by John Pester

I n the writings of the apostle John there is a crucial emphasis on the eternal life of
the Triune God being received in his Gospel, being partaken of through fellowship
in his Epistles, and being consummated in an expression of the divine life in redeemed
and regenerated humanity in Revelation. The Gospel of John reveals particularly that
the eternal life came through the incarnation of the eternal Word in order to be
released and imparted into humanity through the Lord’s death and resurrection for the
purpose of expressing the Triune God through the mutual indwelling of God in
redeemed and regenerated humanity. The Epistles of John reveal the fellowship of the
eternal life that is available to all those who have believed into Jesus Christ in order
for the believers to abide in the Triune God. Revelation reveals that the consummation
of the fellowship of the eternal life that the believers have received is the enlarged,
corporate, mutual indwelling of God and the believers, as signified by the consummate
sign in John’s writings—the New Jerusalem. In all of John’s writings eternal life is a
central component. This eternal life, which is God Himself, has been made available
to all those who believe; this eternal life is now operating in those who have believed,
and this eternal life is being enlarged through fellowship into a mutual dwelling place
of God and the believers. The eternal life is the focus of John’s writings. Regrettably,
John’s understanding of eternal life is not the general understanding of most Christians
today.

To most Christians, eternal life means an everlasting human life, a human life that
never ends. This understanding is reinforced by a great lack of clarity among Christian
teachers and theologians related to the meaning of the term eternal life (zöë aiönios).
Popular teachers stress the matters of unending time in the future and of peace and
prosperity now. Theologians stress the component of time in the future and the qual-
ities of a spiritual life in the present. Few teachers and theologians have a clear under-
standing of eternal life according to the context of John’s writings, especially the
Gospel of John: eternal life is the divine life of the Triune God. God’s divine life with
its divine nature should not be considered as if it was just one of His many divine
attributes. Eternal life in the Gospel of John refers to the Triune God Himself, who
has been made available to the believers through the process of incarnation, death, and
resurrection. Eternal life is God the Father in Christ Jesus as the life-giving Spirit flow-
ing into redeemed and regenerated humanity.

John wrote so extensively about eternal life in order to mend the tears in the net of
the divine revelation—tears that were widening at the end of the first century,1 a con-
sequence of the churches turning away from Paul’s emphasis on life in his Epistles. Just
in Romans, an Epistle that most regard as a judicial response to the influence of the
works of law as a means of justification, Paul spoke of the righteous having life (1:17),
of receiving life eternal (2:7), of being saved in God’s life (5:10), of reigning in life

Volume XXII  No. 2  Fall 2017 25

 (v. 17), of the justification of life (v. 18), of grace reigning unto eternal life (v. 21), of
walking in newness of life (6:4), of sanctification in life (v. 22), of eternal life being the
gift of God in Christ Jesus (v. 23), of life being the purpose of the commandments
(7:10), of the law of the Spirit of life (8:2), of the mind being life (v. 6), of the human
spirit being life (v. 10), and of life being given to mortal bodies (v. 11). When the clar-
Many Christians ity of Paul’s emphasis on life in his gospel was lost in the degradation of the churches
unwittingly and in their turning away from his ministry (1:1; 2:16; 15:20; 16:25; 2 Tim. 1:15), John
wrote to mend the tears in the divine revelation by reemphasizing the centrality of
have been turned eternal life as the content and focus of the gospel. Paul wrote of eternal life, but many
away from the disregarded it. John also wrote of eternal life, but few have seen it.
revelation and
ministry of life M any Christians unwittingly have been turned away from the revelation and min-
istry of life and, consequently, have little or no experience of the greatest gift
of God in Christ—God, as life, living, dwelling, and growing in their tripartite being
and, consequently,
in this age to be fully expressed in the next age and in eternity future. We live in an
have little or no age of turning away, an age of not entering into God in Christ. The gospel that
experience of the Christianity preaches and teaches is not a gospel that fosters the growth of the divine
life in an ongoing experience of salvation (v. 10), and it is not a gospel that effectively
greatest gift of God furthers God’s aim for our believing into Christ (John 20:31). Christianity, effectively,
in Christ—God, remains in a degraded state in relation to Paul’s completing ministry, and it remains
largely ignorant of the availability of the divine life as presented in John’s mending
as life, living, ministry.
dwelling, and
growing in their Misunderstanding Eternal Life in the Gospel of John
tripartite being Mending the tears in our understanding of the meaning of eternal life requires that we
in this age. first see some of the common misunderstandings that are prevalent in Christianity.
These understandings vary considerably, but all bear little resemblance to the under-
standing that motivated John to write his Gospel. At the low end of the spectrum,
eternal life is presented and understood as a prosperous human existence that has the
extra benefit of being everlasting in time. There is a primary emphasis on a qualita-
tively better human life that is a blessing given by God but that ultimately has no rela-
tion to the divine life and nature of God Himself. Such teachings draw primarily from
misguided interpretations of John 10:10, which says, “The thief does not come except
to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and may have it abun-
dantly.” In complete ignorance of the context of chapter 10, involving the Lord as the
Shepherd who gathers the believers together as one flock through the impartation and
abundant experience of the divine life, which counters the efforts of God’s enemy to
steal and kill His sheep and to destroy the gathering together of one flock, superficial
teachers of prosperity focus on the words abundantly and life in total isolation to
promulgate their private interpretation of opportunity for human self-aggrandizement
(2 Pet. 1:20).

