Eternal life

Well, we know in the Gospel of John, John says a hundred times, believe, believe, believe.

And the only thing that the unbeliever is called to do is believe in Jesus for eternal life.

So what does he mean here when he says those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation? I will tell you that for a long time, I thought that what that meant was the good there, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, was saying, well, the good is...

believe in Jesus.

All like sheep have turned astray.

And so John Niemela argues that Jesus is saying the same thing Paul says in Romans chapters 2 and 3.

And so verse 24, as I recall John Niemela's presentation at the conference, he who believes in me has eternal life.

Okay, that's one way we can approach Christ, believe in him and have eternal life.

If I break that relationship, then I experience eternal death.

It's crazy, but the pendulum effect is swinging so far the other direction now where nothing is a sin and should we all go to heaven anyway? That really risks eternal life.

It risks heaven.

Now, it's not about living in fear in the same way that when I go for a drive, I'm not in constant fear of being arrested.

And he's trying to give us every opportunity possible to choose him, to choose life, to choose eternity, to choose heaven, to choose that relationship with him, which changes everything.

So we ask the Lord today, as we gather in prayer, as we gather for this sacrifice of Jesus to the Father, by which you and I are forgiven.

that we can draw daily from his mercy and experience the eternal life that he offers us.

Amen.

The promise over and over and over again in the New Testament is not heaven.

It's eternal life.

An eternal life is what you get after the resurrection, right? The promise is living forever.

The promise is not some kind of different place that you're looking forward to.

It's the fact that you will be raised to new life and you will not die again.

That's the promise.

And this is one of the reasons why when you're talking about sanctification, why, if you say, like most Christians would, okay, yeah, justification, like obviously, like God does that, and glorification, obviously God does that, but there's this middle part that I chip in a little bit.

Well, all three of these are actually tied directly to this promise of eternal life.

favours.

I'll go to the New King James just because that's another one that's easy to... to do this with i went a bit too far there yeah so so this is um luke chapter 23 and verse 43 and this is this is a matter of debate i guess amongst christians that when we read this passage jesus is assuring him of eternal life that would you say that that's the case he's giving him assurance That this man is going to have eternal life.

Yes.

He's going to be with him in paradise.

even though you're going to die, you have that gift of life.

And that's the wonderful thing.

And I can reflect back on what in the story of Lazarus in particular, in John chapter 11, Jesus says, even though someone dies, they still have life because they've got the life that I have given them, that eternal life.

And that is what Jesus is promising here on that cross.

Your future is secure.

No matter what happens to you here on earth, nothing can shake your eternal life with me.

And this power over demons is just one of the many perks of that relationship.

He knows this message is going to be important for them because things aren't going to be easy for them after he dies.

Every single time this word is used in scripture, it's related to a relationship with God and life in his kingdom.

That definitely calls for a hokey pokey.

As he continues talking, a lawyer who is probably a Pharisee asks him how to get this eternal life he keeps mentioning.

One important side note, in general, the rules the Pharisees add to God's law often focus on personal details like hand washing while freeing them up from God's laws related to loving others.