Have you ever thought about what eternal life is? I mean, have you actually tried to define it? Usually, what I came up with was pretty straightforward. Eternal life is to live forever. You know, life without end. But, after digging a little I found something that was a bit surprising…
Of all the times in Scripture where the phrase “eternal life” is used, I discovered that statement is where we have what comes closest to a definition of eternal life. If there’s a better one, I don’t know it. “Now this is eternal life: that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Whatever we might understand “eternal life” to be, John the narrator, wants us to think of it in relational terms. Forget duration of time or quality of life for a moment and think with John of eternal life relationally. Eternal life is not knowing information, or even having the correct belief system, as good as either of those things may be. Eternal life is found in knowing someone.
Eternal life is knowing God, not just information about God. It is knowing Him, which is, being in relationship with Him. Eternal life is the relationship. If you are in relationship with God, then you have eternal life.
But this statement also brings into focus the root of humanity’s problem.
It is not: We are living the wrong way. That’s just a symptom.
It is not: We believe the wrong things or don’t believe enough of the right things. That’s just blindness. It too is a symptom.
Our problem is: We don’t know God.
Our hearts have been captured, our minds deceived, and our lives destroyed. By not knowing the God who made us, we have fallen in love with someone else. This is death; a separation from the Source of our life, which is a blind, broken, and twisted form of existence. So then, in our brokenness of not knowing the most wonderful Being of all, we have looked, even searched, for a god to replace Him. And we have found hundreds of thousands. I would submit that all are the product of our fallen imaginations.
So… If eternal life is a relationship with God….
- Why do we reduce it to formulas?
- Why do we talk about it like it’s a packaged, ready to sell, life insurance policy?
- Why do we treat it as a thing?
- Why do we try and systematize it into doctrines?
Maybe, just maybe, eternal life is better than we ever dared to dream.
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Part 2: Transaction or Relationship?
John MacMurray
Founder of Open Table Conferences
"God is relationship. There is something deeper in his essence as Father, Son, and Spirit than just doing the morally right thing all the time. They are completely, head over heels, in love with each other. And it is out of that relationship, from which everything flows, we find the reason for his creating of you and me. God loves in freedom because that is the way he is. There is no other way of being for him."
The Forgotten Virtue
I know a small group of men who meet every 6-8 weeks to express and discuss those things that are important in their lives. They call the meeting The Gathering Fire. Moments like these are rich with laughter and friendship. Yet the conversation
This is the Incarnation
Christmas Eve 2016…
Our family is home together this Christmas… and that is a gift.
We hosted many good and dear friends for a wonderful party last night and it too was a gift.
Tomorrow, Christmas Day, we will enjoy the tradition of giving and receiving gifts; which is both fun and precious.
Upside Down Commitment
Ever hear the phrase, “You need to commit your life to Christ”?
I have… used to hear it and say it all the time. It was the prescription for spiritual health.
Struggling with anxiety? You need to commit your life to Christ. Emotionally gutted because of betrayal or treachery? You need to commit your life to Christ. Not sure where you will go when you die? You need to commit your life to Christ.
So often did I hear this idea it seemed it was a mantra of some kind. I think I get what those who used (and maybe still do) the expression were trying to convey – We need to trust in Jesus.
True enough.