This tendency to mask a love of self and money under the guise of a form of godliness
(2 Tim. 3:2, 5) is exemplified in Joel Osteen’s teachings, which evidence a blatant mis-
reading of the Lord’s word in John 10:10. In Your Best Life Now he writes, “I’m so glad
that Daddy later learned that, as God’s children, we are able to live an abundant life,
that it is okay to prosper; that we should even expect to be blessed” (86), and in The
Power of I Am he writes, “Poverty, lack, and barely getting by are a yoke. Do not accept
that as your destiny. Jesus came that you might live an abundant life” (211). Osteen’s
teaching that life in the Gospel of John is related to prosperity is clearly stated and
promoted. In other publications notions of enrichment and prosperity are also present,
only less explicitly stated. Nevertheless, references to prosperity encourage readers
to entertain vain imaginations of wealth and human blessings. For example, in a note
on John 10:10, the NIV Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible states, “God’s ulti-
mate purpose is never to impoverish his own, but to enrich them and extend to them

26 Affirmation & Critique

infinite and everlasting blessedness” (1721). To find such a note in a study Bible that
purports to embody the spirit of the Reformation is astonishing. It is preposterous to
think that prosperity was a focus of the Reformation, when more eternal matters, such
as justification by faith, were the prominent focus of the Reformation writers. In John,
Mark Edwards associates a material understanding of life with the Lord’s words con-
cerning eternal life in John 3:15, saying, “This is the first occurrence in the Gospel of At the highest end
the phrase ‘eternal life’. Theophylact contrasts the promise of long life and prosperity of the spectrum of
under the covenant with Israel” (48). This comment initially associates life with mere
human prosperity, but it also implies that all subsequent references to eternal life understandings,
embody the same interpretive focus of this “first occurrence.” commentators
stress that eternal
F urther along the spectrum of understandings is the notion that eternal life refers
primarily to an everlasting human life. The Amplified Bible exemplifies this thought
in its amplification of John 3:15: “In order that every one who believes in Him—who
life involves a
qualitatively higher
cleaves to Him, trusts Him and relies on Him—may not perish, but have eternal life and
[actually] live forever!” (135). Through the addition of [actually] live forever as an spiritual life
amplification of eternal life, there is a shift in focus from receiving God’s eternal life to in addition to
being granted, presumably by divine fiat and power, a human life that will never end.
In The Gospel of John: A Commentary Craig S. Keener also gives a limited definition of everlasting human
eternal life, one that leaves its meaning open to baser interpretations: “Most early life. Often,
Christian literature also employs it as the ‘life of the coming age,’ though ‘eternal life’
is more frequent in the Gospel” (329). What is left open to interpretation is the mean-
however, there
ing of life of the coming age. There is no clear statement that this life is something more is a limited
than just an extended human life, and so readers are left to their preconceptions that discussion of the
eternal life is a life that is merely everlasting in time, a life that begins in the coming
age. In The Gospel of John: Introduction, Exposition and Notes F. F. Bruce makes the distinction between
same observation about the literal meaning of eternal life, but he qualifies it so that these two lives.
there is a clear separation from what some would improperly perceive as just a refer-
ence to human life. He states, “Primarily this [reference to eternal life in John 3:15]
means the life of the age (aiön) to come, resurrection life, which believers in Christ
enjoy in advance because of their union with one who is already risen from the dead”
(89). By correctly associating eternal life with resurrection life, which is now available
to the believers through their union with the One who has been resurrected (14:6),
Bruce provides a necessary corrective to the thought that eternal life is just an exten-
sion of a believer’s human life, and by such, he points to a scriptural understanding of
eternal life that others miss.

At the highest end of the spectrum of understandings, commentators stress that eter-
nal life involves a qualitatively higher spiritual life in addition to everlasting human life.
Often, however, there is a limited discussion of the distinction between these two
lives. In A Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of John Barclay M. Newman and
Eugene A. Nida associate eternal life with more than unending physical existence:

In many languages eternal is expressed as a negative, “that which never ends,” but it may
be expressed positively as “that which goes on and on.” However, since the meaning of
eternal life certainly involves a qualitative distinction, and thus is not a matter of mere
continued existence, some translations employ such qualifiers as “real” or “new”; for
example, “will have real life that never ends.” Such a phrase tends to focus upon the dis-
tinctive features of this new life in Christ, and so helps to avoid the idea that those who
believe in Jesus will simply never die. (88)

The thought that eternal life also involves a spiritual component is expressed in a note
on John 1:4-5 in The MacArthur Study Bible, which states that life in verse 4 refers
“not only in a broad sense to physical and temporal life that the Son imparted to the
created world through His involvement as the agent of creation (v. 3), but especially
to spiritual and eternal life imparted as a gift through belief in Him” (1573). Newman

Volume XXII  No. 2  Fall 2017 27

 and Nida’s and MacArthur’s comments are helpful in disabusing readers of the thought
that the Lord came simply so that believers would have a continued human existence
untouched by death in the future, but there is no discussion of what makes this life
“real,” “new,” or “spiritual.” When others attempt to give substance to these qualifiers
related to a higher spiritual life, they often resort to empty words tailored for those
In the Gospel of with itching ears (2 Tim. 4:3). For example, the NIV Spirit of the Reformation Study
John eternal life Bible’s note on John 3:16 states,

and almost all eternal life. More than endless existence, it is ultimately an existence in which we are for-
instances of life ever in the beatific presence of the triune God (17:3; Rev 21:3-4). Believers already pos-
sess unending spiritual life because their spirits cannot die and already possess fuller life
refer to the divine, because they enjoy fellowship with God. In the new heavens and the new earth, they will
uncreated life also enjoy unending physical life and more intimate fellowship with God in his manifest
presence. (1705)
of God and, thus,
to God Himself.
The Word, who T he spiritual life that is described in this note certainly seems higher than an earthly
life of prosperity or just an everlasting human life, but the repeated use of the word
presence suggests a degree of separation between God and redeemed and regenerated
was with God humanity that is not present in the Lord’s revelation of the ontological relationship
and who was God between God and humanity, a relationship that will occur as a result of receiving the
eternal life through the coming of Christ as the Spirit, as another Comforter (John
and in whom there 14:16-20). The Lord clearly indicated that the disciples would know that He was in the
was life, came to Father, the Father was in Him, and He was in them as a result of their receiving
make the divine the Holy Spirit of life who would impart the divine life of the Triune God into them on
the day of the Lord’s resurrection (20:22). Phrases such as beatific presence of the tri-
life available une God and more intimate fellowship with God in his manifest presence appeal to spir-
to humanity. itual sensibilities, but they fall short of the truth, indicating a shortage in understanding
the meaning of eternal life. In a later note on John 3:15, John MacArthur opens a door
to a fuller understanding of the meaning of eternal life in the Gospel of John, writing,
“This ‘eternal life’ is in essence nothing less than participation in the eternal life of the
Living Word, Jesus Christ. It is the life of God in every believer, yet not fully manifest
until the resurrection” (1581).

