We are eternal (John 5:19-29) 250207
This is a million dollars question in all humanity: What will happen to me after I die? To the Buddhist, death is just another ending of life and a beginning of a the next life in reincarnation as human (hopefully) or otherwise. To the Muslim, death is a hope for them that Allah will forgive their sins and accept them into heaven to enjoy the virgins and wine. To an athesis, death is the end. To a Hindu, death is the end of virtuallity. To the Confucius, they are not too keen to discuss about it, they are more keen to talk about the living, but not the dead.
There are many and many other more different views about death. To us as Christians, death of sinful nature begins when we first received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and physical death is the reward and the hope that we will be with our Heavenly Father in heaven. Jesus taught about death. But He was sure that His Father has the power over death (v21) and He will have that power too. Because He has that power over death, we can place our trust in Him. Jesus also said that death is not the end, but there will be judgment He was given the authority to judge (v22). This passage here was placed by John right after miracle of healing the sick man at the pool of Bethesda (v1-18). This is where Jesus defended the authority He had to do what He had been doing publicly. The Jews’ worldview was that there is life after death and there is judgment and eternal life or eternal punishment. Ritualistc ceremonial sacrifice was important to them to ‘appease’ God to forgive their sins. But Jesus will replace all sacrifices, once and for all (Rom 6:10). And most importantly is that His identity as the Son of God (v25) and the Son of Man (27) informed us that He is fully God and fully man. He understands us and know our need for the grace of God. His appeal to us is simple: believes in Him and have life, have it eternally (v24).
We as Christians already have this eternal life, but often we live as if we are temporal. We chase after all the temporal wealth and enjoyment that this temporal world is offering us. We have sort of lost our eternal identity from Monday to Saturday, and only on Sunday morning, during the two hours of Worship Service, then we have a glimpse of eternity. Maybe this week will be good for us to keep an eternal mindset. Do things which have eternal values, say words that have eternal impact and love the people around us because they are too eternal beings.
