John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
I think most of us have heard these words of God and some know them by heart believing that Jesus gave his life for ours through His Father’s grace and love for us because he wants to give us eternal life.
This is why we love God with all our heart because he has made a way through his Son that all who place their faith in him will be with them forever.
This should be the common bond we have as the body of Christ that we all treasure above anything this gift of eternal life with God.
It would be false to promise anything other than what the blood of Jesus has done to make us holy to God and justifying us to be righteous with God and not the right to ask for what we want in this world.
It is very important for us to know what it will be like when we receive eternal life so we do not make our own human description of what we want it to be.
Paul teaches what happens to believers who receive eternal life.
2 Corinthians 5: 1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
Our body will die because it is only a temporary tent for our spirit, those who are in Christ will receive a new eternal building from God to house their spirit. This will be our spiritual body like Jesus’ spiritual body.
When we long for this new spiritual body we will no longer want to remain in our body of sinful flesh. The body that Adam and Eve found to be naked with guilt and shame for disobeying God their Father.
Genesis 3: 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Before disobeying God Adam and Eve did see their body as naked only after sinning their eyes were open to see their guilt and shame which led to death, separation from their Father, bringing tears, mourning, crying and pain. But eternal life will give us a new spiritual body no longer naked but free from guilt and shame and all that it suffers.
Revelations 21: 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
The Holy Spirt is our seal guaranteeing our eternal life.
2 Corinthians 5: Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight.
The Holy Spirit is our seal that guarantees our eternal inheritance. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in those who believes in him forever to those who love him as their Lord. This makes us the bride and Jesus in our eternal spiritual union as one with God.
Paul said you can be confident that as soon as your spirit leaves it goes home to be with the Lord and we believe this by faith and not by sight. There must not be any doubt in this promise because without faith you cannot please the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5: 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
When you prefer to be with Jesus your heart wants to please him by having the same heart as him having the same attitude as Jesus which Paul teaches in Philippians 2 becoming a servant of his Father, obeying his will even on to death.
Jesus did not die so his Father would bless us with whatever we want in this world. Jesus said when we seek God’s kingdom first eternal life and then all things good and pleasing to God will be added to us.
2 Corinthians 5: 11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Like Paul we should live our lives in a way the proves to others we fear the Lord and to have pride in other believers you witness living in fear of the Lord which will give you strength and courage knowing because their faith and love like your you all remain steadfast for Jesus as your Lord.
This evidence of living fearfully for Christ, Paul said will testify to those who take pride in what is seen that you fearfully live by faith and hope of receiving eternal life. Believing that Jesus died for the world making it possible for God to sees the world’s sins paid for and only those who believe in Jesus will be resurrected when he returns.
2 Corinthians 5: 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
If you are new creation in Christ, you no longer see others the way the world does you see them the way God see them as people whose sins were paid for by his Son’s broken body and by his blood that covered their sins. We look at Christ like the world when believe that Jesus only died for believers. We need to believe that everyone who are not saved that Jesus stands at the door of their heart knocking and wanting to come in and all they need to do is open the door of their heart and ask Jesus to come in and be their Savior and Lord.
2 Corinthians 5: 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Through Jesus we are reconciled back to our Father. We are at peace with him giving us eternal life. We no longer are his enemy but are his children and as his children we are called to be his Son’s ambassadors that does not count people’s sins against them but offer reconciliation back to God who loves them with the gospel of Jesus and evident by fearfully loving God with our lives.
Be safe in Jesus, your brother in Christ, Glenn.