The Feast of Eternal life

The beauty of Eternal life is that it was given to the believer right the moment they gave their life to Jesus Christ

At the very point of entry into Zion, the password was Eternal life

It is not a life we will get after we die or a life we will get a few years after we have come to know the Lord

Eternal life is the gift we receive the moment we believe in Jesus Christ

So when some believers talk about the heavenly race, and I have heard many pastors and teachers of the gospel talk about eternal life, they talk about it using the wrong scriptures, and as a result, they put the cart before the horse

I once read a tract in which the preacher quoted Ezekiel 18

“But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed, keeps all my decrees, and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die. None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them. Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

“But if a righteous person turns from their righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked person does, will they live? None of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness they are guilty of, and because of the sins they have committed, they will die. In the preacher's mind, he or she is encouraging Christians not to sin by showing them from the scriptures that the wages of sin are death

The preacher didn't understand the gospel.

Ezekiel didn't even know the gospel.

Ezekiel was quoting the law, and the law does not offer eternal life to anybody

What you have during the time of the law was life and death

The soul that sinneth shall die

This basically means that if someone does something wrong in Israel under the law of Moses, the person will be put to death

Someone who didn't do anything wrong will then live

Sometimes, even the person who didn't do anything wrong will die if it can be proved by witnesses that he did wrong even though he really didn't do anything wrong

Many of us will remember the story of Naboth

1 Kings 21

Sometime later, there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden since it is close to my palace. In exchange, I will give you a better vineyard, or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.”

But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors.”

So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my ancestors.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.

His wife Jezebel asked him, “Why are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?”

He answered her, “Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, ‘Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’”

Jezebel, his wife, said, “Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I’ll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city with him. In those letters, she wrote:

“Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them bring charges that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.”

So, the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them. They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. Then, two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.”

That was all the Law could do

Achan and his family were killed under the law, and the woman caught in Adultery in the days of Jesus was going to be stoned to death under the law

The Old Testament had only biological life and death

The law cannot give life, any form of life, but it can take life as a means of punishing the living who had been deemed to have sinned or missed the mark

The New Testament, however, was very different from the Old Testament,

Jesus came to give the born-again Christian a different kind of reality

A life that is not only abundant but eternal

A life that can never end

This life was given to us as a gift, and this was clearly explained in the book of John 3

Nicodemus was a seasoned teacher of the Old Testament; even Jesus acknowledged this by calling him a teacher of Israel.

This teacher of Israel came to Jesus by night and in secret to find out how to enter the Kingdom of God.

He asked this before nobody in the Old Testament knew how to get eternal life or gain access to the Kingdom of God.

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

John 3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”

4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still, you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things, and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Many Jews till tomorrow still believe there is nothing like eternal life because if they believe in eternal life, they have to believe in the one that brought that eternal life to the world, and they didn't want to do that.

From Abraham to John the Baptist, no prophet or priest knew how to have access or gain access to Eternal life.

They knew from their history that some people like them got this eternal life

They wanted it too, but they didn't know how the criteria by which God chose those people

Enoch got eternal life; he didn't die or go down to Sheol, He didn't die because God took him, and he was given eternal life

Moses got eternal life, but he died and was about to be taken down to Hades when the angel of the Lord ambushed the devil and wrestled Moses' soul from destruction (This was boldly written in the book of Titus)

Elijah got eternal life; the Bible said he was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind in the presence of his protégé, Elisha and some sons of the prophet

They knew there was a life that one could live beyond the physical, a full life of abundance, grace and power, but they didn't know how to get it

Jesus knew they were all searching for it, but they were searching in the wrong place.

They were searching the Torah and the Nakkib, their books, whereas eternal life was a person.

John 5 Testimonies About Jesus

“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.  There is another who testifies in my favour, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

“You have sent it to John, and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony, but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

“I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me.

And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You study[c] the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

To have this eternal life, all we have to do is come to Jesus and believe in Him as Lord and Saviour, and it is automatically given to us as a gift.

It is not earned, and surely you cannot get it by living a Holy life or doing anything religious like fasting or praying, giving gifts to charity, abstaining from sex or getting married...

You cannot lose this life because, by its definition, it is Eternal.  The synonyms of Eternal are hereby listed to those who may be doubtful of what it means: abiding, boundless, constant, continual, continued, enduring, everlasting, immortal, immutable, indestructible, infinite, interminable, lasting, never-ending, perennial, permanent, perpetual, relentless, timeless, unceasing, unending, unremitting.

The most beautiful thing about Eternal life is that it is real, and it was given to the church the moment Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

That was the proof the early church needed, that death was defeated, and the one who defeated death gave to all those who believed in him at the time and those who believed in him later the same power that raised him from the dead.

The Holy Spirit.

This Holy Spirit is the evidence given to every believer that he or she will not only live forever but is already seated with Jesus in heavenly places, far above principalities and powers.

It is this life that guarantees that no believer can ever be lost or "miss heaven."

 

John 14: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Eternal life is the presence of the Father; it is in the Lord Jesus

It is not a life we will get after we die or a life we will get for good behaviour or being morally upstanding

It is a gift, freely given to all those who believe in the son of God.

PS: There is a common language and even songs in the church about the heavenly race, and many who sing this song have a picture in their mind of a race that we run the way sprinters run in the Olympics or any other earthly competition in which the winner takes all and the loser goes home crying

This picture is wrong.

The Heavenly Race is real, but it is a race in which everyone who is screened to participate already believes and has eternal life.

It is not for eternal life that we run

Eternal life is the entry point of the race!

What, then, do we run for?

We run for eternal rewards, not for eternal life.

Every believer who has eternal life must aim to give this life to others who don't have it so that such a person is rescued from death and destruction.

This was the mandate Jesus gave to us.

Our duty is not to tell the world about sin or unrighteousness, but we have a duty to spread the gospel

The gospel is the good news that God is no longer angry with the world and has made a provision for the salvation of all creatures that if they believe in Jesus Christ, the son of God, they will be saved and automatically be given eternal life

Of course, some of us will take this assignment more seriously than others

Some people will not care if another person is saved, and some will only want to save their family members, while others will want to save as many people as they can

To motivate us to do more than sit on our hands in selfishness, eternal rewards were laid before us

Crowns, citations, commendations, acknowledgements, and a lot more

This will be given to us when we appear at the judgment seat of Christ

2 Corinthians 5 10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

(As you can see, even those deemed to have done "bad" will be at this feast and they will be rewarded according to their badness but since they have eternal life, they are forever saved from hell or damnation.

They will cry and weep that day when they see others getting all the crowns and other rewards given to the faithful, but the gift of eternal life is theirs.

Without eternal life, they wouldn't even be in the race at all.

This is why we are celebrating Eternal life this Easter, it is the life we all share and there is no better day than today to celebrate that life that has brought us into the fullness of Christ.

Blessed be God.

 

-GSW-