Is eternal life simply a place you go after you are dead ? Is it a peculiar feeling inside ? The apostle John tells us clearly what it is: " God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; He who does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5: 11, 12.) Jesus Christ and eternal life are synonymous terms; eternal life is none other than Jesus Himself ! If you have eternal life at all, it means that you have Somebody; you have the Son, Jesus Christ, just as He Himself affirmed: " I am the way, the truth, and the life."Eternal life is neither an inward feeling nor an ultimate destination after you are dead. If you are born again, it is the quality of life that you possess right now, at this very moment. Where does this life come from ? Only from Him. He is that life. The life you possess is all of Him, and this is true salvation.
When I got saved at the age of thirty seven, I said in my heart, " Lord Jesus, nobody ever told me this before, that You died in my place. I gladly receive You so that You can forgive me." I knew He had become my Saviour, and I have had that assurance ever since. My salvation is that Christ, having died for me to change my destination when I die, also rose again from the dead to live His life in me and to change my character. His life in me overcomes that old Adamic nature , the carnal mind (or the flesh) that is at enmity with God, which can only abuse, misuse, and prostitute my humanity.
Salvation is so much more than a change of destination from hell to heaven ! The true spiritual content of our gospel is not just heaven one day, but Jesus here and now.In the economy of God, conversion is only an essential preliminary to discipleship, which is a lifetime of allowing Christ to live in you and do His work through you. Your salvation is also a million times more than simply knowing your sins are forgiven. As a forgiven sinner, you are to be reinhabited by your Maker, reinvaded by Deity, so that your humanity becomes intelligently available to an intelligent God for the intelligent purpose for which He intelligently created you.
The Lord Jesus came from heaven to earth not just to get us out of hell and into heaven - though He is the only One who can and does, if we let Him - but to get Himself out of heaven into us. He gave Himself for us to give Himself to us, the gift of His Life, so that we may enjoy a wonderful, personal relationship with Him that never changes, because " Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)
Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. ( John 17: 3 )
Don't miss what God has for you same time next week !
1 comment:
Wow! This has opened up a new line of thought for me. I used to think that 'eternal life' is just what we feel like right now, just without pain and suffering. But perhaps it is something entirely different.
One of the great motivators in this life is 'pending death', so without that we need a new motivation, which is Jesus Christ.
I can see how anyone who does not believe that Jesus is the way would recoil at the thought of such an eternal life, perhaps even claiming to prefer death.
Very interesting indeed.
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