11/29/2018
When we have been saved, and have allowed the blood of Jesus Christ to wash us clean, something amazing happens... life, and not just life for a while, but eternal life. The question is, “Do we know what that means?” Do we understand what it is to live eternally? Well, we think we do, but there is much more to it than just existing without an end.
“This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
1 John 5:6-8, 12 ESV
When we believe in Jesus and accept His redeeming blood as our purifying sacrifice, and when we go down in the waters of baptism, then we are purified, and we have become an acceptable vessel, the ground is paved for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and Jesus. Something else comes with these actions within us too... eternal life, but what is that anyway?
“For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Hebrews 9:13-14 ESV
When we receive eternal life we are being given more than just the ability to live forever, we are instilled with the ability to live righteously without change, and are to be as Jesus... by His life He demonstrates our eternity. Listen to the Apostle Paul:
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”
1 Timothy 1:15-16 ESV
When I was a boy I lived in Germany. I was the son of an army officer, and we spent seven years there. As a young American child, I had one great pleasure in my week that I really looked forward to. I loved to go to the movie theater for the Saturday matinee, and watch the cartoons, Flash Gordon serials, and the Adventures of Dick Tracey... they reminded me of home. So my mother would tell me that if I behaved all week she would give me 25 cents for the show. 15 cents for admission and 10 cents for a big bag of popcorn. For a quarter I could spend most of a day watching nonstop movies.
So all week I did my best to behave, and sometimes it meant that my mother had to forgive some pretty egregious wrongdoings, but every Saturday I was handed a quarter, got on my bicycle, and rode off to the movies. Here is my secret... once inside the theater all of my “being good” seemed to melt away. Now, I wasn’t a hoodlum, but when together with all my friends in a loosely monitored environment, we were loud, threw popcorn, ran, and talked through the show. All pretense at being an “Angel” was abandoned.
I tell you this story because some feel that when they have lived a “good” life they will be handed their quarter and sent off to an eternity in the heavenly movie theater where they will be able to eat, drink, and be merry, without repercussion. Eternity with God is not like my childhood trip to the Saturday matinee! Our reward of eternity includes unfailing righteousness, holiness, and the amazing desire to live this way as we serve God. It is the joy, and peace of God unbound in us.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”
John 1:12, 14, 16 ESV
So we go through our lives pursuing righteousness, and living accordingly, to become like Jesus Christ, in order that we can receive the gift of eternal life. Yet, once received, it is not a ticket we get punched at the turnstile of death, and it doesn’t simply allows us admission to heaven... it is realizing the never ending way of the life of Jesus Christ... it is irreversible and unchanging righteousness and holiness. We aren’t given an eternal life, but begin living one instead.
“But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
1 Timothy 6:11-12 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, your Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternity with you. Thank you Holy Father for bringing us into a maturity of faith by which we have become prepared for this amazing gift, a gift which your grace, through Jesus, has made possible. Help us Heavenly Father to grasp the fact that life eternal is more than just not dying, but living without end, bound together with you through Jesus. Strengthen our faith Father, and build us up in our righteousness, so that our lives become more like that of Jesus with each passing day. Hear our prayers as we seek your forgiveness, and dwell within us as we search out your will, and strive to obey it. I praise your name Merciful Father, and yearn for the moment that my eternity with you is realized. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God, that was, and is, and is to come. May your praise be eternally on my tongue, and your glory be upon me. Great are you, and eternal your abode.
Rich Forbes