The True God and Eternal Life include our being in the True One and in Jesus Christ

1 John 5:20 concludes with, This is the true God and eternal life; we need to have a clear vision of what “this” in this verse means, so that we may realise that the true One becomes the true God in our experience, and Jesus Christ becomes eternal life, and “this” includes both the true God and eternal life and the fact of us being in the true God and eternal life.

Amen, Lord Jesus, unveil us to see what does it mean for us to be in the true God and eternal life. We want to remain with You, Lord, even remain in You, so that we may clearly see that we are in God, God is in us, and we are joined, mingled, and incorporated as one. Oh Lord, we love You! We want to abide in You! We want to have You as our reality day by day! Amen!

The apostle John wrote both his Gospel and the three Epistles and the book of Revelation. The language he used is not complicated with elaborate theological terms but rather, he wrote in a simple way, yet his writings are so mysterious and organic.

We truly need to come to the Lord as we come to His word so that we may have the Lord as light shine on His word.

It is easy for us to think we understand and apprehend what John speaks in the gospel, but it is not easy for us to enter into the depths of the divine revelation in John’s epistles.

The first epistle of John concludes with 1 John 5:20 where we are told that we, believers in Christ, know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might 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.

This seems to be so simple and easy to understand, but this is so deep and profound, even very experiential.

Christ did not come as the Son of God merely so that we understand that God loves us and we should believe in Him otherwise we will suffer eternal perdition.

Rather, Christ as the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding so that we may subjectively know God, even know Him as the One who is true.

We can know the true One, the One who is true. Even more, we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. Wow, what is this?

First, we know Him, and then, we realise we are in Him! The knowledge we have today is subjective, in our experience; this knowledge is for us to partake of what God is.

As we know God subjectively in spirit, we realise we are in Him. Amen, we are in God! We are in the One who is true!

This is the True God and Eternal Life: we are in God and His Son Jesus Christ!

The last part of 1 John 5:20 says, This is the true God and eternal life. It is easy to read this and assume that “this” refers to God and Christ, so we may just conclude that God and Christ are the true God and eternal life.

But thank the Lord for the ministry of the age. Thank the Lord that we can come to God’s word in a prayerful way, having no preconceived theological thoughts or concepts but simply opening to the Lord for Him to shine on us and show us the deeper meaning of the true God and eternal life.

Oh Lord, what do You think this portion means? What is “this” in, “this is the true God and eternal life”? Unveil us, Lord, and remove anything that we think we know; we want to see what You see and enter into the spiritual reality which is in Your heart! Amen!

We need to pay attention to the word “this.” The apostle John uses “this” to refer both to the true God and to eternal life; by this we see that the true God and eternal life are one (1 John 3:24).

This is the true God and eternal life – the true God and eternal life are one. Doctrinally, of course, the true God and His Son Jesus Christ may be considered two, for they are two persons; however, when we experience the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ, they are one.

When we are in the true One and in Jesus Christ experientially, They are one.

Think about your experience: how many gods do you have in you, or how many persons of the Godhead live in you? Is it three – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – in a distinct and separate way, or is it just one, the Triune God?

We can confess that we have just one in us – the Triune God, and this One is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

The more we try to understand it, the more we cannot; however, the more we exercise our spirit to apprehend the spiritual reality, the more we enjoy the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity!

Doctrinally, they are two – the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ; experientially, They are one.

For this reason, John uses this to refer both to the true One and to His Son Jesus Christ. In our experience of being in the true God and in Jesus Christ, they are one.

Hallelujah, the Triune God is in us and we are in the Triune God! Praise the Lord, we are in God and God is in us!

We are in the true God and the true God is in us. We are in the eternal life and the eternal life is in us!

The true God has come through incarnation and has given us an ability to know Him as the genuine God, and He has enabled us to be one with Him organically in His Son Jesus Christ.

The Triune God was incarnated to be the Lord Jesus Christ, who went through death and resurrection to become the Spirit of reality coming into our spirit to bring us into a subjective enjoyment and experience of the true God and eternal life.

Now we are organically joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), and we are in Christ and Christ is in us (Col. 1:27; 2 Cor. 5:17).

We are in the true God and the true God is in us. We have the eternal life, and we can apprehend the eternal life by means of the Spirit whom He has become and who is joined to us as one spirit. Praise the Lord!

Now the genuine and real God is eternal life to us so that we may partake of Him as everything for our regenerated being.

May we truly open to the Lord in prayer as we come to Him in His word so that He may bring us into this wonderful realisation and experience in our daily living.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming through incarnation and giving us the ability to know the true God as the genuine God and be one with Him organically in His Son Jesus Christ! Hallelujah, now the genuine and real God is eternal life to us so that we may partake of Him as everything in our regenerated being. We open to You, Lord. Unveil us. Shine on us. Show us what it means that this is the true God and the eternal life. May we see that the true God and eternal life are one. May we see that Jesus Christ is one with God, even He is God, for the true One and Jesus Christ are one in our experience. Hallelujah, we have the Triune God in us! Praise the Lord, we have one God in us, and this is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit! Amen, Lord, may we realise that, in our experience of being in the true God and in Jesus Christ, They are one! Keep us enjoying You in our spirit, dear Lord! Keep us growing in the subjective knowledge and experience of the eternal life and of the true God, in whom we are!

The True God and Eternal Life include our being in the True One and in His Son Jesus Christ

May the Lord have mercy on us that we would not read the Bible and take things for granted.

