Forever Life! - Pt 1

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:16-18 ESV).

We are a people obsessed with “forever.” The Tumulus of Bougon or Necropolis of Bougon is a group of five Neolithic barrows located in Bougon near La-Mothe-Saint-Héray, between Exoudon and Pamproux in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. This group of five mounds is a burial ground that was built in 4800 BC; they were rediscovered in 1840 and have spiked the interest of archaeologists and anthropologists since then. They also represent the oldest man-made structure known in the world, over two thousand years older than the Pyramids of Giza. Going from the ancient to the future we find the 10,000 Year Clock. It is interesting to note that the 10,000 Year Clock, which is the brainchild of inventor Danny Hillis, was dreamed up in 1986 as a way to encourage people to think about humanity’s distant future. After spending a decade designing the clock, Hillis and the San Francisco-based Long Now Foundation he co-founded are building and installing it within the Sierra Diablo of West Texas. The land is owned by Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, who has invested $42 million in the project thus far. Combined with the words of Jesus in our reading today, I am compelled to think a bit about “forever” over the next few days. So, what I hope to do is walk us through the stages of eternal life. I encourage you to think about where are you in these stages, as well as what your experience of eternal life really is today. The first stage is being “in Christ.” Eternal life is in Christ. Eternal life is first and foremost the life of the Son of God. It is God's life. Therefore it is supernatural. It is not something we have by nature. If we get it, we get it as a gift (cf. John 17:2; 10:28) and as a supernatural act above what we can manufacture. Eternal life is Christ's life. "In him was life, and that life was the light of men." Being “in Christ” places us qualitatively into the heart of forever. The quantity is immeasurable and therefore unable to be grasped by our minds. That also becomes the root of the value of this gift of God. There is nothing to compare to it because it simply stands apart from everything else other than God. That is our beginning. Have you begun?