THE TRUE GOD AND ETERNAL LIFE - 1 JOHN 5:20

Verse 20: And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Continuing to examine the third and last we know, John has already established that Jesus Christ, the Son of God came to earth in human form to provide all that we need to understand and to know Him through His objective Word, His divine revelation as opposed to subjective human thinking. 

Positional Truth

The next phrase, we are in Him who is true, is literally from the Greek: we are in the true One. This is a statement declaring that believers have a permanent and absolute status in Him, God the Father. The next phrase in His Son Jesus Christ is an explanation as to how we come to be in the true One, God the Father, by our being in His Son Jesus Christ.1 Chafer states that greater “intensity of meaning” should be ascribed to the use of the word in, for “it is evident that to be in the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit is a position; and for the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit to be in the believer constitutes a possession.”2 This is an awesome undertaking of God, for in no other period of history has the entire Godhead indwelled a believer.

Our Lord proclaimed upon the coming of the special ministry of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20). This is a consistent teaching of John’s in his gospel account and his epistle:

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23)

And,

As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. (1 John 2:24)

Therefore it follows that “To be ‘in’ the Father is to be ‘in’ the Son.”3

The True God and Eternal Life

This verse concludes with an absolute statement of fact: this is the true God and eternal life. The Greek grammar is decisive that the word this refers to His Son Jesus Christ.4 However, it would be impossible for John to deny that the Father also is the true God, for Our Lord had described Him as such when He prayed just prior to His death:

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)

What we find in John’s epistle is his presentation of the fact that the Son also is the true God and eternal life.  There are two citations which support this conclusion:

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us (1 John 1:1–2)

And,

And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. (1 John 5:11)

Hence, Jesus Christ is the true God and the embodiment of eternal life since He is the One that provided eternal life for all who will believe in His finished work on the cross (cf. John 14:6; Acts 4:12). This is John’s final attempt at persuading his readers against the Gnostic false teachers—the antichrists (2:18, 22; 4:3) who deny Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Eternal Life

Eternal life is a life that never ends. God possesses eternal life, indicating that His existence is without a beginning and has no end. Therefore, those who believe in Christ for salvation share in His eternal life. We enjoy this eternal life now and onward after we pass from this physical life; making us free from the eternal punishment for disobeying God, as stated by John the baptizer:

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36)

Scripture concludes that unbelief in the Son for salvation is an active manifestation of disobedience.5 The command that man is to obey was proclaimed by Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailer:

They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)

The simple truth is, that all mankind are creatures of the Creator and are personally responsible to seek and authenticate the true significance of their existence: to serve the living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9). The problem is that sin separates man from a relationship with his Creator, so God provided salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, Jesus Christ is the true God, the exclusive provider of eternal life. The apostle Peter inferred this when asked by Our Lord if he would desert Him as some other disciples had:

Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68–69)

And after Our Lord’s ascension, Peter was brought before the High Priest Annas and boldly stated the power and the name by which he preached (Acts 4:7):

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12; cf. 10:43)

Fellow believers, to what extent do we appreciate the eternal life He has freely given to us? Our gratitude will be evident when we boldly declare the gospel of the true God, Jesus Christ, so that others might obey and believe.

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[1] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1 Jn 5:20.

[2] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 3.262-263

[3] Morris, L. L. (1994). 1 John. In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, 4th ed. (D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, Eds.). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, p. 1409.

[4] Wallace, D. B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, pp.326-327.

[5] Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word Studies in the New Testament. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2.109.

