Eternal Life anyone?
The number 1 question every human on the planet asks, “Is there life after death?” The number 2 question every human on the planet asks, “If there is life after my flesh dies, how can I be assured I will receive eternal life?”
What a concept, the idea of living forever. Honestly, this was one of my biggest fears. Think about it for a second, living F-O-R-E-V-E-R… truly my brain pops when ever I begin to meditate on this reality. We are eternal beings with no end. In High School I would lay in bed saying, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, forever, and so on… and when I got to the end of saying forever I would make myself say it one more time. Then I would have to say it another time and another and another. You get the idea. At a certain point I stopped and was totally freaked out!!
What am I going to do forever? Why can’t we simply cease to exist similar to the way things were before we were created? Nothingness. Keep in mind this is me, in high school and a believer in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Living forever in Heaven, freaked me out. Heaven is suppose to be…well, Heaven! Awesome! Amazing! Jesus – Creator of Heaven and earth, community, feasting, glory upon glory, joy upon joy, love upon love, no tears, no sorrow, no pain, no suffering, total life and the list goes on. Then the more terrifying reality of eternity sets in, Hell. I can’t even comprehend what Hell would be like FOREVER?? Hell is a place of permanent torment, eternal burning, no light, no friendships, no family, no love, no compassion, no Jesus, unceasing agony forever, and ever and ever. That scares me even more!!!!!
My views on Heaven today are different than they were years ago in High School, as I’ve read the Bible, gained a bit more understanding and grown in relationship to Jesus through the Holy Spirit. I’m now very excited to exist forever with Jesus. My gratitude has tremendously INCREASED! What Jesus did for all of humanity on the cross, dieing and rising again after 3 days – defeating death and sins grip on humanity is truly too good to be true. Except. IT’S TRUE!!! ALL OF IT!!! This story is the believable story. This isn’t a fairy tale. This isn’t an old fable. This isn’t Disney fantasy, thank God! This isn’t a story about the fake fat man in a red suit or a funny bunny. This is the story of the Creator’s RADICAL love affair with His most treasured creation: humanity – the only thing in Heaven and earth made in His image. Wow!
The Bible is the most verifiable, historically accurate, powerful and best romance novel on the planet. It is the TRUTH. It is LIFE. It is the way of LOVE. If you happen to be one of those people who at this point in your life believes otherwise, please be the first to disprove the text. Many people have attempted to discredit/invalidate the Bible and typically such a journey only leads one to faith in the words contained in this book.
So what does entering the Kingdom of God and Eternal Life look like?
You must be “born” again:
[Jhn 3:3-6 NKJV] 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
What God did for us:
[Jhn 3:16-23 NKJV] 16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” 22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized.
Keep in mind, no other man or religion on the planet make such claims. Every other religion is filled with man earning his way to a distant god through “good works.” The Bible is the only doctrine or belief system that reveals a “relational” God of love, who comes down to man and offers eternal life through His mercy, grace and love. He moves towards us first, not us moving towards Him. Such amazing grace. We simply need to believe? What a deal! Yes, please!
What’s it take to be saved?
[Act 4:10-12 NKJV] 10 “let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 “This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
[Rom 10:8-11, 13 NKJV] 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” … 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.“
The Bible is clear. There are two types of baptism, once we become a believer in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the water baptism by John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit baptism of Jesus Christ.
Water Baptism:
36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”
37 Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”
And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”[c]
38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. Acts 8:36-39
Water baptism is the baptism of repentance of our sins. Repentance means to simply change one’s mind regarding what one believes. We change our mind all the time in life. Think about how you liked one flavor of ice cream more than another and then changed your favorite flavor to another flavor. The ice cream flavors are simply one example out of several occurring in our lives regularly of how “repentance” takes place daily for each of us. It’s the same idea regarding Jesus. We need to change our thoughts daily about Jesus and sin, aligning with the words in the Bible. As we read the Bible, we grow in understanding of how to love God and love people.
Water baptism is the expression of dieing to our old self and being raised into the life of Jesus. It’s admitting that “I” the individual has sinned and “I” need Jesus to cover me by His blood to the resurrection life He alone can offer. It’s actually, very simple. We simply tend to over complicate things. Simply confess, believe and be baptized. Boom! Welcome to eternal life in Christ! Your name is then written in the Book of Life.
Holy Spirit Baptism:
[Luk 3:16 NKJV] 16 John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the “Holy Spirit and fire.”
[Act 2:1-4 NKJV] 1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and [one] sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit AND began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Notice the comment about “fire.” In Luke we see 2 things are required to fulfill the baptism of Jesus, Holy Spirit AND fire. Now look at Acts, tongues of fire. This is a spiritual type of fire and is not referring to fire in your fire place that could physically burn or harm you. Tongues is the evidence of the baptism. You’ll learn more as you read the following Scripture in Acts 19. Tongues are the evidence of the spiritual fire taking place within the individual.
[Act 19:1-6 NKJV] 1 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples 2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” 5 When they heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, AND they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is where the Living God comes and dwells in you. The Holy Spirit is God on the earth, living in those who have made Jesus Christ their LORD, Savior and Master. God now lives inside of us and we are the Temple, not a building made by the hands of man. Holy Spirit empowers us to overcome sin, temptation, lies, emotions, demonic spirits and more! He is a deposit of the good things to come in Christ Jesus!
Conclusion:
Jesus is the author of life – He created your life.
Jesus died the worst death in all of humanity and rose again to save YOUR soul. He laid His life down and died to save YOU.
Jesus loves you, more than you love yourself.
Confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord of your Life and believe in your heart the Father raised him from the dead. Then find some born again believers in Jesus and get baptized by water and by the Holy Spirit. As you read the Bible, it will now begin to make sense as the Holy Spirit leads you into all truth. Until one makes the “leap” of faith into this new life, the Bible will not make total sense and will remain something more of a historical document. Once the individual believes and is baptized, the Bible will little by little come to life with all kinds of understanding, meaning and purpose. It will feed and water your soul in a way you’ve not yet known.
This is the BEST decision you will ever make!! I promise.
Here’s a prayer you can pray outloud to receive Jesus Christ as your personal LORD and Savior:
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I come to you now in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ. I confess that I am a sinner and that I have sinned against You. I ask You to forgive me for all my sins. I repent for my sins. I choose to follow, obey and accept Your Son Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I believe in my heart that You sent Your Son Jesus Christ to die for my sins on the Cross at Calvary. I believe Your Son was born by the virgin Mary. I believe He was crucified, died and paid the price for all sin on the Cross at Calvary. I believe after 3 days He was raised from the dead, ascended into Heaven and is alive today. I ask You Jesus Christ to be LORD and Savior of every area of my life. I surrender all my life to You Jesus Christ of Nazareth for Your purposes. I receive You now as my LORD and Savior with all my heart. I believe Jesus Christ is now my King, God and LORD of my life. I believe that Jesus Christ is alive in me. I declare that Jesus Christ is LORD of my life.
(Prayer from Christian Word Ministries – christianword.org)
After you have confessed this prayer out loud confess that Jesus Christ is your personal LORD and Savior to someone else. Then seek out getting baptized as soon as possible. The Bible never indicates a need to wait. Get baptized as soon as possible. Read Acts 8:35-39 and Acts 19 about how quickly everyone got baptized.
[Mat 6:33 NKJV] 33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Welcome to eternal life in Christ Jesus.
If you have any additional questions about why you even need eternal life in Jesus, here’s a link to 6 commonly asked questions about the Bible.
http://joshuajolley.com/6-commonly-asked-questions-about-the-bible/