John 17:1-3(NKJV) 1Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He £should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
People go through many things in life. There is a saying, “Life is just so every day.” There is real truth to that. Life is not a TV show that ends in a half hour to an hour with all the loose ends tied up in a tidy package. It is not a two or even three hour movie that leaves you satisfied at the end. It is an everyday proposition with twists and turns, surprises both good and bad and, more than anything else, a sameness that can wear on the best of us.
As Christians, I believe we can and should have the most exciting life of anyone. We have the opportunity to walk with the Lord and follow him as we touch and change the lives of people around us. However, even for us there are still the jobs we may dislike, the daily routine, diapers, dishes, lawns to mow and just plain boring days. There are also crises and challenges that arise in life that we have to face, deal with and live through.
I believe we need to remind ourselves that we have something that others do not. As Christians, we have eternal life. We are going to live forever. Those who do not know Jesus do not have this wonderful gift. They will live forever, but not in the presence of God. They will live forever separated from him. I do not pretend to know the nature of Hell, but I know that Jesus calls it a place of torment and I also know that I am not going
I am fond of pointing out to the people in our church that no matter what your situation may be here on earth, it will not matter in the eternal future. We may be going through great trials here. We may have lost relationships or possessions. We may be dealing with emotional or physical illness. However, in 10,000 years none of that will matter. What will matter is that you were born again by the blood of Jesus Christ. You will not care what kind of car you drove or house you lived in or even if your relationship were all you wanted them to be. will care that you are in heaven and not hell.
I am not talking about an attitude that just accepts the bad in life without complaining. I am talking about an awareness that what we see here is temporary. I fight anything the devil brings against me with the Word of God. I will not simply submit to sickness, poverty or defeat. If I can find in the Bible that something I am suffering in life is covered under my covenant blessing, I resist it with all my might. What I am talking about is an attitude that says, “Devil, all this is temporary anyway. I can resist you as long as it takes to win because I know that I have heaven as my eternal home and nothing you do to me can last forever. So I choose to rejoice in the Lord now, because I will surely rejoice in him later.”
Paul had something to say about this thought as well.
Romans 8:18(NKJV) 18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Prior to this verse Paul tells us that we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. That is why verse 18 is true. Paul knows that something better is coming, so the things he needed to resist here were not all that important. He knew they had an end and what was coming was far greater than anything, either good or bad, that this life could hold.
Eternal life is the point of Christianity. We have wonderful benefits that we can receive by faith while we live on the earth, but eternal life is the point of it all. We receive Jesus as Lord and savior to secure our eternal destiny not improve our temporal life. The improvements here are a benefit of being a covenant partner with God through Jesus and they are the will of God for every believer, but they are not the main thing. Gaining eternal life and transmitting that life to as many as possible is the point.
However, what is eternal life. You might say, “Eternal life is living forever.” It is true that the condition it produces is to live forever in God’s presence and blessing. However, what is eternal life really. In John 17:3 Jesus answers this question very clearly. Eternal life is to know God. Living forever is a result of eternal life, but eternal life itself is to know God.
The word know here is very interesting. It means what you would expect this word to mean. It means to get acquainted with or gain knowledge of someone or something. However, it carries a particular connotation in the Jewish mind. It is the Hebrew idiom for sexual intercourse. God wants you to “know.” Him.
In Matthew 7:23 Jesus is speaking to those who did mighty works in his name, yet still were not allowed to enter heaven. Why were they excluded? He says it is because, “I never knew you.” This is the same word used in John 17. God wants us to “”know him and he wants to “know” us.
There is something happening in our society that, in a strange way, illustrates what I am talking about. There is an increasing trend toward the idea of unattached, casual or recreational sex. The idea is that we are going to join our bodies in sexual contact with no expectation of any further exchange. The only way that I can see this is a desire for intimacy solely for what I can get from the other person. I do not want to give anything beyond that moment. I am primarily concerned with “getting mine.”
That is not the way God designed human sexuality. He intends for it to be the most intimate exchange of knowing another person possible. In Eden, the bible says that Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed. Their nakedness is not just physical. It is the complete exposure of who and what they are to the other person. God designed this to be part of a covenant relationship we call marriage. No one knows me on this earth except my wife. God uses this term for sexual intercourse be cause the physical part of sex is only a small part. The greater part is to know another person spiritually and emotionally. “One night stands” do not do this and that is why the bible is against them.
Eternal life is not about “getting what we need” from God. It is about knowing God and God knowing us. To know God, and to make him known to others, should be the primary motivation of everything we do in life. It should be our most important goal. Everything else should be secondary to knowing God. Knowing God is the essence of eternal life and will have eternal impact. Everything else is temporary and will end with the end of this life.
One other aspect of eternal life is that it is not just a condition; it is a flow of power. “Eternal life” raised Jesus from the dead. According to Romans 6, we are to walk everyday in “newness” of life because of the resurrection of Jesus. This is the same eternal life. The Greek word is “Zoe” which can be defined as life in the absolute sense. It is life with no death in it at all.
Knowing God is what releases this power into our lives. The more I know God, the more I can access the eternal life of God to affect my circumstances. The more I know God the more healing I can experience. The more I know God the more prosperous I will be. The more I know God the stronger and better my relationships will be.
We need eternal life. We need to know God. Thank God that means we live forever and every current problem or situation is temporary. However, eternal life means much more than that.
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