Announcing the Gospel
3 choices … 1 truth
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This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life — and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us).
1 John 1:1-2 (NET)
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This is quite the statement from John.
It makes you immediately make a judgement about what you will believe from this letter:
Either John is lying or he believes what he’s saying.
There’s no middle ground.
No room for “Jesus was just a good guy, let me tell you about him…”
Instead, John starts off by listing out details we must either accept or reject.
He heard Jesus
He personally saw Jesus
He touched the resurrected Jesus
It changed his life (eternally and here on earth).
I find this to be a great opening to his letter because of all these details.
C.S. Lewis famously talked about how any honest study of Jesus’ life can lead a person to only one of three possible conclusions:
That Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.
He was too radical in what He taught. Too divisive. He left no room for “good teacher.”
I think John is taking a similar tact here.
You can reject John’s eyewitness testimony.
Or you can write him off as losing his mind.
Or you can accept that everything he is about to say is the truth.
But you can’t read through his letter and walk away thinking, “oh, it’s pretty good. Nothing life changing though.”
No room for that thinking here.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2026 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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