Understanding Eternal Life in the Gospel of John

Few commentaries have clear statements about eternal life because they fail to see
the importance of life in John’s writings. The term eternal life occurs seventeen times
in the Gospel of John.2 There are twenty-two other instances of the term life that
refer contextually to the eternal life of the Triune God.3 Based on John’s prominent
emphasis on life, Witness Lee identifies the subject of the Gospel of John as being
“The Gospel of Life—Proving That Jesus Christ Is God the Savior Coming as Life to
Propagate Himself ” (Recovery Version, outline).4 In an aptly titled book, Gospel of
Life: Theology in the Fourth Gospel, G. R. Beasley-Murray also draws attention to
the repeated use of eternal life and life and identifies them as key terms in the Gospel
of John:

It is of no small significance that the term “life,” or “eternal life,” occurs many more times
in the Fourth Gospel than in any of the first three Gospels. Indeed, it is not too much to
say that the key term of Jesus for salvation appropriated is the key term of the Gospel of
John. The evangelist himself stated that the reason for his writing his Gospel was, “that
you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing you
may have life in his name” (John 20:31). (2)

In the Gospel of John eternal life and almost all instances of life refer to the divine,
uncreated life of God and, thus, to God Himself. The Word, who was with God
and who was God and in whom there was life (1:4), came to make the divine life

28 Affirmation & Critique

available to humanity (v. 14). In order to accomplish this eternal intention, the Word
became a genuine man through incarnation and then passed through death and resur-
rection to redeem fallen humanity. In resurrection this genuine God-man became a
life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), the Spirit with all the mediating elements of Christ’s
person and work, making a divine and mystical union with humanity possible. By
believing into Christ through the hearing of faith, those who believe are regenerated Through Christ’s
with the divine life in their God-created human spirit (John 3:6). Through the incarnation, death,
process of Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection and through a believing
response to this process, the divine life of the Triune God is imparted into and min- and resurrection
gled with the human spirit of those who believe, resulting in an increase and enlarge- and through a
ment of God through the receiving of His divine life. At the beginning of the Gospel
of John, eternal life initially is in God alone (1:4), but by the end of the Gospel of
believing response
John, this eternal life, this processed God, is in redeemed and regenerated humanity to this process,
(20:31). the divine life
In order to see the meaning of eternal life as intended by John, it is helpful to distin- of the Triune God
guish between the Greek words that are translated as “life” in the New Testament. In is imparted into
The Gospel of John: Believe and Live Elmer Towns says,
and mingled with
The Greeks had three words for life, each with a different shade of meaning and empha- the human spirit
sis. First, the term psuchë referred to the self who was alive…John uses psuchë as the life
laid down by the good shepherd (10:11). Second, the word zöë in classical Greek normally
of those who
referred to the essence or principle of life itself—the existence of life as opposed to death. believe, resulting
The third word, bios, was used by Greek writers to describe one’s manner of life and was in an increase
almost exclusively used with reference to human life (such as biography). In this gospel,
John uses the word zöë as spiritual life, and it often is accompanied by the adjective aiönios and enlargement
(“eternal”). As aiönios is also an attribute of God, it has been suggested that eternal life is of God.
nothing short of the life of God. (xiii)

A ll humanity has a God-created biological life (bios) and a psychological life

(psuche), but only believers have the eternal life of God (zoe). God desires to give
the divine life in abundance. F. F. Bruce succinctly confirms this, saying, “Eternal life
here [John 3:15] is the very life of God which resides in the eternal Word (‘in him was
life’) and is communicated by him to all believers” (89). The Gospel of John reveals
that receiving eternal life is the issue of believing in the name of Jesus Christ and even
the purpose and goal of believing. In I Am the Way: A Spiritual Journey through the
Gospel of John, Philip Wesley Comfort associates the issue of believing with receiving
the zoe life of God, an issue that is far beyond the common understanding that believ-
ing is just for the forgiveness of sins:

The essential nature of the Word is life (Greek, zöë), and this life gives light to men who
live in darkness. The divine life resided in Christ, and he made it available to all who
believe in him. Human beings are born with the natural life—called psuchë in Greek
(translated “soul,” “personality,” or “life”); they do not possess the eternal life. The divine
life can be received only by believing in the one who possesses it—Jesus Christ. (35)

While the effectiveness of the Lord’s redemption is applied to sins by faith, faith also
results in an impartation of the divine life into those who believe. Elmer Towns speaks
to this aspect of faith:

The result of faith in Christ is eternal life. John associates the adjective aiönios with the
noun zöë in 17 verses in this gospel. The phrase means a life that is endless, beginning at
the moment of faith (5:24) and never ending. But John makes the phrase refer to more
than endless existence. It also involves a sharing of the divine life (5:26; 17:3). (32)

In the hearing of faith related to the gospel of our salvation, we heard the speaking of

Volume XXII  No. 2  Fall 2017 29

 the Spirit and subsequently received the speaking Spirit: “Did you receive the Spirit
out of the works of law or out of the hearing of faith?” (Gal. 3:2). We received the
Spirit in the regeneration of our human spirit, as indicated by the Lord’s word to
Nicodemus in John 3:16: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit.” In a note on this verse, Witness Lee writes concerning the
We can participate meaning of regeneration as presented in John’s Gospel of life:
in the life of God
The first Spirit mentioned here is the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and the sec-
because the Spirit ond spirit is the human spirit, the regenerated spirit of man. Regeneration is accomplished
whom we in the human spirit by the Holy Spirit of God with God’s life, the uncreated eternal life.
Thus, to be regenerated is to have the divine, eternal life (in addition to the human, nat-
received through ural life) as the new source and new element of a new person. (Recovery Version, note 2)
regeneration is
the Spirit of life,
and the economical
H aving the divine, eternal life in addition to our human, natural life is a matter of
receiving the enlivening life of the Spirit into our deadened human spirit (Eph.
2:1). When the Lord spoke of being born anew (John 3:3, 7), He was not speaking
function of this metaphorically; He was speaking of a divine reality that is made available through
faith—being born of God’s life by the Spirit, a life that has the authority to make us
Spirit is to give children of God through our receiving of His life and nature. Cullen I. K. Story con-
life, the divine, firms this proper understanding of the meaning of being born of the Spirit in The Fourth
Gospel: Its Purpose, Pattern, and Power, saying, “Both John 3:15 and 3:16 emphasize
uncreated life of that the new birth means new life, eternal life, which, to John means participation in
God. The Spirit the very life of God” (77).
who gives life is
We can participate in the life of God because the Spirit whom we received through
the life-giving regeneration is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), and the economical function of this Spirit
Spirit. is to give life, the divine, uncreated life of God. The Spirit who gives life is the life-
giving Spirit (John 6:63; 1 Cor. 15:45). This is why Paul uniquely speaks of Christ, as
the last Adam, becoming a life-giving Spirit (v. 45).5

