“For God so loved the word that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.”
John 3:16 (NKJV)
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting
life; and he who does not believe the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abides on him.”
John 3:36 (NKJV)
This virus seems to have
highlighted people's natural fear of death. As believers, we don’t look
forward to death but we should not fear it because death is merely the portal
to heaven. We should live with our spiritual suitcases packed and ready
because we know where we’re going when our earthly lives are finished.
It's important to be prepared every day for our last day, when we will stand
before our Lord and give an account for how we lived. This should cause us to
fear God but not fear death as long as we are in Christ, because we have the
glorious promise of eternal life with Him.
God's word promises that
whoever believes in the Lord Jesus “has” everlasting life. Not that we
“will have” eternal life but that we "have" it when we
believe. If we’ve accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord, then we are
“partakers” of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Because Christ is eternal, we
share in His eternal life when we become children of God through His salvation.
From what I've read, this is a now and then reality—we experience the divine
quality of eternal life now when our new life begins and we abide in
Christ, and then we
will possess the full manifestation of eternal life at our death.
Let's make sure we're
prepared every day and live in light of the eternity we share now and will
enjoy in the future with our great God.