Tag Archives: eternal life

Who Do You Love?

July 30, 2015Bible Studycommandments, eternal life, follow, inherit, sellLuella Campbell

WHO DO YOU LOVE?

As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good – except God alone. You know the commandments: you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’

‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these things I have kept since I was a boy.’ Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ He said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth (Mark 10: 17-22).

We know this story so well, don’t we? And we judge the rich man for throwing away an opportunity to have eternal life.

Around Jesus were twelve men who had given up everything to follow Him. When He called them, they walked away from the old lives and started a new life with Him. I’m sure there was no doubt about the sincerity of this young man. Whatever he understood by the term, “eternal life”, he wanted it. Don’t we all? No one wants to go to the grave not knowing where he is going.

There are many theories and beliefs about the afterlife depending on the religion a person subscribes to – oblivion for the atheist, nirvana, purgatory, all the sensual pleasure you want, and so one. This man wanted the security of knowing that he possessed eternal life so that he could get on with enjoying his life of wealth and ease. Perhaps he imagined that one noble action would provide him with that security.

His so-called “clean” life obviously didn’t give him that assurance. There was still uncertainty and a restlessness in his soul. In spite of assuring Jesus that he had kept the commandments Jesus quoted, something was missing.

Did Jesus use the commandments to stir up guilt in this young man’s conscience? He didn’t question his honesty. “How can you say you have kept the commandments? Don’t you understand that your motives are just as important as your behaviour? You can’t possibly be perfect by obeying the rules. What about the sin in your heart?” He said none of these things because they were not the real issue.

What was the real issue? The real issue was “Who or what do you love?” Jesus did not even mention the greatest commandment, contained in the Shema – the creed a devout Jew would recite several times a day because that was the crux of the matter.

Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deut. 6:4-5).

How could He probe the young man’s inner being? His wealth! What about his money? What he did with his money would be a mirror of his heart.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (Matt. 6: 24).

Jesus used a literary device called a chiasm which was used for emphasis. His main point was sandwiched between two statements leading up to the central statement. It would look like this:

No one can serve two masters.
Either you will hate the one and serve the other or

B1.You will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

A1.You cannot serve both God and money

Points A and A1 are saying the same thing. Points B and B1 are the central and most important statement.

Jesus put His finger on the one thing, the most important thing he lacked – love for God. What he did with his money was the clue. “Get rid of it!” Jesus told him. “It is the one thing that stands between you and me.” In a bold statement Jesus told him, “Follow me, and I will take you to the Father.”

The young man walked away and that response to Jesus’ invitation said it all. What about you? What comes between you and loving God with all your heart, soul and strength?

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Intolerant But True!

September 25, 2014Bible Studyabove, believes, earth, eternal life, rejects, wrathLuella Campbell

INTOLERANT BUT TRUE!

“The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what He has seen and heard, but no one accepts His testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in His hands.

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:31-36.

Whose words are these? Jesus’ words? John the Baptist’s words? The Apostle John’s words?

My guess is that they are a little aside that John wrote to interpret John the Baptist’s defence of his lesser position as the friend of the bridegroom, not the Messiah. Sounds like Jesus, doesn’t it? Again, my guess is that, during John’s years as an intimate friend of Jesus, first as His disciple during His earthly ministry and then as an apostle to the world, he began to think like Jesus.

Over the years of his walk with the Lord, John saw in Him a man, but much more than a mere man. Jesus had spoken about heavenly things with such authority that He must have been there before His sojourn on earth. Unlike other humans who only came into being at their conception, Jesus existed long before His time on earth.

We cannot conceive of anything we have not actually experienced. How can we? No matter how lively an imagination we might have, whatever we conjure up is only fanciful. It has no foundation in fact. Science fiction is only that and only useful for entertainment. Jesus was not into sci-fi; He spoke about reality based on truth. This is the difference between Him and those who have created religious beliefs out of their imagination.

Why is it that people refuse to accept His testimony? The religious leaders clung tenaciously to their ideas and interpretations of the Torah because they believed that they were right. Underneath that was the need to impress the people and to hold onto the power they had over them by setting up and policing the rules they had made around the Torah. Underneath that, however, was something far more sinister and closer to the bone – they were greedy and wicked at heart.

Jesus diagnosed their problem, and the problem of everyone who refuses to believe in Him:

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” John 3:19, 20.

John uncovered another amazing truth about the man, Jesus. It was His anointing by the Holy Spirit that made Him the man He was. Contrary to what we may think, Jesus set aside His deity when He came into the world, and lived and acted only as a man. He steadfastly chose to live in submission to the Father and not use His divine power to do anything.

