ETERNAL LIFE

ETERNAL LIFE

“As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

John 17:2-3 KJV

Today the lesson is Eternal Life. God’s kind of life. The Life God has in Him. We all know the popular verse from the Bible in John 3:16 that says “ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting (eternal) life.”

We all know this verse, but sometimes we become too familiar with the words in the Bible that there meaning tends to get lost on us. God sent Christ to this Earth for one purpose, and that is ETERNAL LIFE. Jesus Christ died so we could have life. And most of us tend to think eternal life is a matter of the quantity of days. We sing and celebrate this verse and say “ooh what a day it would be in heaven when we die and go and live forever”. We take eternal life as living forever, and in a way that is true because we all will live forever. Both believers and unbelievers will all live forever. Nobody truly dies, the issues is where will you be going to when you die. If you give your life to Christ you’re guaranteed living forever in Heaven, but if you don’t you’ll live forever in punishment with the devil. So we see that Eternal life is a quality of life, not the quantity of life. Eternal life is not only about living forever (even though that’s a benefit of it) eternal life is primarily KNOWING GOD. Just as we can see from the verse in John 17:3. That is the true meaning of eternal life.

Let’s take this verses bit by bit and let the Holy Spirit help us understand this topic.

“As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him”. (JOHN 17:2)

As we can see from this first verse, God gave Jesus Christ “power over all flesh”. He gave him dominion over all things so that He (Jesus) would be the first in all things (Colossians 1:18). God gave Christ power over all flesh so that as a result of His dying on the cross He will give eternal life to everyone who believes in Him because everything has been placed in His power. So he has the power to give life and to take it also (john 10:17-18). Christ is life itself. That attribute of life is who Christ is. He told us that He came so we might have LIFE, and have it more abundantly (john 10:10). So this is telling us in essence that before Christ we have no life in us. And this is not talking about physical life obviously. It was referring to spiritual life. We were dead spiritually before we came to Christ. Spiritual death is as a result of separation from God. Remember I said God is life itself (1 john 1:1-2). So when we were separated from God (because of the barrier of sin) we were dead spiritually. But when we receive Christ we receive a new spirit, the spirit of God. We literally received God’s Spirit at salvation (Romans 8:11). Only He has the ability to give life. As a result of receiving His spirit and the spirit in dwelling us, we now have Life. Eternal life is given to everyone who believes because the one who is life itself and who was given the power over all things has given it to us, as a free gift of receiving and believing him. So for anyone to have real Life you have to first receive Christ. We take too lightly the facts of our salvation. What Christ did on the cross was beyond any human reasoning or comprehension, that death on the cross was a sign of victory over sin & death. God literally took us out of darkness and brought us into light (Colossians 1:13). He freed us from the law of sin and death. There are laws governing every activity in the physical and spiritual realm. On this earth there is the law of sin and death, that is why the popular verse in Romans 6:23 tells us “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” There is a law of sin and death that operates in this world and the spiritual world, the law entails that for sin to be paid for death has to occur, so as a result of our former sinful nature our spiritual death was the outcome, but now we have been given new life through the death of Jesus Christ as the payment for our sins. We have been given a new spirit. We are now working under a new law. The law of the Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:2). So because of the fact that the law of sin and death works in this physical world our physical bodies would die, but also more greater, because of the Law of the Spirit of Life in the spiritual world we will go to live forever with our Lord and saviour because we have His Spirit living in us. To fully understand this don’t just look at this world as being only physical, there is a spiritual side to life. Because we can’t see, touch or feel it doesn’t mean it’s not real. If anything, the spiritual world is more real than this physical world. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit (John 3:5-6). We can’t perceive spiritual realities by our sense knowledge (our eyes, ears and body ultimately), for us to connect with the spiritual world we have to go through our spirits. God is a Spirit and His true worshippers MUST worship Him in spirit and in truth (john 4:23-24).

