Forever Life - Pt 5

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:1-3 ESV).

It is essential to recognize that in believing, we have eternal life now, not just in the future. Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life [not "will have" but "has"—now!], and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24). In other words eternal life is not something you wait for until after death. It is something you have now if you are believing in Jesus. Believing is the link that unites us with the life of God in Christ now. If we have Christ, we have his life now. And his life is eternal. And it is a personal relationship now through this eternal life. It is a personal relationship with God the Father and God the Son. Our reading today gives us the direction of this truth. Eternal life is a personal, intimate knowing of God. It is not like an inoculation against the disease of death, that works unconsciously like a spiritual antibiotic. It is a conscious experience of knowing and relating to God. To see why this is true we should connect this with a truth we have examined earlier: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). The life is the light. What does that mean? It means, I believe, that when the eternal life of Christ comes into your life through faith, it sheds light on God and on Christ so you can know them personally. You now can see them far more clearly than you ever could before. You saw them as through a fog before faith. Then God enabled you to see enough to draw you into faith. Now in faith the life comes and with it the lights start to go on everywhere, and the personal reality of God is so powerful that you can know him and relate to him and fellowship with him. Absence does not “make the heart grow fonder.” Absence dims the passion of relationship. God, knowing this, has already made it possible in our forever life to know him intimately now. There are many ways to accomplish this, though the best is through a familiarity with the Scripture. Even a casual reading of the Bible each day will deepen our relationship with Him. Devote yourself to a consistent reading of the Bible. Begin in the Gospel of John if you seem to be intimidated by the sheer length of it. You will find it to be more than enough to open your heart and mind to the person and presence of God.