Eternal Life ... Life Eternal

It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine,
Lord Jesus, Saviour; yet this soul of mine
Would of thy love, in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth its everlasting strength,
Know more and more.

It passeth telling, that dear love of Thine,
Lord Jesus, Saviour; yet these lips of mine
Would fain proclaim to sinners far and near
A love which can remove all guilty fear,
And love beget.

It passeth praises, that dear love of Thine,
Lord Jesus, Saviour; yet this heart of mine
Would sing that love, so full, so rich, so free,
Which brings a rebel sinner, even me,
Nigh unto God.

Today we speak about, or we begin with the subject of eternal life. And, when you read the Bible, you find that when it was written in Greek, the English version translates the Greek as ‘eternal life’. You can trace most of the places, I think there's one exception that I've come across, where that, the Greek puts it the other way around, and where we have eternal life, the Greek language is written as ‘life eternal’.

So what is eternal life, but it’s a quality of life. Life, it’s a quality of life, and it’s a quantity of life, it's perpetual, it’s eternal. There’s some other words that are very, very similar to ‘eternal’, sometimes we read about ‘to the ages’, or ‘the age’, ‘unto the ages’, that's how Paul wrote about eternal life. ‘The kindness of God’ that's going to be shown to us ‘unto the ages’.

So I would like to do three readings, and follow that on with another three readings, It’s just a verse here and there, so we'll begin with John 3:16, well known, I could almost quote it, but we'll read it, John 3:16,

‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have eternal life.’

Let's read the next verse to tie onto that:

‘For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.’

In John 1:4, where we read,

‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men.’

So there’s life, just spoken of by itself, but it's talking about life eternal, it’s the life that comes from God: ‘in him was life’.

Ephesians 2:7,

‘That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.’

‘The ages to come’ - that's the phrase, and, we’ll also read three other portions, in John chapter 5 and one in John chapter 20, but we'll leave that for now.

‘The world’ - ‘God so loved the world’. How wide God's love is; and how individual, how personal, because ‘whosoever believes on Jesus’, Jesus Christ, ‘whosoever believes on him should not perish but have life eternal’. That's the original reading, ‘life eternal’, that’s what we can have. The whole purpose of Jesus coming to this earth, God sending his only begotten Son, was that we might have life. We are dead, ‘dead in trespasses and sins’, but here Peter, he said, ‘To whom shall we go? - you Lord’ -you know, Jesus Christ- ‘you have the words of eternal life’ - life eternal - ‘you have the words of life eternal.’

So there’s one scripture which I find very comforting when I think over the wonder of receiving life eternal, receiving life from God, from the Son of God, and that's found in John 5:24, so let's read it.

John 5:24, (I'm sorry for being a bit slow to turn up these things, but here we are).

‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my word, and believes him that sent me has eternal life.’

Now I'm just going to say it the original way,

‘has life eternal, and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.’

So there’s in the same verse we have life eternal and it finishes off, ‘passed out of death into life’. This is the life that God gives, the life that Jesus, the Lord Jesus came to bring. So continuing in John 5, let's read John 5:40. We'll read 39 to connect - when Jesus was discussing his purpose and the opposition that he was meeting with from those that questioned, ‘You're not the Messiah, we don't accept you as the Messiah.’ And here he says to them:

‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have life eternal. And these are they which bear witness of me, and you will not come to me that you may have life.’

So there we link up ‘life eternal’ with life, ‘eternal life’, life. And John 5:46, we'll just continue reading on from verse 43.

‘I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive glory, one of another, and the glory that comes from the only God you seek not. Think not that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?’

The things that Jesus uttered. And he directed them back to the words of Moses: ‘Moses wrote of me’ - and we remember how Moses wrote that God was going to ‘raise up a prophet just like me’, like Moses. The way that Moses had led the children of Israel, and the whole teaching that Israel was held together by as a nation, and continues on - they continue on as a nation today, though many don't know God, many atheists, both Jews and Gentiles, but that’s to digress. The writings that Moses wrote, it applied to the prophet that God was promising, the promised Messiah. ‘Moses wrote of me’ - the prophet that God would raise up, is Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And there’s many things that are written, as we go through the Gospel that was written by John, we find that there are many miracles that Jesus did and, if we turn to John 20:30, we'll find the reason why Jesus did so many miracles and why John recorded them. He wrote them down, and they've come down to us, and the reason is ‘that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing we might have life’. So let's read John 20:30, John 20 and verse 30.

‘Many other signs, therefore, did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name’.

That is amazing. They're written ‘that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life in His name’. I would like to turn and read Ephesians 2:7 again, and consider, consider what’s ahead in this life eternal that we speak about.

Ephesians 2:7, (and I’m at Hebrews and it's not working. I'm at Corinthians and I'm almost there). Right, Ephesians 2:7. So we just need to connect up from verse 4:

‘But God, being rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us’.

That takes us back to John 3:16. ‘God so loved the world’ - whosoever.

‘But God, being rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ. By grace have you been saved, and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus’.

I'll stop there. That phrase, ‘the exceeding riches of His grace’ can be explained or given another word, I think, to better explain. There's a word in the Greek for exceeding or for surpassing, ‘huperballó’, something like that. It reminded me when I read it of the French class that I was in, when the teacher read out this phrase in French, ‘lance le ballon’, throw the ball. And when I considered this a bit more, there's one of the dictionaries that explains this a bit more. If you think about when we're watching the Olympics and you're watching the javelin throw, and you see the different marks for 50 meters, 60, 70, 80, 90, and very rarely someone takes a javelin, and they go beyond the 90 degrees, the 90 meters. They go beyond the 90 meters. And this is the word, ‘surpassing’, it's going beyond the mark. God is going to, in the ages to come, show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

‘For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should glory, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them’.

So that's just a little thought that I would like to leave. ‘The surpassing riches of God's grace’ and the kindness to be shown to us through the ages, in the ages to come.

We'll finish with John 17:2-3. Well, we'll read verse 1:

‘these things spake Jesus, and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, 'Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee, even as thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, that whatsoever thou hast given Him, to them He should give' - Now, ‘life eternal’ is how it's written in the original, so let's try and read it that way: ‘To them He should give life eternal, and this is eternal life, that they should know thee. This is eternal life, That they should know thee, the only true God, and Him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.’

So there we have - the whole purpose for which the Lord Jesus came to save sinners was that He should give us life eternal. And what is eternal life? - but that we should know God the Father. ‘they should know thee, the only true God, and Him whom thou didst send, Jesus Christ.’

So let's finish with the last three verses of hymn 249.

‘But though I cannot sing or tell or know, The fullness of Thy love while here below, My empty vessel I may freely bring, O Thou who art of love, the living spring, my vessel fill.’ So verses 4, 5 and 6.

But though I cannot sing or tell or know,
The fulness of Thy love while here below,
My empty vessel I may freely bring;
O Thou, who art of love the living spring,
My vessel fill!

Oh, fill me Holy Saviour with Thy love,
Lead, lead me to the living fount above,
Thither may I in simple faith draw nigh,
And never to another fountain fly,
But unto Thee.

And when Lord Jesus, Thine own face I see,
When at Thy lofty throne I bow the knee,
Then of Thy love, in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth, its everlasting strength,
My soul shall sing.