Having and Knowing

Some years ago I had occasion to speak with a lady who was traveling beside me, "Kindly allow me to ask you a question: Do you have everlasting life?"

Her reply was, "I hope so." I told her that if she had everlasting life, she should know it.

I continued, "Allow me to ask you another question: Do you know by faith the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour? She earnestly said that she surely did, so I called her attention to John 6:47: "He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life." I said, "Let's go over it again," and repeated the verse, pausing after "hath …"

"Everlasting life!" she shouted aloud. "I have everlasting life!" Oh, the blessedness of resting on the Word of God, and having confidence in it, because it is the Word of God.

"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).

—John G. Boate