A verse such as 1 John 5:20 seems to be quite simple and straightforward, but we need to dig deeper and find out what it means that this is the true God and eternal life, as the conclusion of this chapter and of the whole first epistle of John.

The word “this” refers to the very God who has become experiential to us through our being in Him.

God has become experiential to us through our being in Him; when we’re in the true God and in His Son Jesus Christ, They become one to us. This is why John says that “this” is the true God, and “this” is eternal life.

“This” is the very God and the very Jesus Christ in whom we are.

Who is the true God? What is eternal life? Doctrinally, we may say that the true God is one and the eternal life is another one, for we have God and Christ. Experientially, however, the two are one.

When we say that we are in the true One, we also say that we are in His Son Jesus Christ. By faith in Christ, we are in Christ, and Christ is in God.

This is what the Lord Jesus prophesied in John 14:20 and prayed for in John 17:21 when He said that on that day we will know that the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father and we are in the Son.

We are in Christ, Christ is in God the Father, and we are in God the Father; we are in the true God and in eternal life.

May the Lord unveil us to se that we are in the true One and Jesus Christ. When we’re in the True God and Jesus Christ, They are our true God and also our eternal life.

First, we have the true One and His Son Jesus Christ; then, we have the true God and eternal life. This is mysterious and mind-blowing, yet it is our spiritual reality and can be apprehended by us as we exercise our spirit.

First, there’s the true One and His Son Jesus Christ. When we are in Them, however, they become the true God and eternal life.

This is the true God and eternal life; “this” refers to the very God who has become experiential to us through our being in Him.

Praise the Lord, we believers in Christ are no longer outside of this God, but we are in the true One, in His Son Jesus Christ!

Because we are in Them – in the true God and His Son Jesus Christ – God and Jesus Christ are no longer objective to us; rather, in our experience, They are the true God and eternal life.

This is mysterious. The word “this” includes the true God and eternal life, and it also includes our being in Them. Wow!

“This” includes the condition of our being in God and Jesus Christ! This is confirmed by our experience. The True God and eternal life include our being in the true One and in His Son Jesus Christ.

We believers in Christ are now in the true God and eternal life. We know we’re in the true God and in eternal life because we are in the true One and in His Son Jesus Christ.

It is not easy to explain this to an unbeliever, for they do not have the understanding given to them by Christ.

But thank the Lord, Christ has come as the Son of God and has given us an understanding so that we may know Him who is true, and we are now in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Thank the Lord that we are in God, and now we can say from our experience that He is true. God is true in Himself all the time, but unless we are in Him as the true One, we cannot testify that He is true to us.

Unless we are in the Lord Jesus Christ, He still is eternal life and will forever be eternal life, but He would not be eternal life to us.

But praise the Lord, we are now in the true God, and He is the true One to us, and we are in Jesus Christ, and He is eternal life to us.

Now we believers in Christ in our experience can testify that the true God becomes the true One, and Jesus Christ becomes eternal life.

We know that we are in the true God and in eternal life because we are in the true One and in His Son Jesus Christ. This is not just a hope; we know. We know we are in the true God!

When we are in the true One and in Jesus Christ, “this,” including the fact that we are in Them, is the true God.

Oh, may the Lord unveil us to see this. May we see this in our experience and may we enter into this realisation in our daily living.

Lord Jesus, grant us to see a clear vision of what “this” in 1 John 5:20 refers to. May we see that the very God is becoming experiential to us through our being in Him. Hallelujah, when we are in the true One and in His Son Jesus Christ, They become one to us! Hallelujah, this is the true God and eternal life! Wow, the very God and the very Jesus in whom we are, is the true God and eternal life! Praise the Lord, our condition of being in God and Jesus Christ is included in the true God and eternal life! Amen, Lord, unveil us to see this. Grant us to see and realise this in our Christian experience. May the true God become the true One to us in our experience, and may Jesus Christ become eternal life to us. Praise the Lord, we know that we are in the true God and in eternal life because we are in the true One and in His Son Jesus Christ! Praise the Lord, when we are in the true One and Jesus Christ, “this”, including the fact that we are in Them, is the true God! Amen!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Ron Kangas on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of 1 John, pp. 348-351, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (part 3 – 2025 Summer Training), week 36, The True One – day 5.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The more we live in Christ, the life divine, / And by the inner consciousness behave, / The more we’ll have the inward knowledge true, / And on our heart God will His Son engrave. / ’Tis by this living inward knowledge gained / That fellowship with God in life we hold; / ’Tis by this hidden knowledge thus obtained / God unto us His fulness doth unfold. (Hymns #739 stanzas 7-8)
  – God as the Father in the Son / Has been embodied and expressed, / And God the Spirit is the Son’s / Reality to be possessed. / May God the Father’s love to us / In God the Son as grace be known, / Thru God the Spirit’s fellowship, / That God our portion we may own. (Hymns #610 stanzas 5-6)
  – Oh in the Son the Father is, / And now the Spirit is the Son; / The Father with the Son is joined, / The Spirit with the Son is one… / In Christ, the Father we possess, / Receiving Him for all our need; / In Spirit we experience Christ / As life and everything indeed. / With Thy divine reality, / Lord, fill us by Thy Spirit now, / That we may all be full of Thee, / And all Thy riches thus avow. (Hymns #243 stanzas 4, 6-7)