At His baptism, He was affirmed by the Father and anointed by the Holy Spirit for His role as Messiah. Satan hounded Him to act independently of God but, to His dying breath He chose to be a true Son by trusting and obeying the Father, not doing His own thing. The Father, in turn, entrusted Him with the role of atoning sacrifice, and gave Him the highest name and authority in heaven and on earth.

Unfortunately for those who reject Jesus and declare that Christians are intolerant by insisting that He is the only way to the Father, they will discover in the end that they were wrong. The Bible could not have stated it more clearly:

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

Acknowledgement

Death or Life?

July 22, 2014Bible Studyeternal life, holiness, impurity, slaves, wickednessLuella Campbell

DEATH OR LIFE?

“I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.” Romans 6:19.

Have you noticed the progression in what Paul was saying about our slavery either to sin or to obedience? Slavery to sin sets us on a downward path to unrighteousness which is nothing but purely selfish living, gratifying every whim and fancy of our fleshly nature, dehumanising us until we are fit for nothing else but the trash heap.

Slavery to obedience puts us on another path; this one leads to righteousness, imitating our Master who loved, cared for and served others. Righteousness leads to holiness, to being set apart from sin. The more we care about what God wants above what we want, and the more we obey Him instead of following our own appetites, the more we hate the sin that once enslaved us and enslaves the people who refuse to follow Jesus. We see what it does to them and we pull away from doing what they do.

Obedience to Jesus as our Lord puts us back on the path to becoming human again, and we become more alive to God and less alive to sin and to what the people in the world do. We have the assurance that God will complete the job of perfecting us in holiness and giving us the gift of everlasting life.

“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at the time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you receive leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:20-23.

When we serve sin, we earn wages – like an employee working for an employer. If we have never received the new life Jesus offers us by accepting His forgiveness and turning our lives over to Him, we have to serve sin because sin is our master and because we are bound to it as slaves. We earn the wages that sin pays, death, and there is nothing we can do about it.

But eternal life isn’t like that. It is God’s free gift to us. We cannot work for it; we can do nothing to earn it; no amount of effort can produce it. God freely gives it to us when we respond to His invitation to receive it by receiving His Son and becoming God’s son or daughter. Once we have received His gift, it us up to us to respond in faith and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit who has taken up residence in our spirit and who leads and prompts us to follow Jesus.

Only those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God (Romans 8:14). When we give ourselves to Him to obey Him, we set off on the pathway to becoming fully human again , in other words, towards becoming the people God created in the beginning to be in perfect harmony with Him. God’s intention is to remove all sin so that we can once again be sinless and perfect.

Watch the progression. As we choose to obey God and to become slaves to righteousness, we progress towards holiness – separated from sin to God – and holiness will eventually lead us to eternal life. Sin leads to death. Obedience leads to life. The gift of eternal life is already ours but we must possess it by following the path to eternal life.

And so our participation in eternal life is a co-operative venture. It is impossible for us to possess it by our own efforts but, at the same time, we cannot just sit back and float towards our future. It is through trust in God and obedience to the promptings of His Spirit that we progress towards holiness and take hold of eternal life.

It begins by recognising that we died with Christ, were raised to new life with Him and are now in Him by His Spirit. It continues by participating with His Spirit by counting ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, progressing towards the possession of eternal life by choosing to do what is right, shunning sin and being perfected as true human beings once again, perfectly united to God once more when Jesus returns.

Which path are you one?

Acknowledgement

Prayer

May 9, 2014Bible Studyeternal life, Father, glorify, know, sonLuella Campbell

PRAYER

“After Jesus had said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him.

“‘Now this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.'” John 17:1-3 NIV.

Jesus prayed…Now this is prayer!

He prayed many times during His earthly life. Few of His prayers were recorded for us. Some were brief, sentence prayers…sometimes He prayed all night…but this is the only time we have a glimpse into the words of His communion with the Father. This was not the agonising, blood-sweating Gethsemane prayer.

This was quiet fellowship with His Abba, pouring out His heartfelt desires before the whirlwind events that were soon to overtake Him. There would be no opportunity then to share His heart with Daddy in the silence of the night. In the presence of the men He loved most in the world, He mouthed His hopes and dreams for them and for those who would follow them in faith and obedience.

What emotions were packed into those words, ‘Father, the hour has come’? The “hour” of His suffering had hung over Him from the moment of His birth. It was His reason for coming. It was the pinnacle of His revelation of the Father’s love to a world that would rather not know. It was the final nail in the coffin of His arch enemy and the enemy of all humanity. Did He shiver with anticipation and dread?

The writer to the Hebrews caught the spirit of this moment: “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2b NIV.

