1 John 5:6-12: in context

John draws his testimony about Christ to a sharp point. God has given us eternal life, he writes, and this life is in his Son. And then he states the matter with striking clarity: he who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. Eternal life is not a thing separate from Christ, to be obtained apart from him; it is found in him, in having the Son. To have Christ is to have life; to be without him is to be without it.

John's statement locates eternal life entirely in Christ. Life, real and eternal, is not a possession we secure by our own efforts, or a reward we earn, or something available apart from Christ. It is in the Son; God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. And so the possession of life follows from the possession of Christ: he who has the Son has the life. To have Christ is to have life; the two cannot be separated. And the converse is equally clear: he who does not have the Son does not have the life. Apart from Christ, there is no eternal life; he is not one way among many to it, but the one in whom alone it is found. This clarifies where life is found, and it presses a question about whether we have it. Life is in the Son; to have Christ is to have life. This is both simple and searching. Simple, because life is not a complicated achievement but a matter of having Christ, of belonging to the Son in whom life is found. And searching, because it asks whether we have the Son. I am the life, Jesus says; I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. Life is in him, and having him is having life. This is written, John says, that believing you may have life in his name. This assures those who have Christ, and calls those who do not. To those who have the Son, it is a deep assurance: you have the life, for life is in the Son, and you have him. Not because of your own achievement, but because you have Christ, in whom life is given, you have eternal life. And to those without him, it is a clear call: life is in the Son, and it is found nowhere else; to have life, come to the Son in whom God has given it. He who has the Son has the life. This is the heart of the matter: eternal life is found in Christ, and having him is having it. The question is not whether we have secured life by our own efforts, but whether we have the Son, in whom alone life is given; and to have Christ is to have the life that God has given us in him.

Do I look for life, meaning, and hope in things apart from Christ, or do I grasp that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son, so that he who has the Son has the life and he who does not have the Son does not have it, and can this move me to make sure I have Christ, in whom alone life is found, resting my assurance not on my own achievement but on having the Son, in whom God has given me the life?