Resurrection in 1 John
(avg. read time: 16–33 mins.)
Like nearly all of the General Epistles, 1 John once again presents a challenge of lacking explicit resurrection terminology used with the sense of resurrection. Even so, I expect it will be the longest or second-longest chapter in the planned book on resurrection in the General Epistles. I expect this for three reasons. One, there are several potential implicit references to work with. Two, while I want to avoid too much repetition in this post, in the chapter version I plan to do more work in integrating the observations about participatory victory in the framework of cosmic conflict with observations about resurrection in this book. Three, there is actually an entire volume dedicated to the subject of resurrection in 1 John, the only one around that I am currently aware of, by Matthew Jensen titled Affirming the Resurrection of the Incarnate Christ: A Reading of 1 John, which I plan to interact with more extensively than I do here.
Participatory Victory and the Theological-Ethical Framework of 1 John
As I said, I plan to do much more integrative work with the notion of participatory victory in 1 John in the context of cosmic conflict and how these things relate to resurrection. But for now, I will simply reiterate some overarching points. I have outlined how in John’s works (particularly as represented in the Gospel and 1 John), there is a vision of a cosmic conflict involving life and death, light and darkness, love and hate, truth and lies. All of the former categories are from God and John understands them according to an eschatological vision formed by Jesus and his resurrection. As such, the eschatological expectation is that the life of God (“eternal life”) conquers death and delivers people from it through resurrection (John 3:14–21, 36; 5:21–29; 6:27–40, 45–58; 8:12, 51; 10:10, 28; 11:25–26; 12:25, 48–50; 17:2–3; 1 John 1:1–3; 2:17, 24–25; 5:11–13, 20); the light of God conquers darkness and delivers people from it through union with God and sanctification (John 1:4–5; 3:19–21; 8:12; 9:4–5; 11:9–10; 12:35–36, 46; 1 John 1:5–7; 2:8–11); the love of God conquers the sin and hatred that separate from God and delivers people from them through new birth and transformation (John 3:1–21; 8:42–47; 15:15–24; 1 John 2:29–3:3; 3:8–10, 14–16; 4:7–12; 4:16–5:5); and the truth of God conquers the lies of the world and delivers people from them through the proclamation of the gospel and faith (John 1:14–18; 4:23–24; 8:31–51; 14:15–17; 16:7–15; 18:37; 1 John 1:8–10; 2:18–28; 3:18–22; 4:1–6; 5:6–12, 20). This victory is not yet fully realized, but believers experience it now in the time when the evil age and the coming age of the kingdom of God overlap. Present experience of eschatological benefits, such as the present possession of eternal life, is possible only because of Jesus’s glorification—including his death, resurrection, and ascension—in a series of eschatological events that have happened already (i.e., these events are eschatological in that they are climactic in the communal metanarrative and are instrumental to the ultimate resolution of that grand story).
Since believers are people who participate in this conflict on the side of God’s life, light, love, and truth, this vision entails some sense in which the life of the believer is characterized as participation in victory. This vision is theological-ethical because John consistently upholds the belief that there is a way of life appropriate for victors characterized by the radiance of God’s love, the love that Jesus exemplifies, and the love that the abiding Spirit teaches, which the members of the victorious community share with one another (John 14:15–26; 15:7–17; 17:23–26; 1 John 2:29–3:3; 3:14–24; 4:7–5:5). The general lack of specific ethical instructions comports with this participatory vision because John is essentially relying on pointing to Jesus as the one who defines our way of life. These general statements thus serve as evocative cues to call the members of the community into ever-deeper participation in the foundational story of Jesus.
Participatory victory is thus a means of expressing union with the victorious, risen Christ. It crystallizes the vision of a life characterized by light (another way of describing what is described by “holiness”), love, and truth that means conformity to God in Christ. It characterizes the believer’s life now in anticipation of completing the victory in the eschatological resurrection when they are fully conformed to Christ’s resurrection in victory. This fits with how believers already have everlasting life, yet they also await the time in which that everlasting life will be consummated when believers are fully conformed to Christ’s resurrection. Everlasting life is the gift of God’s life, so this life is itself the principle of our participatory union, being made possible by the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. In turn, the presence of the Holy Spirit in us is a dispensation of God that is a consequence of Jesus’s death, resurrection, and exaltation, per the Gospel according to John, as well as Acts (see here and here, among others).
That outlines the basic relationship of resurrection and participatory victory. What remains is to explore the implicit references to resurrection throughout 1 John. It is to that which I now turn, beginning with the prologue.