Receive Eternal Life

God created man and gave him to have dominion over creation. Indeed, as the first sign of man’s dominion, God brought all the animals for him to name them. Genesis 2:20 “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.” It was all beautiful until man lost it, falling for the deception of the devil. Man did not beg for the dominion, God gave it to him. He had all that he needed because God gave them to him. Man rebelled against God and died, separated from God and all his goodness, a consequence of his choice. Realize that after he committed sin, God still came down for his usual fellowship with them but the man and his wife hid from God, a wedge has been created. Man had stopped looking forward to the usual meetings with God.

How did man get to this point? Gen.3:1–3 “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” That was the clear unambiguous instruction to which the devil misled them to contravene by attacking the integrity of God’s word. This is clearly captured in verse 5 of the same passage “Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Consider this, the devil attacked the integrity of God’s word showing the woman what she stood to gain by disobeying the word of God but left the woman to make her conclusions. The part I find the most amazing was the woman’s conclusion. Gen.3:6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”

These are the same issues separating men from God today. People do things that are not convenient to gain their daily bread not realizing Eve’s rejection of God was based on one of her conclusion that the tree was good for food although there was abundance of varieties of food available to them. There is also the craze today to acquire properties, fame and influence, everything pleasant to the eyes. More prominent today is the desire to know tomorrow and have control over life. This have fueled the activities of false prophets, necromancers, sorcerers and all sort of manipulators in the world today leading men further away from God. The temptations of Jesus was also in the same manner. His first temptation was to turn stone to bread (good for food), the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him the all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time promising to give all the authority to control all these things and their glory to Jesus if he would just worship him (pleasant to the eyes). Then he took him also to Jerusalem, to the highest part of the temple asking him to throw himself down after all God has given his angels the mandate to protect him, testing his wisdom. Jesus facing his temptations responded with the word of God, what Adam and Eve failed to do. 1 John 2:15–16 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh (good for food), the lust of the eyes (pleasant to the eyes), and the pride of life (desirable to make one wise) — is not of the Father but is of the world.” Parenthesis added.

Man has ever since been separated from God. However, God has been looking forward to reconciling with man on a massive scale (over the ages a few number of people against all odds have chosen to side with God — Gen.4:26 “And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord”). He wanted the whole world reconciled to Him so He approached Noah who found grace with God. He built an ark, which was shadow of Jesus, to save the world. You would think God did not give the rest of the world opportunity to repent but He did. With His long suffering He waited for the people to turn to Him. 1 Pet.3:20. We have erroneously believed that people who turn to God or accept Christ are perfect people but a closer look at Noah shows contrary. It is recorded in Gen.9:20–23 that after the flood, Noah became a husbandman, planted a vineyard and got drunk laying uncovered in his tent. Lot, reckoned to be a righteous man (2 Pet.2:7–8) by New Testament standard also got drunk and committed incest with his two daughters (Gen.19:30–38). Other Old Testament saints such as Abraham, David and many more including Samson messed up big time too but they accepted the offer of God’s love, appropriating his richness in kindness throughout their lifetime.

God approached Abraham and the plan was in full gear to reach the whole world. Notice that it was God who made the approach on each occasion just like He’s reaching out to you now because he does not delight in the death of sinners. He wants all men saved. 1 Tim.2:4 “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” In the old times, He spoke by the prophets as confirmed in Heb.1:1–2 “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” Now God has revealed Himself to us by Jesus Christ His Son. For indeed the word of God says about himself in John 3:13–16 that “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Paul the apostle says about the Son in Gal.1:3–4 “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” He further testified about the Son in Gal.2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 1 Tim.2:5–6 “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” Tit.2:13–14 “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” Matt. 20:28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” John 10:27–28 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”

Having shown that God gave His Son to the whole world, what should be the response of the world? Receive! The Lord himself said “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” A gift has no condition attached otherwise it stops being a gift because the person has to meet a condition to earn it but we do not earn salvation. It is given. The word says in John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” Do not reconcile with God. Accept His own reconciliation, He is looking forward to you accepting His offer of love. He has already reconciled the world to Himself by Jesus Christ and all you need to do is receive Jesus Christ as Lord. 2 Cor.5:19 says “…that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

He does not want you well behaved, morally upright before you accept His kindness. His acceptance of you is not because you are well behaved, it is because you believe in His Son Jesus Christ. And if you consider yourself morally upright, all your righteous works are filthy rags before Him — Is.64:6. Just as by the disobedience of Adam all became sinners, all becomes righteous by accepting Christ. Rom.5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” So accept His own righteousness because you cannot become (by your own works no matter how hard you try) righteous; you are made righteous by the work Jesus Christ has done.

God offers eternal life to everyone who receives His Son. So what is eternal life? Eternal life is not just living forever, it is having the very life of God not at a future date but from the moment you receive Christ. Awesome! That is the only way to live the Christian life, not by self-efforts. So how do you receive Jesus? Believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God manifested in the flesh to take away all your sins and say that out with your mouth, then you are saved. He will instantly give you eternal life.

Hallelujah!