To Have Christ

“Whoever has the Son has life.  Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:12)

Isn’t it true that we all want “life,” whatever that is?  We tend to think about “life” in terms of existing, which is understandable, since to live is to exist.  But “life” in the Bible means more than existing.  And it is two-fold: qualitative and quantitative.  Life, in God’s will, is qualitatively joyous and excellent; and quantitatively, it lasts forever.  It never ends.  Jesus said He came that His sheep would have life abundantly (John 10:10), and that they’d have this life eternally (Jn. 5:24).  The Psalmist describes it in terms of, “Walking before God, in the light of life” (Psalm 56:13).  This life of which we speak is more than existence – it thriving for eternity.

But how do we get it?  John tells us in the above passage that seizing this life depends on seizing Jesus Christ.  Whoever has Christ has life.  Whoever doesn’t have Him doesn’t. 

What do you think of when you think of having something?  I have a car.  I have a wife and a baby coming soon.  I have a job.  All of these represent things (or people) of which or whom I can claim a vested interested.  In other words, in a sense, I own all of these things, and they own me as well.  My wife is my wife, and I am her husband.  No one gets me without her, or vice-versa.  We come together.  The same with my car – if you and I are friends, you know you can depend on me for a ride if you need.

And here the Apostle tells us that the eternal thriving which Christ wants for us depends on if we, in a sense, own Him.  That is, does He belong to you, and you to Him?  I hesitate to refer to it as a “relationship” for two reasons: First, that word doesn’t go far enough with what it looks like to know Christ.  It is more than a relationship, and He is more than just a friend.  Second, in my opinion, this phrase is tossed around in 21^st century evangelicalism as a cover-up for people who rightly want to avoid defining Christianity in terms of dry religion, and yet wrongly don’t want to live the costly life of discipleship, so they say, “I’m in a relationship with Jesus,” which is usually entirely subjective.   What I mean is this: To know Jesus is to have life in Him.  It is wrapped up with Him, and if one knows Him for who He is, they’d gladly suffer the loss of all things if they had to choose between He and those things. 

This is why Paul, having just stated that he had suffered the loss of all things, but gladly did in order to gain Christ, defines Christianity in terms of being owned by Christ: “I press on to make it my own, because Christ has made me His own” (Philippians 3:12 ESV).  This is how John speaks of Jesus’ disciples in John 13:1: He loved His own until the end.  When one lays hold of Christ, or rather, Christ lays hold of them, their life changes because it is entirely wrapped up with Him.  They are no longer alive as they were before – they’re alive in Christ now, and He is their life.  “Christ is your life” (Colossians 3:4).

So John in the above passage uses that little word to describe the goal of Christ’s coming to seek and save the lost: That you and I would have Him, as He Himself truly takes hold of us. 

This is the reality only for the repentant.  Christ must be laid hold of by faith (Romans 3:25), shown in turning to serve God through Him (1 Thessalonians 1:10, cf. 1 Peter 2:5).  But this repentance is what happens when He in fact takes hold of a person and turns them.  Thus Peter said to the Jews in Jerusalem that God began the Apostles preaching there so that God would bless them by turning them from their wickedness (Acts 3:26).

This is because to repent is to set your affections off of the things of the world and onto Christ who is the true treasure.  And this only happens as one sees Christ as the true treasure.  They consider that which competes with him for beauty in the eye of they the beholder to be far inferior.  Thus David wrote of God’s right hand, where Christ is, as a place of “pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).   And later, Asaph wrote, in words reminiscent of John’s in 1 John 5, “Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:25-26).  Asaph was describing the experience of everyone who sees Christ for who He is: the true Treasure to behold, who, once beholden, grips in such a way that this life that exists in Him will never end.  Indeed, it cannot, because He is risen.  He is the true God, and eternal life (1 Jn. 5:20).

The point is made very succinctly in a quote from Charles Spurgeon: “If Christ is not all to you, he is nothing to you.  He will never go into partnership as a part Savior of men.  If he be something, He must be everything, and if he be not everything, he is nothing to you.”  The tenor of this quote appears to be the tenor of the New Testament witness with regard to Christ.  And it was the tenor of the giants of the faith in the Old Testament as well (Abraham, see John 8:56, and Moses, see Hebrews 11:26-27).  They’d seen Christ, and laying hold of him, lived in him.  What about you?