This leads to the third of John’s affirmations, which is, as Stott says, “the most fundamental of the three.”1 This strikes at the very root of the heretical Gnostic theology, for it is the affirmation that the Son of God, even Jesus, has come into this world to give us both knowledge of God and salvation. In other words, it is the assurance that He and nothing else is at the heart of Christianity; He and only He provides what all men desperately need. The need is not for philosophical enlightenment, as valuable as that may be in some areas. The need is to know God and to have a Savior.
The first gift that Jesus has brought us is the capacity to know God. This suggests not only that Jesus is God and that we see God in Him, as He said to Philip (John 14:9), but also that we are incapable of spiritual sight until He gives it to us. Indeed, we are like the blind man of John 9 who could not see Christ and did not even seek Him until Jesus first sought him out and healed him. After that we grow in knowledge, as the blind man grew (cf. John 9:11, 17, 33, 36, 38).
Moreover, the knowledge of God which Christ gives is knowledge, not just of any God, but of the true or genuine God. The word translated “true” in this verse is the word alethinos, which is a popular one with John. In the Gospel he uses it of true worshipers (4:23), the true bread (6:32), and the true vine (15:1). In this first letter he has already used it of the true light which is dispersing the darkness (2:8). “True” refers to that which is authentic as opposed to that which is false, the ultimate reality as opposed to that which is merely its shadow. In John’s day the Gnostic teachers had made much of their supposed knowledge of God, but it is John’s contention that apart from the work of the Christ of history, who reveals God, such knowledge is not knowledge at all. At least it is not knowledge of the real God. Only through the real Son of God is the real God known.
The second gift of Jesus is salvation, which John suggests by one of his favorite terms: “eternal life.” Elsewhere he has indicated that the basis upon which we enjoy such life is the atoning death of Jesus Christ through which God’s just wrath against sin is turned away and a new relationship is established between God and the sinner. He has also indicated that the channel through which this life is received is faith, that is, believing in what God has said concerning the work of His Son and committing oneself to Him as Savior. Here, however, John dwells once more on the idea of “eternal life,” indicating that the knowledge of God and union with Him is life, in the sense of a complete salvation.
When John writes, “This is the true God, and eternal life,” it is possible that the word “this” refers to an antecedent immediately preceding, namely Jesus Christ. If this is so, then this is an exceptionally clear statement of the deity of Christ. Many of the Church fathers took the text in this manner. On the other hand we must also say in all honesty that “this” can also refer to “him that is true,” in which case all three uses of the word “true” refer to the same person, even the Father. This seems preferable. In view of the scope of biblical theology there is little difference, however. For Jesus is said to be the “true” one elsewhere, and we are also said to abide in Him as we are also said to abide in the Father.
1John R. W. Stott, The Epistles of John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964), 194.
