Think this one through:
Nothing, including no ONE, is forever……EXCEPT FOREVER, and those who receive His provision to enter into His forever life. (John 1:12 “But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—” AND John 3:16 “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([a]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.”)
Before I dive off into these thoughts let me toss another fact found in scripture so we can circle back and tie them together and bring into our lives. Here is something that sounds arrogant on the face of it, but since it comes from Scripture, it requires some serious consideration.
I Corinthians 12:12-16 “12 Now we have not received the spirit [that belongs to] the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God, [given to us] that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts [of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly] bestowed on us by God. 13 And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language [to those who possess the Holy Spirit]. 14 But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.
15 But the spiritual man tries all things [he [g]examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things], yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one [he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into him].
16 For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.”
It is almost universally understood that ‘everlasting life’, known also as ‘eternal life’, makes reference to ‘without ending’. It is quantified in terms of LENGTH of life FROM a particular point in time – like now. While that may be true in our perspective of ‘from now on’ it completely ignores the other direction. In order for something to be ‘eternal’ or ‘everlasting’ or ‘forever’ we are driven to investigate the issue of ‘origin’. Such is the ‘stuff’ of science but that discipline is limited to investigating ONLY those things they can verify in and by physical means. Getting to the real point of beginning (origins) all seems to bog down at some point. For instance, there is this ‘big bang’ idea that is taught as ‘theory’ to postulate something plausible. So this huge explosion occurs and over time – you guessed it – ‘the earth cooled’. From that theoretical hypothesis we attempt to bring things forward to our day. Baloney. Phooey. Poppycock. Bull……. well, you get the idea as to what I think of that theory. Why? It is simple. I’m an old white Christian guy that believes the Bible that right out of the box debunks that theory – first, VERY first declaration made is “In the beginning God…” Nowhere in Scripture do we find any explanation – not even a reference – of the beginning (origin) of God.
Here is a discovery from His Word that utterly amazes me. ETERNAL life (existence) is the EXCLUSIVE domain of God alone. Now, follow me here. Mr. Eternal Life (sorry if that isn’t the pronoun you would use but it is consistent with Scripture) presents Himself as the lone point of origin for anything, everything, anyone, everyone and all that is necessary to sustain it all. To put it another way: ALL things in, and on, earth have their (our) beginning from HIM WHO HAS NO beginning! With me so far?
When God began man (made man), He made man in His own image – with the LIFE of God coursing through his (man’s) veins. Adam and Eve were alive with the LIFE of God. God ‘fashioned’ or ‘made a mold’ of Adam’s earthy frame and then infused him (them) with His own breath. I refer you to Genesis 2:7 but contrast that with Genesis 1:30. In the latter reference God refers to animals ‘in whom is the breath of life’. Breath is God’s provision to sustain the life of the body. God’s breath imparted to Adam was the literal infusion of His Spirit. Adam and Eve had a physical beginning but because they were made both spirit and physical, the life in their spirit was God – in them.
We need to know something about our ‘spirit’ man. The spirit of man will exist ‘forever’. The spirit of Adam and Eve was alive with the LIFE of God. However, when they rebelled against their relationship with God and His life in them, they forfeited LIFE in their spirit – but did not forfeit ‘existence’. Stay with me here – when Adam and Eve disregarded God’s Word to them that there was a fruit in the garden they should NOT eat because death was in that fruit, they IGNORED His warning. In essence, they chose NOT to believe they would die. Yet, the moment they ate of that fruit it broke their LIFE connection with God and their spirit man suffered a severance from God’s Spirit. The life left to them was no longer eternal but finite. Not only was THEIR spirit affected by this ‘disconnect’, so was EVERY human born thereafter because we ALL came from Adam and Eve. The effect of this disconnect was manifest also in every thing within Adam’s dominion (responsibility).
Out of the Father’s love, Jesus is God’s GOOD NEWS for all the world to hear – and embrace – and share. Those verses in John 1 leading up to verse 12 ties Jesus to the God of the beginning. Again, it starts ‘In the beginning’ and John declares ‘in the beginning was the Word – the Word WAS WITH God – the Word WAS GOD – the Word became flesh (JESUS)’. Jesus had a beginning – as a man. Jesus had no beginning – as the Word Who became flesh and dwelt among us. This is the same Jesus the Apostle Paul declares (under inspiration of Holy Spirit) as the SECOND MAN and the LAST ADAM. It is this Jesus Whom we are to receive. And by receiving Him it moves us into God’s family of ‘children’. Link this vital relationship with Jesus together with the fact that ‘God so loved the world He GAVE HIS only begotten Son’ to mitigate the fact our spirit is dead, and we have to conclude: God – through Jesus – is our path to being restored to our connection with the LIFE of God. Once again, the result is we ‘exist’ in a finite physical body but in our human spirit we are connected to LIFE that is eternal. God is the EXCLUSIVE LIFE source with no beginning. The LIFE we received when we received Jesus is not just long lasting. And it is NOT that we can now claim to have no beginning. What we must conclude is the LIFE that has restored our spirit is LIFE without end – nor beginning. It is a quality of life non-existent and unavailable ANYWHERE ELSE.
