The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

III. Eternal Life—Throbbing Heart of John’s Gospel Story

The Gospel of John, written by the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:20), is the best-loved book of all time. Sublime in thought and unsurpassed in word, it has, more than any other New Testament message, captured the heart of mankind. Now John’s portrait of Christ is pre-eminently the portrayal of His deity. And “love” and “life,” as revealed and embodied in Christ, are the predominant points of emphasis throughout. CFF1 188.7

It may rightly be said that the central message and constant emphasis of the Gospel of John is that of life eternal through Jesus Christ as God’s sole provision for escaping the sinner’s designated doom of utter and ultimate destruction (John 3:16). The basic distinction between the lot of the saved and the fate of the lost is pre-eminently one of life—life without end, life through Christ alone, and with Him forever in His eternal kingdom to come. But only as one senses the dreadful destiny of sinful man apart from Christ, as involving total death and utter destruction, does the gospel of life stand out in its sublime grandeur and glory. Now let us go back to the beginnings. CFF1 188.8

1. FROM BLEAKNESS OF SIN TO RADIANCE OF SALVATION

The opening chapters of the Old Testament part of the Book of God set forth the account of the sin and fall of our first parents from their estate of original innocence, and the doom they brought upon themselves and their posterity. This formed the bleak background for the radiant gospel of salvation that immediately began to unfold with steadily increasing clarity. CFF1 189.1

The law set forth the fearful penalty of death, that the gospel might present its wondrous offer of life. After the darkness of sin, came the glorious light of salvation. Thus a message of hope was commingled even with the thunders of Sinai. From the time of Eden onward the depression of the long night of estrangement from God was relieved by the outshining of the twin stars of hope and promise, as men watched and waited for the appearing of the Saviour throughout Old Testament times. CFF1 189.2

2. NEW TESTAMENT A NEW REVELATION OF LIFE

We now come to the New Testament times. The New Testament is not merely a fuller and clearer revelation of the divine truths already disclosed in the Old. It is all that. But it is vastly more—it is a new revelation. While embracing and confirming, and harmonizing with, all the truths unfolded in the Old Testament—and revealing them even more clearly—the New Testament contains, we stress, other and higher truths that distinguish it as a distinctly new revelation. We use this expression advisedly. And this, as just stated, is pre-eminently a revelation of life through Jesus Christ alone. The Old Testament contains in undeveloped form—in type and symbol, prophecy and promise—inklings of truth only unfolded in fullness in the New Testament. There is an unmistakably progressive unfolding of revelation. CFF1 189.3

And that broad and deep line of demarcation between the Old and the New is this clear revelation of life and immortality for mortal man, through Christ, effected by a new birth now and a resurrection from the dead at Christ’s second advent. And along with these comes the inseparable corollary of the ultimate destruction of all evil through the almighty power of the Son of God our Saviour, now set forth in fullness and inescapable clarity. CFF1 190.1

3. BROUGHT ABOUT BY NEW SPIRITUAL INGENERATION

This life is a new and higher life than our natural life, and he to whom it is given becomes a “new creature.” Thus: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [ktisis, “creation”]” (2 Corinthians 5:17). CFF1 190.2

In a way, it is the Genesis story all over again. A new life is generated in a responsive man by the Spirit of God. And it is as superior to the old Adamic life as it is more enduring. The first generation is natural and earthly, and because of sin leads to death. The second is supernatural, from above, and leads to eternal life with its wondrous, ultimate immortality bestowed at the resurrection. CFF1 190.3

This new life is “begotten” not of flesh and blood, nor of the will or power of man, but solely of God (John 3:3-7; 1 Peter 1:23). And it will, in time, be invested with a new and transformed spiritual body, like unto Christ’s glorious body, that will rise to meet Christ the Life-giver at His second coming (1 Corinthians 15:49-53), thus to take its purchased and destined place in His everlasting kingdom. CFF1 190.4

Hints and foregleams of this new life are scattered throughout the pages of the Old Testament. These are but anticipatory. Let it never be forgotten that only in the New Testament is it distinctly revealed as the gift of God through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23 John 3:16), by whose own death and resurrection eternal life is unimpeachably assured to the believer. CFF1 190.5