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THE KING’S BUSINESS
Because Jesus is the Son of God and speaks the very words of God, and all things are in His hand, there fore, what one does with Him,- de cides his eternal destiny. He that be lieves on Him obtains eternal life the moment he believes. He has all things in His hand and among other things that He has in His hand is eternal life. He has authority to be stow eternal life and bestows it im mediately upon the one that believes on Him the moment he believes. Any one that believes on the Lord Jesus has a right to say, not I shall have eternal life hereafter, but I have eter nal life now, ‘‘He that believeth on the Son HATH eternal life.” Of course, the full development and cofi- summation of that life that one ob tains the moment he believes on His Son, lies in the future; but the germ of it one possesses the moment he be lieves. The one who believes on the Lord Jesus not merely possesses it in promise, he already has it in actual experimental possession: If the vilest sinner on earth, the man most utterly dead in trespasses and- sins, shotdd ac cept Christ to-day, the moment he ac cepted Him he would have eternal life. The eternal life would not bie something that he should obtain at the end of a long and successful struggle for holiness and of victory over temptation and Of earnest ser vice for God, he would obtain eternal life the moment he believed and in the power of that eternal life would live holily, get the victory over temp tation and serve the Lord Jesus ef fectively. The Greek preposition translated “on” in this passage means literally “into.” It is not at all the preposi tion properly translated “oil” after the word .“abideth.” The thought con tained' in the preposition used in con nection with believeth is that saving faith is faith into the Son, i. e., the
faith that rests upon and sinks itself into the very person orf the Son. It is not faith about the Son. One may have a perfectly correct theological opinion about the Lord Jesus and yet not believe on Him. One believes on Him when he puts his confidence in Him as what He is and claims to be (in the connection here puts his confi dence in Him as the Son of God who speaks the very words of God and has all things in His hand). - It is one Greek word that is trans lated “believeth not” in the Author ized Version. It is not the negative of the word that is translated “believ eth” in the first clause of the verse. The verb translated “believeth not” is used fifteen times in the New Testa ment, and Js some times translated in the Authorized Version “believe not,” sometimes “obey not” and sometimes “disobey.” The R. V. is consistent in its translation of the word. The ad jective derived from the verb is used six times in the New Testament and always translated “disobedient” in the Authorized Version and in some in stances could not be translated “dis believing,” so the translation of the R. V. “obeyeth not the Son” is to be preferred to that of the Authorized Version ‘believeth not the Son,” but “disob’eyeth” is to be preferred to either translation. However, the thought of refusal of faith is in the word, and the thought is the disobe dience that is the result of lack of- faith. The closing declaration then of John is that if one’refuses that faith to the Son that would lead him tp disr obedience to"the Son, there is no other way open1for him to obtain life*. He will have no experience of life, “he that disobeyeth the Son shall, not see life.” Life,'as well as all other things, is in the Son (cf. Rom. 6:23 ; 1 John 5:11. 12) and by having that faith in the Sob that leads to obedience to the Son one obtains this life. If one will
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