The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 2:17,
“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
This comment from John follows his observation that if we love the world we cannot have the love of the Father. These two are mutually exclusive in our lives.
In the context of John's point here, doing the will of God is the change that takes place within us when we embrace Jesus Christ in faith. In the next chapter, John says, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God." 1 John 3:9.
Getting back to 1 John 2:17, he doesn’t say that we can live forever if we do the will of God (working our way into heaven); he says those who do the will of God reflect their status, or their position, among those who have eternal life - because they have become changed people.
This is an important distinction. If we could earn eternal life by doing the will of God there would be no need to appeal to the cross of Jesus Christ. But as Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
We are hopelessly incapable of doing that which is God’s desire for the lifestyle we live without him stepping into our lives first. He steps in when we invite him in. As John says in John 1:12, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” He then enables us to live lives that are pleasing to him.
My point here is that we cannot do something to become what we are not, when doing that something can only come from being what we are not. We have to be born again to do the will of God.
The exciting point to all of this for me is that when we come to embrace Jesus Christ in faith, he changes us from within! As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, we are now a “new creation”. Having embraced Jesus Christ in faith we are given the Holy Spirit who enables a change within to live lives that are pleasing to God. So much so, that this becomes a reflection of whether we have eternal life or not.
Astonishing and overwhelming as I think of it this morning.
This comment from John follows his observation that if we love the world we cannot have the love of the Father. These two are mutually exclusive in our lives.
In the context of John's point here, doing the will of God is the change that takes place within us when we embrace Jesus Christ in faith. In the next chapter, John says, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God." 1 John 3:9.
Getting back to 1 John 2:17, he doesn’t say that we can live forever if we do the will of God (working our way into heaven); he says those who do the will of God reflect their status, or their position, among those who have eternal life - because they have become changed people.
This is an important distinction. If we could earn eternal life by doing the will of God there would be no need to appeal to the cross of Jesus Christ. But as Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
We are hopelessly incapable of doing that which is God’s desire for the lifestyle we live without him stepping into our lives first. He steps in when we invite him in. As John says in John 1:12, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” He then enables us to live lives that are pleasing to him.
My point here is that we cannot do something to become what we are not, when doing that something can only come from being what we are not. We have to be born again to do the will of God.
The exciting point to all of this for me is that when we come to embrace Jesus Christ in faith, he changes us from within! As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, we are now a “new creation”. Having embraced Jesus Christ in faith we are given the Holy Spirit who enables a change within to live lives that are pleasing to God. So much so, that this becomes a reflection of whether we have eternal life or not.
Astonishing and overwhelming as I think of it this morning.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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