After resurrection and through resurrection, the Lord Jesus, who had become flesh
([John]1:14), became the Spirit who gives life, as is clearly mentioned in 1 Cor. 15:45. It
is as the life-giving Spirit that He can be life and the life supply to us. When we receive
Him as the crucified and resurrected Savior, the Spirit who gives life comes into us to
impart eternal life into us. We receive the Lord Jesus, but we get the Spirit who gives life.
(Lee, Recovery Version, John 6:63, note 1)

With his familiarity with the ministry of Witness Lee, Philip Wesley Comfort similarly
speaks of Jesus becoming “life-giving spirit”:

Through resurrection, Jesus had acquired a different form (see Mark 16:12). As to his
person, he was still the same Jesus who had walked in Galilee and was crucified at
Calvary. His person had not changed. It never will, for it is immutable. But his form
changed; he is now “life-giving spirit.” This was the ultimate outcome of his spiritual jour-
ney—the consummation of his life on earth. (168-169)

Although Comfort gives no explanation as to why he uses a lowercase s in life-giving

spirit, it is hard to imagine that he would mean anything less than the divine Spirit,
because he speaks of this “life-giving spirit” as being the changed form of the
immutable person of Christ. And since Jesus Christ was the embodiment of the eter-
nal Word, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, for Him to be some-
thing less than divine in His form as “life-giving spirit” would be economically
incomprehensible. Rather than introducing uncertainty with the use of a lowercase s,
it would be better to acknowledge that the life-giving Spirit is the Spirit who gives
life (John 6:63). Such an acknowledgement would reinforce the central focus in
the Gospel of John that the believers receive the divine life that was manifested in the

30 Affirmation & Critique

incarnate Word by being joined by faith to the life-giving Spirit, who is the economi-
cal manifestation of the crucified and resurrected Christ.6

The Central Focus on Eternal Life in the Gospel of John

The central focus in the Gospel of John is on the believers’ receiving and participating John 1:4 says,
in the eternal life of the Triune God. This is supported by four crucial verses that are “In Him was life,
interspersed throughout the Gospel: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of
men” (1:4); “the thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy; I have come and the life was
that they may have life and may have it abundantly” (10:10); “this is eternal life, that the light of men.”
they may know You, the only true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ”
(17:3); and “these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
It is significant
Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name” (20:31). These verses, that the first
while selective,7 nevertheless present succinctly the focus of the Gospel of John. They mention of life in
also mutually reinforce the content of the other verses in this selective grouping. Of
the four verses, 10:10 and 17:3 were spoken by the Lord, indicating a divine aware- the Gospel of John
ness of the need to communicate His purpose in coming; 1:4 and 20:31 were written is in relation
by John, indicating a human awareness of the need to communicate the Lord’s stated
purpose in coming. Verses 1:4 and 20:31, containing the first and last use of life in to a person,
John, speak of the source of life, the person of Christ (“in Him”), which is equal to not to a condition
His name (“in His name”). In 1:4 the eternal life is in Christ as the eternal Word, and
in 20:31 the eternal life is now in both Christ and the believers. In 17:3 the Lord
such as prosperity,
prayed that the believers would know the eternal life, and in 10:10 the Lord indi- to human
cated that our knowing should be in abundance. In 10:10 the Lord declared that His longevity, or even
purpose in coming is that we would have life, and in 20:31 John declares that his pur-
pose in writing of the Lord’s coming is that we would have life in His name. All these to spiritual
verses, when soberly considered, should help believers to see and enter into John’s blessings.
understanding of life.

Life Being in Him

John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” It is significant that
the first mention of life in the Gospel of John is in relation to a person, not to a con-
dition such as prosperity, to human longevity, or even to spiritual blessings. John first
speaks of the Word who was with God and who was God and then speaks of the
essence and nature of the Word—life. He also speaks of this life being the light of men,
foreshadowing God’s effectual economic operation to impart this divine life into
redeemed and regenerated humanity. Witness Lee, focusing on the context of the first
verses in this Gospel, also indicates that John’s reference to life should be viewed as a
restatement of the divine intention and desire of God for humanity to partake of His
life, as symbolized by His loving charge for Adam to eat of the tree of life in Genesis 2:
“Since [John 1:3] refers to the creation in Gen. 1, life here should refer to the life sig-
nified by the tree of life in Gen. 2. This is confirmed by the fact that in Rev. 22 John
mentions the tree of life. Since life is in Him, He is life ([John]11:25; 14:6), and He
came that man might have life (10:10b)” (Recovery Version, 1:4, note 1). This may
seem like an interpretive stretch, but John’s emphasis on life in his Gospel and Epistles
(see notes 2 and 3 below; 1 John 1:1-2; 2:25; 3:14-15; 4:9; 5:11-13) and his explicit ref-
erences to the tree of life in Revelation provide substantive support for Lee’s assertion
(2:7; 22:2). At the beginning of the Scriptures, the tree of life is prominently featured
(Gen. 2:8-9), as it is in the concluding chapter (Rev. 22:2). Surely, these scriptural ref-
erences to the tree of life speak of God’s eternal intention and desire for humanity to
receive and partake of His divine life, as symbolized by a tree in Genesis 2 and by a
flourishing vine that grows on this side and on that side of the river of water of life in
Revelation 22 (cf. John 15:1). When John speaks of life being in the Son (5:26), he is
speaking of the life that has the power to overcome the darkening effects that occurred
in humanity when Adam partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (1:5).

