John the evangelist teaches us the saving formula: He who trusts in the Son has life eternal. This brief sentence enshrines the gospel. Whoever draws near to this unity of love exemplified in the Father and Son, nears God’s love, revealed on the cross. He relies on the Lamb of God knowing that the Lamb has removed our filth. With this relation to Christ we experience the current of his mercy in everlasting love. That faith in the crucified Son transfers to us his true life. Eternal life does not begin after death, but now. The Holy Spirit comes upon the believers in the Son. He who rejects the words of Christ, and refuses his Sonship and cross, grieves the Holy Spirit. He will not find rest for his conscience. He who does not submit to Jesus opposes God himself and abides in spiritual death. All religions that contradict the doctrine of the Son and his cross offend God’s truth. He who rejects His love, chooses His wrath.
Paul too affirms John’s position: God’s wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and wickedness. For all have sinned and opposed the truth by their iniquity. Realize that God’s wrath that destroys, is poured on mankind.
Like the serpent lifted in the desert, so the Crucified has become the symbol of our salvation from God’s anger. The Son has opened the dispensation of grace. Anyone who averts His grace from the cross deliberately, abides in judgment. Satan finds a foothold in him. People without Christ are wrecked. When will you begin praying for individuals, so that they may believe in the Son and be saved? When will you talk to your friends patiently, in order that they may receive God’s life by means of your witness?