Tuesday, January 11, 2011

God’s Gift Is Eternal Life

God’s Gift Is Eternal Life

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son (1 John 5:11).

For everyone who’s born again, eternal life is not a promise from God that we look forward to Him fulfilling in our lives when we get to heaven, rather, it’s something He’s already given to us FREELY! The Bible says, “…the gift of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23). Notice that it doesn’t say, “a gift from God is eternal life.” Eternal life is not one of the gifts of God; it is the gift of God. It encapsulates all the other gifts of God. When God gives you eternal life, it means you’ve got everything else. This gift of eternal life has been freely given to everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Eternal life is actually the nature of God; the very life of God. That’s the life Jesus brought to the world. He came that we might have life – eternal life – to the full (John 10:10); it’s the transcendent life of glory. If you’re born again, that divine, glorious life of God has supplanted your frail humanity. “But Pastor Chris, how do I know I have eternal life in me, when I can’t feel it in my body?” you might ask.

Well, that’s because eternal life is in your spirit and not your physical body, but the impact of that life is revealed in your physical body. You don’t have to “feel” it in your body first to be conscious that you have eternal life; it’s there in your spirit. That’s why the Apostle John, writing to the Church, stressed the necessity for God’s children to be conscious that they have eternal life: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life…” (1 John 5:3).

This wondrous, incorruptible, miracle-life of God in you can neither be tainted, defiled nor corrupted by sickness, disease, failure, death or the devil! That life in you makes you an associate of the God-kind, being the essence of divinity! It has brought you into fraternity with divinity. The life God has given you is greater than sickness, disease, failure and death; it’s the life that has made you superior to satan!

Confession
I have the miracle-life of God in me. Therefore I am an associate of the God-kind, and a partaker of the divine nature, having been made free of the corrupting influences, decadence and destruction in the world. Today and always, I’m conscious of the transcendent life of glory and victory that God has given me through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Further Study
1 John 5:11-12 MSG
This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 17:3
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Daily Scripture Reading

1 Year Bible Matthew 6:19-7:6
Reading plan Genesis 20-22

2 Year Bible Matthew 4:12-25

Reading Plan Genesis 8

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