Volume XXII  No. 2  Fall 2017 31

 Thus, the Lord charged His disciples to eat Him in order to have life by eating His
words, which are spirit and life (6:53, 63), just as God charged Adam to eat of the tree
of life.

In 1:4 life is revealed to be both an intrinsic (“in Him”) and communicable attribute
John 10:10 of the Word: “and the life was the light of men.” Verse 4 shows that God’s intention
is more than a is for His life to be imparted into humanity. After the fall the Word, in whom there
was life, came in the flesh in order to carry out this intention by redeeming fallen
casual statement humanity as the last Adam and by regenerating believing humanity with His eternal
about the promise life as the life-giving Spirit. Thus, the eternal life in the Word became eternal life in
humanity. John’s early transition to life in verse 4 is significant. He begins by estab-
of a “blessed” lishing the Word’s credentials as being both with God and being God. In verse 3 he
life that is speaks of the creating God, a God who created human vessels with the capacity
available to to receive Him as life, and then in verse 4 he reveals that the content of these God-
created human vessels is the communicable life of God. Despite a God-given capacity
believers. to receive the divine life, the life in the Word still had to be given to humanity by the
It is about the coming of the Word in the flesh (v. 14).
universal struggle
Coming to Give Life
between God
John 10:10 says, “The thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy; I have
and His enemy come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” This verse speaks of God’s
to obtain vessels eternal intention, an intention that motivated the incarnation of the Word and enabled
for the expression His life to be given to humanity. This is a matter that goes far beyond many of the triv-
ial treatments of the word abundantly in commentaries,8 and its significance is indi-
of their life cated not only by the Lord’s plain words but also by the context of His speaking
and nature. concerning the intention of His enemy, Satan, to steal, kill, and destroy. In essence, this
verse is a précis of the struggle that was foreshadowed by God’s placement of human-
ity before the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2,
a struggle that commenced with Satan’s effort to steal away and corrupt God’s chosen
vessel for life in Genesis 3, a struggle that concludes with the utter destruction of
Satan, death, and Hades in the lake of fire in Revelation 20 and with the eternal flow-
ing of the divine life in chapter 22. John 10:10 is more than a casual statement about
the promise of a “blessed” life that is available to believers. It is about the universal
struggle between God and His enemy to obtain vessels for the expression of their life
and nature. For the enemy such an expression involves corruption and death; for God
it involves glory and life.

I n order to carry out his intention, Satan comes first to steal, that is, to steal human-
ity away from God, who is the rightful Owner of humanity as the Creator. Thus,
he came into the garden of Eden to steal humanity from God. Satan’s greatest efforts
are focused on stealing people away from God because the expression of his fallen life
in God-created vessels serves as an ongoing affront to God’s righteousness, holiness,
and glory. Satan lives to challenge God, roving over the earth to find those who, in
spite of their inclinations to honor God, can be goaded to curse God (Job 1:7-8; 2:9)
and thus hinder them from participating in God’s purpose. If he is unsuccessful in
this regard, he will kill those who are on God’s line of life, as he did with Abel, who
offered sacrifices according to God’s ordained way of redemption (Gen. 4:4-8).
Satan’s killing actions reveal that he was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44);
his efforts to steal and kill ultimately relate to his desire to destroy any semblance of
a testimony of God among redeemed and regenerated humanity. This testimony
relates to the Lord’s desire to be the one Shepherd of one flock (10:11-16). The
church, as the one flock, is just such a testimony, and nothing angers and threatens
the enemy more than a testimony of oneness that is the result of the mutual sharing
of the eternal life of the Triune God. Satan steals, kills, and destroys in order to frus-
trate God’s desire for a testimony that displays His multifarious wisdom to the rulers

32 Affirmation & Critique

and the authorities in the heavenlies, an eternal and glorious testimony in the church
and in Christ Jesus (Eph. 3:10, 21).

In order to counteract Satan’s intention and efforts, the divine life is needed and needed
in abundance. In fact, only the divine life can overcome the satanic life. The law of our
natural human life cannot overcome the law of sin and of death in our members (Rom. Only the divine
7:22-23). Only the life of God, operating through the law of the Spirit of life (8:2), life can overcome
can deliver us from the wretched situation of corruption and death that is operating in
vessels who have been stolen from God, who are under the killing ravages of death due the satanic life. The
to sin, and who have fallen short of the glorious expression of God. The Lord’s refer- Lord’s reference
ence to abundant life speaks not of a flourishing human life but of the intensity of the
struggle between God and His enemy, especially over those who have received the
to abundant life
divine life through believing. speaks not of a
flourishing human
E very genuine believer has received the divine life, but it is not enough to just have
life; the Lord recognized the believer’s need to experience His life in abundance. life but of the
It is clear from Paul’s Epistles that it is possible for us, as genuine believers, to live and intensity of the
walk like the Gentiles (Eph. 4:17-20), who conduct themselves in the lusts of the
flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts because we, like the Gentiles, struggle between
are still by nature children of wrath (2:3). It is also possible for us to have an outward God and His
form of godliness (2 Tim. 3:5) and all the while still be “lovers of self, lovers of money,
boasters, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natu-
enemy, especially
ral affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, not lovers of good, over those who
traitors, reckless, blinded with pride, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” have received the
(vv. 2-4). All genuine, seeking Christians will honestly recognize and acknowledge the
presence of at least one, if not many, of these fallen traits in their daily living, which divine life through
are the manifestations of their participation, even if unwittingly, in Satan’s efforts to believing.
undermine God’s intention. No one is immune to his efforts. Only the life of God,
which is present in the indwelling Spirit who is mingled with our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17),
can deliver us from the body of this death, and we need this life in abundance. In order
to make His life abundantly available, the Word of life came in the flesh, in the God-
created humanity of Jesus. Even though He possessed a humanity that was pure and
without sin, He did not live by His natural, psuche, life, but by the divine, zoe, life. In
order to gain His intention of imparting His divine life and nature into humanity, as
revealed in John 10:10, the Lord laid down His soul-life, not only on the day of His
crucifixion, going willingly to the cross to die, but also throughout His entire life,
establishing an organic model that we can appropriate in our living in union with Him
as His one flock.