As always, Jesus looked beyond the immediate events to the triumph of God’s final purpose for mankind. “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” We read these words easily enough without understanding the depth of Jesus’ request.

“In the intense pain and suffering I am about to endure; the physical agony of flogging and crucifixion; the emotional pain of rejection, humiliation and betrayal; the searing heat of the devil’s rage against me and the utter abandonment I must face when you, Father, also turn your face away from me, give me the strength to be a perfect reflection of you, your love, mercy and grace, so that the whole world will see you mirrored in me.”

God the Father gave Him, Jesus — this God-man who came from heaven to live the ordinary life of an ordinary human being in a hostile world that hated and rejected Him, and a spiritual realm that fired its entire arsenal of weapons at Him — the authority to give life to all those who believed in Him. Sin had killed them; spiritual death had claimed them and would destroy them forever without His intervention. But they would never rise to new life unless He first died in their place to take the rap for their sin; and His death would accomplish nothing unless He did not deserve it.

“Father glorify your Son…” just four simple words, but a world of desire in them. Once again, Jesus exemplified the heart of a true son. This was not about Him. It was ultimately about the Father…; “that the Son may glorify you.” All He wanted, in this whole cross event, was that the wonder of His Father’s true nature would be revealed to the world.

In one short sentence Jesus forever defined the nature of eternal life — knowing the Father and the Son, because they are one. To know the Son is to know the Father; notice — not know about, but know, implying intimate, personal knowledge and understanding as a husband “knows” his wife. “Adam lay with (knew – yada) his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.” Genesis 4:1 NIV.

That takes time, fellowship, and obedience!

We Choose Our Destiny

March 26, 2014Bible Studyeternal life, judge, save, wordsLuella Campbell

WE CHOOSE OUR DESTINY

“‘If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

“‘There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that His command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.'” John 12:47-50 NIV.

Could Jesus say any more clearly how intimately He related to the Father? His claim to oneness with the Father was spelled out and lived out in everything He said and did.

As human beings and according to the way we humans think, we have the mistaken idea that God will be our accuser when we stand before Him at the end of time. And yet the Bible teaches us that it is the devil, not God who is the accuser. We need to get rid of the notion that God will demand, ‘Why did you do this?’ or ‘Why did you do that?’ Enshrined in His gift of free will is the very judgment our choices will bring by the consequences of our choices.

There is a tendency in us to blame God when the choices we make bring the consequences we don’t like. Is there any logic in the outburst of the young girl, ‘Why did God allow this to happen?’ when her promiscuous behaviour produces either an unwanted pregnancy or worse? Did God tell her to sleep around? Did He force her to go to bed with every man she dates?

And when she decides to get rid of “the products of conception” and then faces the shame, guilt and condemnation of a conscience she cannot silence, is it God’s fault that she feels so bad? Did He tell her to get an abortion? Did He hide the truth from her until the deed was done and then beat her with the consequences?

The difference between God’s way and the devil’s modus operandi is this: God speaks the truth and does not hide the unpleasant consequences of our disobedience. He makes His requirements clear and warns us what will happen if we choose the path of self-will. He offers His grace but we must first make the choice to obey Him.

Satan, on the other hand, makes disobedience appealing. He lures us with self-gratification; he insists that it’s okay to satisfy our fleshly appetites now; he lies about the consequences; he waits until we have transgressed the boundaries and then beats us with condemnation. ‘You stupid fool! Look what you’ve done. You are a wicked person. You don’t deserve to live.’

Those who believe in Jesus can live life one of two ways. It all depends on whether or not we have embraced the truth of God’s word. We can be propelled into the future by our past, ashamed, apologetic, never knowing whether we have done enough to satisfy God’s requirements, acting like a slave who is bound to his master by rules and never able to accept God’s embrace and His affirmation, ‘My son; my daughter.’

On the other hand, we can be drawn into our future by God’s promises — believing the truth of His word and living up to who He says we are. He has cancelled our debt, and the written law with its demands and requirements. He knew we could never keep His law perfectly. He paid our unpayable debt, past, present and future and received us back into His family as greatly blessed, deeply loved and highly favoured sons and daughters.

He gave us the Spirit of sonship. We are no longer slaves but sons. We have all the privileges of sons. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation! No guilt! No shame! No barriers! Every promise we believe and embrace draws us nearer to who we really are.

God has made us responsible for our own judgment. When we stand before Him, what will our lives reveal? Obedience to His word and eternal life or rejection of what He said and an eternity of consequences we brought on ourselves because we thought we knew better?

It’s up to us to decide.

Ebenezer Family Church

HE IS RISEN!