The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life,
but God’s wrath remains on him. [John 3:36 NET]
aiónios. As in this verse, this Greek word often translated 'eternal'. I like that rendering. Yet I think that 'unending' captures the meaning of the word a bit better. Only God is eternal. He has no beginning or end. We step into the life of God when we are spiritually born. In that sense our life becomes unending.
In contrast, the one who rejects Jesus does not have life unending because they have nothing in them that survives death. These go the way of all earthly creation. These return to the earth. Yet those who believe have something unending in them. Their bodies return to the earth but their spirits ascend to heaven.
Yet there are those who embrace the concept of the innate immortality of the human soul. These feel that all humans have unending life. Some of them think that all go to heaven while some see others surviving death to live unendingly in hell. I disagree with both. Unending life comes from believing in the Son. We are not born with unending or immortal life. Our lives become immortal when we are spiritually born.
Be Thou my vision Lord. May your beauty continue to captivate my heart from this life to the next.
... this devotion is part of a series about John the Baptist.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to get comments and usually respond. So come back to see my reply.
You can click here to see my comment policy.