As a man, the Lord has the psuche life, the human life, and as God, He has the zoe life,
the divine life. He laid down His soul, His psuche life, His human life, to accomplish
redemption for His sheep (vv. 15, 17-18) that they may share His zoe life, His divine life
(v. 10b) the eternal life (v. 28), by which they can be formed into one flock under Himself
as the one Shepherd. (Lee, Recovery Version, v. 11, note 1)

The believers’ abundant experience of the divine life accomplishes God’s eternal
intention and shames the enemy by overcoming his efforts to steal, kill, and destroy.
In the believers’ experience of the divine life, there is also a knowing of the very God
of life, which is inexhaustibly richer and deeper than just having a blissful and extended
human life.

Knowing God as Life

John 17:2-3 says, “Even as You have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal
life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You,
the only true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ.” In these verses the

Volume XXII  No. 2  Fall 2017 33

 Lord first spoke of being given authority to give eternal life, and then He defined the
eternal life that He gives, equating it with knowing the true God and Him who has
been sent. Thus, to know eternal life is to know the true God, and to know the true
God is to know the eternal life. These two—eternal life and God—cannot be separated;
to know one is to know the other. F. F. Bruce describes this correspondence:
Every life
has a function, Eternal life, then, consists in the knowledge of God. Since the knowledge of God is medi-
ated through the revealer whom God has sent, and is indeed embodied in that revealer,
and according the knowledge of the revealer is one with the knowledge of the God who is revealed. Nor
to its function, is this knowledge a matter simply of intellectual apprehension: it involves a personal rela-
tionship. The Father and the Son know each other in a mutuality of love, and by the
there is a knowledge of God men and woman [sic] are admitted to the mystery of this divine love,
knowledge of being loved by God and loving him—and one another—in return. (329)
that life that goes
beyond mere E very life has a function, and according to its function, there is a knowledge of that
life that goes beyond mere intellectual apprehension. The function of the eternal
intellectual life is to cause us to experientially know the true God, a personal knowledge that is
conveyed through the eternal life with its function of knowing God. “Eternal life is the
apprehension. divine life with a special function, that is, to know God and Christ (cf. Matt. 11:27).
The function of God and Christ are divine. To know the divine person, we need the divine life. Since
the believers are born of the divine life, they know God and Christ (Heb. 8:11; Phil.
the eternal life 3:10)” (Lee, Recovery Version, John 17:3, note 1). The believers can know God and
is to cause us Christ because God and Christ are not only the source of eternal life but also eternal
to experientially life itself. In a personal relationship of mutual indwelling, both the true God and
redeemed and regenerated humanity corporately know one another. In order to know
know the God, there is a need for faith, for believing that Jesus is the Christ, the One who is
true God. anointed to carry out God’s intention.

Believing to Have Life

John 20:31 says, “These have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.” These
refers to the signs that John reported in his Gospel, beginning with the wedding at
Cana and extending to the resurrection of Lazarus (2:11; 12:18). John’s writing of
these things is the speaking of the Spirit, both then and now, and when people
respond to the Spirit’s speaking concerning the Son of God through a hearing of faith,
the Spirit gives them the life that is the Son, which is also the life of God. Believing
is the means for receiving eternal life, because humanity is joined to the Word of life
through faith. Faith is the means,9 but having life in His name, that is, in the person
of the One in whom we believe, is the goal. John wrote these words, this report on
the Word of life, because he knew that the issue of believing would be life in His
name. The Gospel of John can be considered as a lengthy, selective report on what
John had seen and heard concerning the Word of life (1 John 1:1), not the Word of
redemption. John’s report in his first Epistle was written so that the believers would
know the fellowship that is inherent in the life of the Triune God, a fellowship that
joins all believers to one another and to the Triune God (v. 3). John’s report in his
Gospel was written so that the believers could be called into this fellowship of life
(1 Cor. 1:9).10

John 1:4; 10:10; 17:3; and 20:31 are reports based on the Lord’s utterances related to
eternal life. What John heard over the course of his time with the Lord, he reported
in his Gospel generally—and in these verses specifically—either through implicit
references or through explicit repetitions. John 1:4, which says, “In Him was life, and
the life was the light of men,” implicitly refers to the Lord’s word in 5:26: “Just as
the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son to also have life in Himself.” It
also implicitly refers to the Lord’s word in 8:12: “I am the light of the world; he who

34 Affirmation & Critique

follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (cf. 9:5).
The Lord’s word to the Pharisees in 5:40, in which He said, “You are not willing to
come to Me that you may have life,” also must have solidified John’s understanding
that eternal life is in Christ.

When the Spirit

I n 10:10 John explicitly repeats the Lord’s words, writing that He said, “I have come
that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” John prefaces his repetition of
the Lord’s words in verse 10 with an acknowledgement that they were, in fact, utter-
opens our eyes
ances that the Lord Himself was repeating: “Jesus therefore said to them again” (v. 7). to see and our
The focus of the Lord’s speaking in 10:10—on the believers having life through His ears to hear of the
coming and His giving of life—reflects the words that John heard earlier and reported
in 5:21: “Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives
capacities that are
life to whom He wills” and in 6:33: “The bread of God is He who comes down out of inherent in the
heaven and gives life to the world.” divine life of God
In 17:3 John again explicitly repeats the Lord’s words, writing that He said, “This is and that were
eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Him whom You have displayed in the
sent, Jesus Christ.” In John’s equating eternal life with knowing the true God, there
are implicit references to the Lord’s many statements concerning believing into God life of Christ, we
in order to receive eternal life, including the Lord’s speaking to Nicodemus in 3:15, appreciate Him,
in which He said that “everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life”; His
speaking in verse 36: “He who believes into the Son has eternal life”; His speaking in
call upon Him,
6:40: “Everyone who beholds the Son and believes into Him should have eternal life”; receive Him,
and His speaking in verse 47: “Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes has eternal accept Him, and
life.” In 1 John 5:20 John effectively repeats his report of the Lord’s words in John
17:3, saying, “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an under- are organically
standing that we might know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His joined to Him.
Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” In both verses the words eter-
nal life, know, true God, and Jesus Christ are mentioned, and in both verses, knowing
the true God is defined as the eternal life. Receiving the divine life is the purpose of
John’s report, and 20:31 confirms that the focus of 1:4; 10:10; and 17:3 is the divine
life being made available to humanity through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
When the Spirit opens our eyes to see and our ears to hear of the capacities that are
inherent in the divine life of God and that were displayed in the life of Christ, we
appreciate Him, call upon Him, receive Him, accept Him, and are organically joined
to Him, reaching John’s goal in writing his Gospel—receiving the life of God through
faith.

