The Door to Eternal Life

John 3:16-18, 33-36 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

Well, week two in our Friday night small group Bible Study group, in our six week of lessons on “Life, Death and Life after Death”. Each of us, without exception, has an appointment with death. It was one of America’s Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, that said: “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world, but is death the end? No! Death can be a door that leads to eternal life. Eternal life is a gift of grace from God through Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:9-10 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

Heart, καρδία in Greek, ‘kardia’ is defined in Strong’s Dictionary of Bile Words as the chief organ of physical life, but translates as man’s entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and the emotional elements. The heart is used figuratively for the hidden springs of personal life: the seat of total depravity, the principle in the center of man’s inward life that defiles all he does; and it is the sphere of Divine influence. The heart represents the true character, but conceals it. It denotes the seat of physical life, moral life and spiritual life. It is the seat of grief, joy, the desires, the affections, the perceptions, the thoughts, the reasoning and understanding, the imagination, the conscience, the intentions, purpose, the will and faith.  

Romans 5:10-12, 21 “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The gospel is the “good news” about Jesus Christ, who can give us salvation through the forgiveness of sins. Sin was paid for and therefore death was conquered. Together, the death of Jesus Christ and His bodily resurrection guarantee that our sins are forgiven in full and there will be a resurrection to eternal life for all who believe by faith. This is good news! But God’s mercy and grace is like “money in the bank”, but it does no good unless you write a check of faith against the account. Trust the Lord. Lord means ownership (literally, subject to the Lord), so in believing, accepting and confess our Redeemer/Savior Jesus Christ is Lord; we are changing ownership of our life.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

There is life beyond death’s door for all who will believe Jesus is the Son of God, the sinless One who paid for our sins in full and thereby broke Satan’s power of death. For the Believer, death is the door to eternal life.

  

1 John 5:11-13 “God has also said that he gave us eternal life and that this life comes to us from his Son. And so, if we have God’s Son, we have this life. But if we don’t have the Son, we don’t have this life. All of you have faith in the Son of God, and I have written to let you know that you have eternal life.

In Christ, Brian