A Word in Season: Words of Eternal Life (John 6:68-69)

The Words of Eternal Life in John 6

The Apostle John records a season in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ when he began to say things that some of those following him considered hard. He was insisting upon himself as the one in whom everlasting life was found.

Now that everlasting life is not just life that goes on forever, it's the life of heaven, it's the life of eternity. It's the life of someone who knows God and enjoys communion with him, not just in this world but also in the world which is to come.

The Lord Jesus was insisting that only he had that life in him and further that that life was granted to those whom the Father was bringing to him. I have said to you that no one can come to me, he said, unless it has been granted to him by my Father.

Many Turn Back, and Peter’s Confession

From that time, John tells us, there were many who went back, who'd previously been following the Lord Jesus Christ, and he turned to his disciples and he asked them, will you also go away? Are you going to leave me now as well?

And Peter, as so often, made himself the spokesman for the group and he said these words to the Lord Jesus found in John's Gospel, chapter 6 and verse 68 and 69. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Also we have come to believe and to know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You may already know some people who have died because of the current pandemic that is sweeping the globe and most of the countries that are in it.

If you don't know people who've died from COVID -19, then I'm sure that you know others who are dying or who have died from other afflictions or diseases or accidents. In this fallen world, death is a constant.

It's a constant threat, it's a constant companion and it's a certain end for all of us unless the Lord Jesus Christ returns first. And in times like these when pressure builds and everybody seems to have a different opinion, there are so many voices that are baying for our attention, calling for us to listen and to follow them.

So many claims for authority, so many people who will say we know the way, often competing claims. What will we do if we are true Christians? Will we now go after some of these other options? What will be our hope and our comfort, not just in life but in death, facing it for ourselves and indeed offering hope to others in the face of death?

Why Christians Ask, “To Whom Else Will We Go?”

To whom else will we go? To whom else can we turn? Who else offers us what the Lord Jesus Christ offers us? Life that cannot be taken away from us, life that will last through death itself. To whom else will we go?

Now you may not be a Christian, you may hear these competing voices calling to you, saying in effect, follow me, I know the way, I can get you through this. There is no one else who can get you through death, there is no one else who can offer everlasting life, there is no one else whom God has appointed to be the one in whom this life is found and from whom this life proceeds but the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is, as he described in John chapter 6, he is himself the bread of life, he is the one in whom all hope is found. Now to whom else will you go? Who else offers you the forgiveness of sins? Who else offers you peace with God?

Who else offers you the sure hope of life with God when we die and a resurrection to glory and eternal peace and joy in a new heavens and a new earth? Have you come to believe, as Peter did, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God and have you trusted in him accordingly?

This and this only is the way of life. There is no other one who has in him what Christ has and there is no one else to whom you can turn to obtain these mercies and these blessings that will outlast death itself and carry you in joy into all eternity.