The Wonder of Eternal Life

The eternal life of God is wonderful. It is wonderfully available, and it can be won-
derfully operative in our regenerated human spirit because of the redemption of
Christ. There is no wonder in a human life that is filled with material abundance; this
is the status of many unbelievers. There is no wonder in a life that lasts forever; this is
a condition without a deeper purpose. And there is no wonder in a life of spiritual
blessing apart from the indwelling and mutual abiding of God in redeemed and regen-
erated humanity. There is wonder, however, in a human vessel receiving and partaking
of the eternal life, of God Himself, the One in whom there is life and who continually
gives life to all those who believe into His name. Œ

Notes
1“Going on from there, He saw another two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John
his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them”
(Matt. 4:21). In commenting on the word mending in this verse, Witness Lee writes, “When
James and John were called by the Lord, they were in a boat, mending their nets. Eventually,

Volume XXII  No. 2  Fall 2017 35

 John became a real mender, mending the rents in the church by his ministry of life. (See his
three Epistles and chs. 2 and 3 of Revelation.)” (Recovery Version, note 1).
2See John 3:15, 16, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:24, 39; 6:27, 40, 47, 54, 68; 10:28; 12:25, 50; and 17:2-3.

3See John 1:4 (twice); 3:36; 5:21 (twice), 24, 26 (twice), 29, 40; 6:33, 35, 48, 51, 53, 63
Paul’s stress in (twice); 8:12; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6; and 20:31.
1 Corinthians 15 is 4The first-level subheadings in Witness Lee’s outline of the Gospel of John feature promi-
on the work of the nently the importance of the divine life: Introduction to life and building, 1:1-51; Life’s princi-
ple and life’s purpose, 2:1-22; Life meeting the need of man’s every case, 2:23—11:57; Life’s
Spirit to give life issue and multiplication, 12:1-50; Life’s washing in love to maintain fellowship, 13:1-38;
more than on the Life’s indwelling—for the building of God’s habitation, 14:1—16:33; Life’s prayer, 17:1-26; Life’s
person of the process through death and resurrection for multiplication, 18:1—20:13, 17; Life in resurrection,
20:14—21:25.
Spirit. While he
5According to 1 Corinthians 15:45, the last Adam, the crucified Christ, became a life-
speaks of the Spirit giving Spirit in His resurrection from the dead (vv. 4, 12-16, 20-22). If we primarily regard
so that we would life-giving Spirit as a formal name, much like we regard the Spirit of God as a name (Matt. 3:16),
Paul’s use of the indefinite article a rather than the definite article the can be a source of con-
understand how
sternation, because it seemingly lessens the identification of the life-giving Spirit with the third
God could person of the Divine Trinity; that is, “a spirit” here is not “the Spirit.” But in this chapter on the
communicate His economical process of resurrection, Paul’s stress is on the work of the Spirit to give life more
than on the person of the Spirit. While it was necessary for him to speak of the Spirit because
life, his emphasis we would not otherwise understand how God could communicate His life to us, Paul’s empha-
is on the Spirit’s sis is on the Spirit’s actual giving of life to the believers. Hence, he speaks of a life-giving Spirit
rather than the life-giving Spirit to keep the Corinthians’ attention focused on the Spirit’s eco-
actual giving of life nomical giving of life and the Corinthians’ economical receiving of the divine life, which alone
to the believers. could overcome the problems inherent and manifested in their bios life and psuche life.
6For the purpose of this article, I have limited my discussion to the matter of eternal life,
but the Gospel of John ultimately reveals that eternal life is for building, that is, the building of
a mutual abode for God in redeemed and regenerated humanity and redeemed and regenerated
humanity in God. The linked matters of life and building can be seen throughout the Gospel,
beginning in chapter 1, where life is spoken of in verse 4 and where the building produced by
this life is implied in the Lord’s reference to Bethel, the house of God in Jacob’s dream, in
verse 51. It can be seen in chapter 14, where the Lord explicitly speaks of His death and resur-
rection being the preparation for the building of God and redeemed and regenerated humanity
into a mutual abode, and it can be seen experientially in chapters 20 and 21, where this mutual
abode is effectuated by the Lord breathing the Holy Spirit into His disciples as life and by His
training of the disciples to live in the reality of this mutual abode. Witness Lee comments on the
matter of building in the Life-study of John:

The Gospel of John unfolds the building. In 1:14 we see that Christ in the flesh was the
tabernacle for God’s habitation among men on earth. “And the Word became flesh and
tabernacled among us.” Also, Christ’s body was the temple before His death and after
His resurrection (2:19-22). Before His death His body in the flesh was the temple, and
after His resurrection His resurrected body remained the temple of God. This is the
building. Furthermore, this gospel reveals that the believers are to be built as the abode
of the Triune God (14:2, 23). This is adequately and fully disclosed in John 14.
According to that chapter, all the believers will be built together as God’s eternal habi-
tation with so many abodes. Thus, as the Lord’s last prayer found in John 17 indicates,
all His believers must be built up into one (vv. 11, 21-23). (13)
7Other verses containing the terms eternal life and life could have been selected, most
notably John 3:15 and 16: “That everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life. For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him
would not perish, but would have eternal life.” I chose not to focus on these verses because of
their familiarity to most believers, a familiarity that serves as a veil from seeing the Lord’s plain

