JUST HOW ETERNAL IS ETERNAL LIFE? Those of us who follow the Way of Jesus, who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior have received what we call Eternal Life. He says in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”. Personally, I had three misconceptions about eternal life: First: I thought that this eternal life only kicks in after you die. The context in which I was taught about this helped reinforce this misconception, until one day when we were going through a discipleship course by Andrew Wommack, where he explained clearly from scriptures that we ALREADY HAVE eternal life. 1 John 5:13 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. NKJV We can see from the above scripture that we already have eternal life as believers, and in fact knowing this is what helps us continue believing. Eternal life doesn’t kick in as the casket goes down! Secondly: I thought about eternal life only in terms of the longevity of it. As in, it must be such a long life! I could never put my finger to what eternal life actually was, apart from the fact that it went on for eons. John 17:3 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. NKJV This scripture shows that eternal life is not just about the longevity but also the QUALITY of life. It’s a life of knowing (intimacy with) Jesus and our Father in heaven. This knowing is not just information about someone, it’s the kind of intimacy that exists between a husband and wife. As is written, “Adam knew his wife Eve and she brought forth a son”. You can bet he wasn’t reading about her! Thirdly: Even though I had the mental consent to the longevity of eternal life, practically I thought (and was taught) that you’re never safe with this eternal life. You can lose it at the slightest contact with sin and you needed to repent (read confess) to get it back. Now that I think about it, this is ridiculous! Shouldn’t there be something eternal about eternal life? If it keeps getting interrupted by my failures and sin, then shouldn’t we find another name for it other than “eternal”? Heb 9:12 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. NKJV Heb 9:15 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. NKJV We see from these two scriptures that Christ’s redeeming work on the cross obtained eternal results. It’s now up to us to believe and receive or to reject this. The writer in the book of Ephesians says the “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”. Redemption is by definition buying back. We were bought back from the slavery of satan and sin. This redemption is hand in glove with forgiveness, so much so that the words can be used interchangeably. He din’t buy us back so that He could mull over whether to forgive us. He did so because He’d forgiven us. That’s why in Ephesians he says we have redemption, the forgiveness… We can see from Heb 9:15 where he talks of the “redemption of the transgressions”. That’s literally the “forgiveness of sins”. Now we see in Heb 9:12&15 that we have both ETERNAL redemption (eternal forgiveness) and ETERNAL inheritance. His death and resurrection not only brought us OUT (redeeming) but also sent us in (INHERITED); and both are ETERNAL. Redemption and inheritance are two sides of the same coin. Both are factors of this incredible thing we call ETERNAL LIFE! By now you may be wondering; how can this be? Doesn’t my sin interrupt this eternal life? Heb 10:14 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. NKJV God’s ways are not our ways. He first calls you PERFECT then He starts the work of sanctifying you, cleansing you, setting you apart. Friend, that; Christ’s one offering, is what makes you perfect, not your attempts at being good. That is what makes ETERNAL LIFE truly ETERNAL. Otherwise we should call it interrupted life! Your thoughts?
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 11:53:27 +0000
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