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (JOHN 17:3)

The true purpose of eternal life is now where most of us miss it. We think Eternal life is about the long life we will have in Heaven. Don’t get me wrong, living forever in Heaven is so great, its even really more than we deserve. It will be a beautiful life, free of any form of sin and death. But ETERNAL LIFE is not just about living forever, the main purpose, the main reason God gave us Eternal life is so that we can know HIM. That is ultimately the sole purpose of our existence on this earth. It is all about relationship with God. I see the whole Bible as the story of God, the history of God and a revelation of His eternal plan and purpose for creation, and the Bible has been pointing us towards one direction. All the lives of the people God used in the Bible has one solid and constant trait and that is there personal relationship with God. Look in the life of the Apostles. One that comes to mind right now is Paul. Paul said “…..and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ...” (Philippians 3:8 KJV). This man was one of the greatest people God used in His time, the man God used to heal so many people, the man God used to raise someone from the dead, the man God used to write more than half of the books in the New Testament. And He said he counts everything (including all this miracles and everything he had experienced and owned in this life) but loss for the knowledge of Christ. He knew the importance of having relationship with God. We all need that intimate personal relationship with God. That is the only way we become victorious in this life and the next. People are always trying to find there “Purpose in Life” and we look to school, our jobs and relationships with fellow people to find our purpose in life, but the ultimate truth is that our purpose and the sole reason for our existence is to have relationship with God. That was why He created us, He didn’t create us only for service. Our service to God is and has to be as a result of our relationship with Him. I think it’s in Dr. Dale Fife’s book titled “The Secret Place” that God revealed to him that we were created to be Human Beings not Human Doings. Let that sink in. We were created for God’s Pleasure (Revelation 4:11). And God’s kind of pleasure is relationship and love with His Children. Seek ye first His kingdom and everything other thing shall be added unto you. It all starts from relationship with God. That is the only way to know God. Even in our normal human relationships it is that way, take for example for you to have a relationship with someone (business, personal or social) you have to first of all know that person and the only way to know that person is to spend time with them. For us to know God we have to spend time in His presence. That is the only way to know him personally and intimately. No one can do that for you, no pastor or parent or whoever can do that for you, you have to seek personally on your own and of your own willingness. God never forces us. Let me just say that we can go to heaven without having this personal relationship with Him, but that would be only to our own disadvantage. We would live a defeated life of sickness and poverty here on earth without that personal relationship with Him. You would live a life of worry and fear, when all along you have God’s Life and boldness in you. Knowing God is knowing who you are in the spirit. And who you are in the Spirit is exactly (molecule for molecule) like His Son Jesus Christ. So in a way knowing God is knowing who God says you are in the spirit. And the only way to find out who you are in the spirit is by His word (THE BIBLE). God’s word is a perfect representation of who we are in the spirit. His word is like a spiritual mirror showing us who we are in the spirit (James 1:23-24). We have to let Him reveal Himself to us through His word. And be not only hearers but doers. That is the difference between a true disciple of God and a person who claims to be a disciple of God. Doing what the word says is very important. And the word of God isn’t just those texts in the Bible, the word of God is the wisdom and understanding coming alive in us of those texts in the Bible. You need to let the Holy Spirit explain and paint a picture for you of what the word of God says. Don’t go by your human understanding of the word, the word of God is spiritual, Jesus said the word of God is “Spirit and Life”. He said “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

(John 6:63)

Jesus is telling us here that our human side doesn’t gain anything when we hear the word, it is our spirits (our hearts, our inner man, the real you) that are being quickened, our spirits are being awakened when we hear the word. So as we hear the word and the Holy spirit gives us understanding our spirits awaken and our minds begin to understand and then in turn our life’s change. It flows from within to come out. It is only when we change the way we see ourselves on the inside that we begin to be transformed outwardly. Paul said in the book of Romans that we should be “transformed by the renewal of our minds”. So it all starts from within.

The book of Hebrews still tells us

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul (our mind, will, emotions & conscience) and spirit (our inner man, our hearts), and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

(Hebrews 4:12 KJV)

The word of God is a living being. It is Spirit and Life. The word of God is God Himself. For the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us (John 1:1-5).

The whole point here is, KNOWING GOD. That is our purpose on earth. Find time every day to connect with Him. Talk with Him as you would with a friend. As you are, come into His presence. Come into that secret place and enjoy the fullness of being a Son and Daughter of God. He who dwells in the secret place of the most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Get into the word of God yourself, set a time if you have to everyday where you go into His presence alone and as you read the word, ask the Holy spirit to give you understanding. He is always willing to help you understand. God is always with Us. But the purpose we’re setting a time is to make it intentional, to make it a commitment. You showing that willingness to come of your own into His presence is showing your love for Him. And Love is the way to the Father. Jesus Christ is the way to the Father. (John 4:6-7, 1 John 4:7-18)