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VOL VI  NO. 11  NOVEMBER 2005

REV. ROBERT KELLEY

 


ETERNAL LIFE!

 

Rev. Robert Kelley is the founder and president of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and pastored the St. Mark Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon at the time this was published.

 

In a recent article, Christianity & Islam: The Same?, I concluded by inviting readers to "Choose to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and live forever!  "It dawned on me then and the Lord has confirmed that even many Christians are not properly taught about what He is offering in eternal life.  In this article therefore, with the Lord´s help I would like to help every interested reader understand what God´s offer of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ is!

 

A Definition Of Life
Webster´s II Dictionary defines life "as the property or quality by which living organisms are distinguished from dead organisms or inanimate matter." Philosophers and religious gurus down through history have offered their definitions too.  But the Bible says, "In the beginning God created…," (Genesis 1:1, NKJV).  Whatever it is fully, life has its origin in a Creator!  There can be no evidence to evaluate or compare concerning what is alive or dead until first there is existence!  According to the Bible, the triune God created everything that exists and gave life to whatever lives.

 

What is life?  Whatever God creates that has some measure of being alive!  God in His infinite knowledge and wisdom has created different levels, states and dimensions of living existence on this physical earth (life has yet to be found anywhere else in the vast physical universe beyond this planet) and in the invisible (to us) spiritual realm.  Everything alive on this planet interacts with the environment to some degree or another.  When God formed man the highest form of life on earth from the dust, He "breathed into His nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being," (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:7, NKJV).

 

Human Life Is More Than Physical
Interestingly, while God a spiritual being (John 4:24) breathed directly into man the breath of life, He did not do this for any of the other oxygen dependent earth creatures.  Could it be that is because man unlike any other earth dwelling creatures, is more than physical life?  Yes!  Indeed, in both the Hebrew and Greek languages according to scholars, the word used for breath is the same as wind and spirit.  God did not breath literal air into Adam´s lungs (though it came flooding in at the moment of life), but He formed a living, eternal spirit within him (Zechariah 12:1b).

 

God then, has made humans of physical flesh, soul and spirit.  Man´s spirit comes directly from God (Numbers 16:22) and returns to Him for disposition as He directs upon death (Ecclesiastes 12:7).  Human bodies cannot live without a spirit (James 2:26).  The body dies when the spirit separates from it; the spirit is dead when it is separated from relation to God!

 

The Source Of Eternal Spiritual Life
When Adam sinned he not only faced the reality that now his body could be killed or decay and die, but his spirit also experienced death.  God withdrew Himself from Adam because being holy, He can have no fellowship with sin.  Separated from God, the fountain of life, Adam and all of his descendents became the walking spiritually dead (Proverbs 14:27).

 

Out of His boundless love for man, God now through Jesus Christ offers willing men spiritual life forever (John 3:16)!  He is the exclusive source of spiritual life to all who believe in Him (John 1:4, 4:10-14, 6:63, 8:12, 11:23-27, 14:6; I John 1:1-3, 5:11-13).  The Lord Jesus spoke concerning his sheep, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly," (John 10:10b).  With this statement the Lord makes clear life in God has qualities about it that far exceed human existence separated from Him.

 

Truly, what kind of life could be superior to the very life of God?  God´s life infuses man´s spirit through the agency of the Holy Spirit who comes to live inside of those who believe in Jesus Christ (John 3:1-8, 14:15-18; Romans 8:6-9).  What is God´s life like?  Jesus said like rivers of living water flowing out of the heart (John 7:38-39)!  Every real Christian can testify to the truth of His words!  The Holy Spirit united with our spirit imparts His life and all of its qualities to our own (Galatians 5:22-23)!

 

Invitation To Eternal Spiritual Life
Jesus Christ came to die on the cross for humanity´s sins so that whoever would believe in Him would no longer have to be separated from the life of God!  If you are not a Christian, you are dead where you sit in your trespasses and sins.  But if you will reach out by faith to Jesus Christ, He will forgive you of your sins, grant you eternal spiritual life now and a brand new immortal body when He returns to earth in glory (John 5:19-30; I Corinthians 15:35-57).  Won´t you live today? 

 

 

 

©2005 Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc