March 11

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. — 1 John 5:20 BSB

Oh, the blessedness, which eternity itself can never exhaust, of possessing eternal life! There is something so profoundly beautiful in the expression "eternal life" that I cannot help but dwell on it. How the thought of it swells the heart! Compared to it, how poor, base, and fleeting is our earthly life with all its concerns—the short span God has given us here. And observe how John directs our eyes to the true God as the source and essence of eternal life. He is not just the Giver or the Fountain of it—He is eternal life. If He has quickened our souls by His Spirit and grace, we carry eternal life within us even now, for this life is the precious fruit of that eternal life in heaven, which was with the Father and manifested to us (1 John 1:2).

But how shall we know that we have eternal life? Just as we know we have natural life—by an inward awareness that we are alive; by the pulse that beats, the lungs that breathe, the eyes that see, the ears that hear, the hands that feel, by the warm flow of blood through our veins, by the thoughts moving through our minds. Likewise, we know we have spiritual life by an inner consciousness of it and its workings within us. And because where there is spiritual life, there is eternal life, we feel the stirrings and movements of this life in our souls, testifying that we possess eternal life in the Son of God, breathed into our souls by Him.