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LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Forever is a long time.

We have probably heard and used that statement many times, but it is not a true statement. In fact, a long time is the exact opposite of forever. Forever is the absence of time. Eternity is not measured in time. Forever will never feel like a long time, because the past and the future are all wrapped up in the present. My mind cannot comprehend that because I am confined to a space/time continuum.

God is eternal. He is not limited by time or space. When we enter eternity, and everyone does in either heaven or hell, our existence will no longer be measured by time. We will not have a past to remember or a future to anticipate. Everything about us will be realized in the immediate, and it will never end.

Jesus gave us a glimpse of what eternity will be like in His discussion with the disciples in John 14. Here’s what He said.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…”

Those who have received the forgiveness of God through faith in Jesus Christ are immediately given a Helper, the Holy Spirit. The Eternal God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, comes to us in the Spirit of Christ and dwells in us. Not just for this life, but forever in eternity. It is the Holy Spirit who brings to us the life of Christ, and when these mortal bodies are transformed into immortality, the Holy Spirit will fully glorify the life of Christ in us. It is because we have the eternal presence of Jesus in us today that we can look forward with certainty to the time when time shall be no more, and we experience the eternal glory of God.

Those who are not in Christ have no such hope. They are without the present life of Jesus in them. By their own unbelief they have chosen to not participate in the eternal glory of God. Every unbeliever, with no exceptions, will also become an eternal being, but without the life of Jesus it will be eternal suffering. Today’s rejection of God results in eternal death and separation from God.

Those of us who have eternal life in Christ should be grieving the hopeless state of unbelievers. Yet we are empowered by the life of Jesus in us to be His witnesses to the lost and dying. We have been commissioned by Jesus Christ to go to the lost, make disciples of the lost, baptize them in the Name of Jesus Christ, teach them to obey the commands of Jesus, and then send them out to make even more disciples.

The world is overflowing with death. Our lives are to be overflowing with life so those in death can see the hope we have and turn from death to life. The question of the hour then is this – “Do those in death see the living presence of Jesus Christ in me so that they can find life?”

Pastor John