We are busy talking about the concept of “eternal life” in the Bible. Let’s think a little about the word “life” as it is used in this concept.
Here I immediately think of what the Lord says to us about this in His Word. Such as:
• Do you remember what Father warned Adam and Eve about if they ate from the tree in the middle of the garden, against His command to them? In Genesis 2, from verse 14 onwards, it says the following: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and take care of it. The Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat from every tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of the good and the bad. In the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
• In other words, when man disobeyed this command, they “died”! Which, first of all, means that man as a spirit-man “died”. This means to me that man naturally, if God did not make it possible in His grace, could no longer hear God’s voice clearly; that man could no longer see God and His handiwork clearly; that man’s conscience was no longer sensitive to God, His will and His heart. And of course, this sin caused a tragic “deadness” that would also radically change and deform the rest of man, what we usually describe as “soul”, as well as the man’s body.
• When we think of man himself, just think how the “soul” of man was distorted and died by sin and this deadness! For example, how it made man’s brain, nervous system, emotions, and will “sick” and slowly but surely “die”! Not to mention man’s body!
• It would go far beyond man, to also distort and slowly but surely “kill” the entire creation of God!
• The “death” and “dying” of everything in creation suddenly became this terrible reality! In Romans 8 we even read about how the entire creation “sighs” as a result of this!
• Did you listen carefully to the words of the Father in the parable of the “Prodigal Son”? There in Luke 15:32, the father says after the prodigal son’s conversion and return: “But we could not but celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
• That is why we read in Romans 5:21, when God’s Spirit “inspires” Paul to speak the Gospel, then he writes it like this: “That as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through justification to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Have you read what is written here? Where death reigned as a result of sin, it changes radically, and life returns as eternal life when someone is changed by God's grace and accepts Jesus in faith!
• That is why believing followers who have accepted Jesus as Savior are told the following in Rom. 6:13: “Do not present any part of your body to sin as an instrument of unrighteousness. Instead, present yourselves to God as those who were dead but made alive, and present every part of your body as an instrument of God's will.”
• Eph. 2:1 and further, therefore rightly says the following about us as humans before our conversion: “You were dead because of your transgressions and sins that characterized your former way of life. You lived like this sinful world and let yourself be led by the prince of the invisible powers, the spirit that is now at work in the people of disobedience. In fact, we all lived like this in the past. We were dominated by our sinful desires and did only what our desires led us to and what came to our minds. Because of our sinful nature, we should have been punished by God just like other people. Next time we will talk about how death changes into “life” in the life of a believing follower of Jesus.