Episode Transcript
CONSECRATE
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
HEAR
1 John 5:11–12 (NIV)
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
CONSIDER
Eternal life. What is the meaning of eternal life? Somewhere along the way, eternal became primarily understood as quantitative. It became another way of meaning infinite, or higher than one can count. In other words, we think about eternal life in the same way we think about time.
The highly popular last verse of “Amazing Grace,” which, incidentally, was added to the hymn years after it was composed, makes the point:
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.
See what I mean? We think of eternal life in terms of years and days, which naturally is the only category we can really grasp. Here’s the big problem with this way of thinking. It tends to create an unfortunate and limited category for eternal life. If we think of it as an extension of time, we will primarily consider it as something that happens after time as we know it ends. There’s life and death and eternal life. Eternal life must mean the extension of our life beyond our death.
At the very least I want both to assure you that eternal life means the extension of our life beyond our death, and to stretch your understanding to a much larger and more biblical way of grasping it. This is going to sound deep, but stick with me. It’s important. Time and eternity are two separate yet coexisting realities. Time is not a feature of eternity. The big miracle is that because of Jesus, eternity has inserted itself into the realm of time. (I know, that’s a deep thought. But you’re smart. Hang with me.)
The Bible talks about life in three epochs: First, the creation. Second, the fall from grace, which inaugurated “the present evil age” (Galatians 1:4). And third, “the age to come” (Matthew 12:32; Mark 10:30 et al.). Here’s the kicker. The age to come was inaugurated with the coming of Jesus Christ. He was and is the eternal life. Think back through his life on earth and all the ways he reversed the agendas of sin and death. Jesus’ life was one massive takedown of death—right up to the present day.
In fact, remember the opening of 1 John with me: “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” (1:2).
You see, death is not something that happens to us when we die. It’s something we carry around in our bodies that finally takes us down. Death is the disease we are born with and the one that will eventually kill us. It’s why the great quest of all human history, from the search for the fountain of youth to time travel to the revolutionary new juice diets, has been to find a cure for death. The best we’ve been able to manage is to extend our life expectancy by a few decades. Why all this? Because in the deepest place of our soul, we remember Eden. We know that we know that we know we are not created for death. We are created for life, and not only endless life but eternal life.
In the midst of this present evil age, death seems to win. This is why the resurrection from the dead was such a long-anticipated sign for God’s people. The resurrection from the dead would signify the defeat of death and the beginning of the age to come. The age to come is nothing short of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. With the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit, the age to come has broken in on the present evil age.
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Eternal life is not the portion of life that begins after we die. No, eternal life is the person of Jesus Christ. Eternal life means the restoration of human beings to God’s original intentions—in other words, making us like Jesus Christ. Eternal life is a qualitative change, one dimension of which is the end of thinking about time as a quantitative reality. Eternal life is the infusion of the very life of God into a human person. It has a durable nature of an unending quality. It’s why one of the church’s most ancient songs says, “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen” (“Glory Be to the Father,” a.k.a. “Gloria Patri”).
Folks, we won’t be there ten thousand years, as the song goes—because no one will be counting!
According to today’s text, this life is given exclusively in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, and extended inclusively to all who believe and receive it. That’s the gospel.
PRAY
Lord Jesus, you are eternal life and to know you is to know eternal life. Help me grasp the truth that eternal life cannot be measured in days and years, that it is not something that happens after death. Come, Holy Spirit, and lead me into the reality of eternal life now. I pray in your name, Jesus. Amen.