36 Affirmation & Critique

word that it is God’s desire for us to share in the eternal life in the only begotten Son whom He
gave to us out of His love for the world.
8Most homiletical discussions of life in John 10:10 fail to identify this life as the eternal life
of God, much less the communicable life of God. There are a few exceptions but even these are
limited because they lack clarity and specificity. For example, in commenting on the word abun-
Despite John’s
dantly, the New Geneva Study Bible states, “The life that Jesus gives is unique because it is eter-
nal, and He gives this life in evergrowing abundance to His redeemed” (1682). Here there is plain words that he
recognition of an “eternal” component of life, but it is by no means clearly stated that this life wrote selectively
is the eternal life of God Himself. This note, like many other comments, seems to frame abun-
dance largely in terms of what could easily be interpreted as material manifestations. In John, of Jesus’ many
R. C. Sproul says, ”Jesus came not to steal but to give, and His gift is abundant life” (189). When signs so that we
Sproul later comments on 20:31, he says, “John is echoing Jesus’ own words: “I have come that
they may have life” (John 10:10b). People who don’t have Christ don’t have life, and they don’t
would “believe that
even know it. To have the life that God created us to have, we must find it in the Son of God” Jesus is the Christ,
(395). In both instances life is nebulously defined. In its first occurrence life is defined so gen- the Son of God,
erally that a reader can attach any significance to it; in its second occurrence life is framed largely
in terms of a human life that at most is equivalent to the God-created human life prior to its and that believing,
being touched by the effects of sin. There is no thought that life refers to the divine life that you may have life
God’s created human vessels needed to receive even in their original state of innocence. Sproul’s
tendency for generalities is mirrored in Charles H. Talbert’s brief comment on John 10:10 in
in His name,” the
Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine importance of
Epistles: “What he provides is ‘abundant life,’ i.e., life to the full” (171). It can also be seen in
receiving life as
Cullen I. K. Story’s comment: “The life described in John 10 is one of free movement, of ade-
quate provision, in essence, an abundant life” (227). When generalities serve as a principle com- the result of
ponent in any discussion, it is easy to follow a tendency to imaginatively embellish an argument believing is still
with natural human concepts. In Insights on John, Charles R. Swindoll displays this tendency:
“Abundant life includes peace, purpose, destiny, a genuine purpose for living, the joy of facing missed by many.
any adversity—including the grave—without fear, and the ability to endure hardships with con-
fident assurance” (190-191).
9Despite the apostle’s plain words that he wrote selectively of the many signs Jesus did so
that we would “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may
have life in His name” (John 20:31), the importance of receiving life as the result of believing is
still missed by many. In The Gospel of John: Worship for Divine Life Eternal John Paul Heil focuses
much more on the matter of believing than he does on having divine life in the name, the per-
son, of Christ:
With a direct appeal to the audience, [John] offered his true testimony, “so that you also
may believe” (19:34-35). Reinforcing and advancing this previous appeal, the narrator
states that all of the signs have been written “so that you may believe” (20:31). With this
declaration of the purpose of the book the narrator climaxes all of the previous appeals
for the audience to believe in and worship Jesus as the Christ. (152-153)
Although Hiel subsequently states that those who believe “may thereby know and experience
divine life eternal,” he limits this experience to one that is “in and through loving one another
in the self-sacrificial way that Jesus loves” (153), which comes far short of John’s understand-
ing of what it means to “have life.”
10The fellowship of life in the Gospel of John is a corporate matter, involving all the believ-
ers and the Triune God; the word fellowship implies the church in its life relationship in God
and with God and the believers. In his article in this issue of Affirmation & Critique—“The
Church in the Gospel of John”—Ed Marks points to seven designations of the church that are
related to and actualized by the fellowship of life: as many grains of wheat, as the many broth-
ers, as the Father’s house, as the Son’s vine, as the Spirit’s new child, as the bride, and as the
flock of God.

Works Cited

Amplified Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987. Print.

Volume XXII  No. 2  Fall 2017 37

 Beasley-Murray, G. R. Gospel of Life: Theology in the Fourth Gospel. Peabody: Hendrickson,
1991. Print.

Bruce, F. F. The Gospel of John: Introduction, Exposition and Notes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1983. Print.
The fellowship Comfort, Philip Wesley. I Am the Way: A Spiritual Journey through the Gospel of John. Grand
of life in the Rapids: Baker Books, 1994. Print.

Gospel of John Edwards, Mark. John. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. Print.

is a corporate Heil, John Paul. The Gospel of John: Worship for Divine Life Eternal. Eugene: Cascade Books,
matter, involving 2015. Print.

all the believers Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of John: A Commentary. Vol. 1. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2003. Print.
and the Triune Lee, Witness. Footnotes and Outlines. Recovery Version of the Bible. Anaheim: Living Stream
God; the word Ministry, 2003. Print.

fellowship ———. Life-study of John. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1985. Print.
implies MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Study Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997. Print.
the church New Geneva Study Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995. Print.
in its life Newman, Barclay M., and Eugene A. Nida. A Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of John.
relationship London: United Bible Societies, 1980. Print.
in God and NIV Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. Print.
with God and Osteen, Joel. The Power of I Am. New York: FaithWords, 2015. Print.
the believers.
———. Your Best Life Now. New York: FaithWords, 2014. Print.

Sproul, R. C. John. Lake Mary: Reformation Trust, 2009. Print.

Story, Cullen I. K. The Fourth Gospel: Its Purpose, Pattern, and Power. Shippensburg: Ragged
Edge Press, 1997. Print.

Swindoll, Charles R. Insights on John. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010. Print.

Talbert, Charles H. Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel
and the Johannine Epistles. Macon: Smyth & Helwys, 2005. Print.

Towns, Elmer. The Gospel of John: Believe and Live. Hurst: Tyndale Theological Seminary, 2002.
Print.

Begotten of God, not of the Will of the Flesh nor the Will of Man
The created soul-life that was present before the fall was affected by the fall; thus,
there was the soul-life before the fall and the soul-life after the fall. The will of the
flesh refers to the soul-life after the fall, whereas the will of man refers to the soul-
life before the fall. According to John, those who believe in and receive the Lord
Jesus are not begotten of blood, which speaks of the human life associated with flesh
and blood, nor are they begotten of the soul-life, which was affected by the fall and
which speaks of the intentions related to the fallen soul-life, nor are they begotten
of the intentions that were present in our soul-life prior to the fall. The life that we
have received from the Lord is not related to flesh and blood, and it is not related
to the soul-life, either after or prior to the fall. It is related only to the life of God.

From Life and Building in the Gospel of John by Witness Lee, p. 66

38 Affirmation & Critique