The ‘breath of LIFE’ given Adam was severed from his spirit through the disregard of that Word from God. It was not until Jesus’ manifestation (the Word became flesh and DWELT among us) that the ‘breath of LIFE’ was restored to man. The initial restoration is chronicled in the book of John (20:22) “22 And having said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit!” After Jesus Ascension the disciples did as commanded, they ‘waited’ on an anticipated arrival of His Spirit to descend on them. That phenomenon is preserved for us in the book of Acts, chapter 2. Please read that account. What is clear from that experience at Pentecost is that God has fully instituted a NEW covenant wherein and whereby He, personally, sets up residence in the spirit man of each believer. I do not have the vocabulary to explain it where an uninitiated person can understand it. Reminds me of a T-shirt I have which says, “I can explain it to you but I can’t understand it for you.” But any person who has repented of ‘fixing’ their own life mistakes (sins) and turned to Jesus to change them can testify to this fact. Immediately a change takes place and we discover that experience brought with it new perspectives of just about everything having to do with our life. We, thereby, attest to this ‘breath of life’ residing and presiding in our lives. That is not to say we choose to conduct our lives in submission to His Spirit. It IS to say when we transgress Jesus’ Word(s) to us that something inside rises up within us. What ‘rises up’ in us is this strong desire to be in compliance (right standing) with God’s Spirit in us.
Now we enter into arenas where we confront ideas, ideologies and hypothetical theorists who completely ignore the only true origin of life that exists. Paul exposes these postulations as originating in the ‘non-spiritual mind’ and Paul claims for himself, AND for us as fellow recipients of God’s Holy Spirit. the high ground of having the advantage of being ALIVE. The spiritual (LIFE connected) man understands the non-spiritual (LIFE DISconnected) man, but the non-spiritual man doesn’t have a clue what makes the spiritual man ‘tick’.
Is it really that important to understand the full ramifications of ‘eternal life’? If we really value the true knowledge of our origins it matters. If we connect our origins with how it affects our perception of our identity here and now it matters a great deal. One thing it will clear up for us is that we are not in need of a savior to save us from our misbehavior. We will recognize we behave from the reservoir of our ‘origin’. And each of us originate from Adam and Eve. Because of that we are, originally, lifeless where it really counts. It is not our body that will exist forever. It is not our soul that will exist forever. It is our spirit that will exist forever. Our spirit will exist forever either in a state of LIFE or a state of DEATH.
Now, here is where the final benefit comes in the matter of understanding the quality of LIFE we possess as Christ followers: Our existence in/on earth in the context of this physical life is meant to be a spiritual existence where we SEE, and we EXPERIENCE LIFE. This happens as we live out of the resources of His Holy Spirit in union with our spirit. And the gospel of John, once again, reveals the grave importance of our relationship with ‘the Word Who became flesh‘. Jesus is quoted in John 8:51 declaring this important truth: “ I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone observes My teaching [lives in accordance with My message, keeps My word], he will by no means ever see and experience death.”
My final assertion is that when we live out of the resources of this LIFE connection, our perspectives are dominated by His perspectives. We see what He sees because we have His mind on all matters. We experience the LIFE afforded us in this connection and we maintain our connection with ‘eternal LIFE’ through our hearing, our believing and our adhering to His Word(s). One last quote from John 6:63 “It is the Spirit Who gives life [He is the Life-giver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it]. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life.” LIFE comes from Holy Spirit, the giver (originator) of LIFE. All other resources for life are temporal, physical life. It is called ‘the flesh’. ‘The flesh’ has its’ origins in Adam and Eve. ‘The flesh’ is dead on arrival. ‘The flesh’ does not respond to the environment of life, only death. ‘The flesh’ does not produce life (righteousness) and is limited to producing only death. ‘The flesh’ is a death existence. You can “live” (exist) there if you so choose. OR, there is a choice before us all to abandon ‘the flesh’ as a source for our existence and we can move over to entering a LIFE connection – living within the resources of His life that has no beginning nor ending. It is HIS LIFE that originates a life for us that SEES what He sees and EXPERIENCES what He experiences. If you find a better visual for ‘abundant life’ please let me know.
I leave you with this last observation. As His disciples – His LIFE ambassadors to a dead and dying humanity – we are ‘on mission’ to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ in this realm of spirit beings made alive by the ‘breath’ of God. While much emphasis is placed on ‘preaching’ (proclaiming) His Word we miss something important. Only a small number among us are ‘called’ and ‘anointed’ to preach His Word. What makes His Church effective in ‘being fruitful and multiplying’ is when we allow His Spirit expression. That requires a transparency in our lives. Many of us hunger for something we call ‘revival’. In living my 81 plus years on the planet I have personally observed what we term as ‘revival’ and this ‘transparency’ is what attracts.
I’m not going to take on the ominous task of defining what is and is not ‘revival’. But I will share that every time I have been close to it there is one common thread. People break any façade they have erected and allow Holy Spirit access to be them in front of everyone else. It is this ‘transparency’ factor that is so compelling that draws attention like nothing else. And when people come to see this ‘burning bush‘ phenomenon Holy Spirit gains access to their spirit as well. VOILA! There is FRUIT! There is MULTIPLICATION! The Kingdom is on display and is increased. Maybe – perhaps probably – miracles and signs and wonders will initially get the attention of people that God is walking among us. But the overwhelming desire to be part of it comes when someone I can identify with displays their new found disdain with living out of their own resources and the power of God shows up in them changing them from inside their spirit. It is when ‘the breath of life‘ manifests.
In the book of Acts we see the beginning of a phenomenon known as ‘the Baptism of the Holy Spirit’ being imparted by ‘the laying on of hands’. That is another subject for another day, but it brings up a fact we need to understand. Only GOD (the Word become flesh) imparts LIFE by ‘breathing on them’. It happens every time a person recognizes their need of a savior and that they must yield to HIM as THE Lord. God supernaturally breathes Holy Spirit life on, and in, them. When Jesus ‘breathed on them’ and they received the Spirit it was not the first time his breath was near enough to come on them. This was a special, intentional ‘breath’ that bore the fruit He intended. Your vulnerability, and mine, of being transparent in the way we live will, upon occasion, go directly to someone on whom He intends to ‘breathe‘. Father, I LOVE living this LIFE with YOU!