the world and orchestrated history as He did understands it just fine. I imagine that He knows how He did it and amazing as it may seem – that is enough for me. Its not “blind” faith, but instead trusting that God’s got it under control and I don’t need (and can’t) understand it all.
Let me add this, I once had it explained to me that predestination is much like taking a handful of clay out of a much larger chunk of clay. The larger chunk represents all of humanity – fallen, sinful, rejecting of God, deserving of eternal punishment because of that rejection. The smaller chunk taken out represents those that are predestined for faith and salvation.
So is God sending some to Hell and saving others – in a giant game of favorites? No, I don’t think so. Instead, we all (all of us humans throughout history) have earned eternal separation from God because of our rejection. He is choosing, however, to extend His loving grace and mercy to certain ones. We’re all still guilty, but by His grace and mercy we are saved.
How did He choose us? Don’t know. Maybe He’s got one of those giant game-show type spinning wheels up in Heaven. “Who’s being saved to day, St. Johnny?” More likely, in His infinite knowledge He also knew who would be more receptive to His truth and also used blessing to choose some. To those that reject and hate Him, He says, He’ll extend a curse for many generations. But to those that love Him, He says, He’ll extend grace and mercy for a thousand generations.
I’m confident that my faith is a result of my grandmother’s and my mother’s. Funny thing? I didn’t know of my grandmother’s or my mother’s until well AFTER I came to faith on my own. Yet, God still blessed the faith of those fine women.
Here’s a problem for you: if some are predestined, what is the point of missionaries? Gimme your thoughts and I’ll hit you back with mine.
As for the missionary problem, think of it like this. God and Jesus Himself commanded us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all men and to make disciples….so that’s a pretty good example as to why we need to preach to tell everyone. We don’t know who the “elect” are, so how do we know that we aren’t the vessels that God wants to use to bless others? I’ve attended both Calvinist and Arminian churches, so I have been taught a lot about this, but I’m no way an official authority on this.
But in that “blind faith” that you talked about trusting God because He knows what he’s doing, I completely agree and we won’t completely understand until we are in our glorified bodies in heaven with Him. I mean, hopefully we will have some things cleared up that are difficult to understand. The thing that really sucks is that people think this is a life or death issue and there are denominations formed and churches split over this very issue when in all reality, it doesn’t affect our salvation at all. I know how to drive a car, but I don’t understand completely how every little detail of it works….but it doesn’t keep me from using it and appreciating it. We shouldn’t let the biblical things that aren’t basic Christianity 101 be able to hinder our love for other Christians and hinder our unity….but we do…which is very very sad.
The Arminian side of the whole Predestination thing is that in His foreknowledge, God knew who would accept him, and therefore predestined them to be His people.Check out Romans 9:13-24…..that helped me realize that even though we may think it’s unfair by our standards, that who are we to ask our Creator why he does things that way. There’s also other passages about how repentance is a gift from God, so being a gift from God, he gives us the ability to repent, therefore the ability to realize that we need Him, so isn’t that Him kind of instigating our choice of salvation? Kind of boggles the mind….Jesus said “All that the Father gives me, come to me, and them I will in no wise cast out”…..sorry that’s my rough rememberance of the KJV version. There’s also a verse in Revelation talking about how all the ones that weren’t written in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world were cast into the Lake of Fire….so there’s plenty of evidence supporting predestination….the parts of Calvinism that people really have problems with are the other four points….and mainly Limited Atonement….cuz it’s not fair.
People ask “Well what about people off in the jungle somewhere who have never heard the Gospel?”. This is kind of an error in thought because we have to remember that EVERYTHING God does is for His own glory. It may seem selfish to us, but it’s not because He is God. If we did stuff for our glory, we have tainted reasons. Secondly, we need to remember that EVERYONE deserves to be burning in hell (Total Depravity). “There is none righteous, no not one”. I forget the reference. So in His ultimate plan and omniscience, His election of believers shows his AMAZING grace for us and we should be humbled by that. We are all sinners and none of us is better than anyone else. It’s only by His grace that we are anything at all. We are no better than anyone who goes to hell. Another good passage to check out is Romans 1 because it talks about the depravity of man and that how bad man was and that God turned them over to their lusts and sins because of their sinfulness, but also talks about how they are without excuse because God is revealed in EVERYTHING. There is a hunger for a relationship with God in every man, and He is revealed in Creation. There’s no way that this earth points to random evolution….it points to a Creator and a God of order. Anyway, I hope this helps. I’m sorry about writing so much. I didn’t intend to get on a soapbox. I saw your request for input on Facebook though and wanted to put my two cents (maybe fifty cents?) in. haha
Missionaries spread the gospel because God wants to involve people in His work. In fact, if He wants, He can do it alone, without the need to involve men because He is God Almighty. But, He doesn’t do it. However, when a person decides to believe in Christ, this is because God Himself who has chosen him through the work of the Holy Spirit (John 15: 16a: “You have not Chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you …”).
There was a priest who said that, his wife came from a non-Christian family and has three brothers. One time, as caused by something, his wife and her brothers had to move from their home and live with a Christian family. During their stay there, they followed the family activities. When the family was worshiping God, they were also invited to participate in worship together. They were praying and listening to the words of God together. At the end only one person who chose to believe in Christ.
Why does God only choose this person? Why does the Holy Spirit work only in her heart? Why did not God choose her three brothers as well? How is it possible, living in the same home, listening to the same words, at the same time, in the same place, from the same person, but at the end only one person who chooses to believe?
Missionaries preach the gospel because God Himself wants to make all nations his disciples (Matthew 28: 19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, …”) It is a form of a gift of God because God wants all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2: 4, “who wants all man to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth”). God used a missionary as his instrument to bring souls to Him. However, I believe that faith comes from God through the Holy Spirit. When God chose, then God too, who gave the faith to believe.