 

© 2026 David M. Rossi 

 

KNOWING HIM WHO IS TRUE - 1 JOHN 5:20

Verse 20: And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

John now presents his final we know—a specific truth that we have learned from his epistle. This is John’s final summation of his defense against the Gnostic heresy that seeks to diminish the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Incarnation

What we have come to know is that the Son of God has come. Son of God indicates Jesus Christ by one of the many titles that identify Him in Scripture, intending to accentuate His unique person as both God and man. John states the fact that He has come as a reference to the historical fact of His entrance into the world in human form by a divine act and not through Joseph, a human father. The Greek tense emphasizes this past event as a vividly present reality.1 That it is the indisputable truth of His Incarnation as proclaimed in John’s gospel account, that He “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:13–14) and verified in this epistle, that He “was manifested” and “appeared” (1 John 1:2; 3:5, 8). Our Lord arrived on earth with a specific objective for His followers: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). This life which He came to offer mankind is eternal life, “the gospel, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Van Ryn makes a pertinent observation of John’s consideration of this life that He came to provide: “In the gospel, life is imparted through faith in the Son of God; in the epistle, life is known and enjoyed in Christ.”2

Understanding Bestowed

He has given us something that is of a permanent advantage in order to live this life of faith: understanding. The word refers to a mind, one that can reason and think. Vine asserts that it refers to “a process of mind leading to a conclusion, and hence the word denotes the faculty of forming a conclusion from certain facts.”3 This divinely given mind enables all believers to learn and comprehend spiritual truth, assisted by the indwelling Holy Spirit as was taught by the apostle Paul:

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. (1 Corinthians 2:12–13)

Paul further maintains that believers are able to comprehend spiritual truth, to literally “seize with the mind”4; leading him to pray to the Father on our behalf,

…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16–19 [emphasis added])

Morris aptly states that “The Christian faith is not a hindrance to intellectual activity but a stimulus to right thinking.”5 Thus, with this divine advantage all believers are able to know Him who is true. Here true means the only genuine God, not a sham like the “fictional God of the heretics”6 or the false concept the Gnostics professed of Jesus.

It is worth noting what John specifically implies by this word true since it appears 3 times in this verse. John uses this word (and all of its derivations) more than any other writer of the New Testament. Bultmann observes that the Greek word “has in the first instance the sense of ‘true’ or ‘genuine,’ but genuine here means ‘divine’ in contrast to human and earthly reality.”7 In essence, true implies that which exemplifies an objective divine reality as opposed to that which the world proclaims as true based upon subjective human thinking—a viewpoint devoid of any divine perspective and utterly rejects its authenticity.

John uses this same word throughout his writings to emphasize the divine aspects of the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ: the true light (John 1:9; 8:12; 1 John 2:8); the true worshipers (John 4:23); the true bread—genuine spiritual nourishment, as opposed to manna (John 6:32, 48); the true vine—genuine spiritual productivity (John 15:1); the true God—genuine deity, as opposed to Gnostic heresy (John 7:28; 17:3; cf. 1 Thess. 1:9); He who is true (Rev. 3:7); true witness (Rev. 3:14); true are Your ways (Rev. 15:3); true judgments (Rev. 16:7; 19:2); true words of God (Rev. 19:9; 21:5; 22:6); Christ is called “true” (Rev. 19:11).

Knowing Him

Therefore, believers can have the confidence of knowing God the Father, our Creator and His Son, Jesus Christ as the genuine God of the universe, and not a distortion of what Scripture declares or a fabrication of man’s imagination. Because what believers are to understand and know of Him who is true, is objectively stated in His Word—for His Word is absolute Truth (John 17:17).

But unless we avail ourselves to an intense study of Scripture, we cannot truly know God or Jesus Christ. Acquiring the knowledge of God comes only through His Word, not by special revelation or feelings, but by the divine revelation He has given to us, His inspired Word. From His Word we come to know Him, to obey His commands (2:3), to love Him (4:19f), and to rightly serve Him by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 12:11).

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[1] Dana, H.E. & Mantey, Julius R. (1957). A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Co., p. 159.

[2] Van Ryn, August (1948). The Epistles of John, New York, NY: Loizeaux Brothers, p. 159.

[3] Vine, W. E. (1996). Collected Writings of W.E. Vine. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1 John 5:20.

[4] Zodhiates, S. (2000). καταλαμβάνω. In The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G2638.

[5] Morris, L. L. (1994). 1 John. In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, 4th ed. (D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, Eds.). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, p. 1409.

[6] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 11.540.

[7] Bultmann, R. (1964–). ἀληθινός. In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich, Eds.), Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1.250.