'The pursuit of eternal life'
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Eternal life must be sought diligently by the Christian. Accepting Christ is the beginning, not the end, of the pursuit of eternal life. Christ is Eternal Life, and He must be sought out and followed each day with complete attention and dedication.
Coming out of Egypt (the world) brings us into the "wilderness," not into the land of promise, as far as eternal life is concerned. The gate is narrow and the way is compressed and difficult that leads to eternal life, and it appears that there are few people who persevere in Christ until they find it (Matthew 7:14).
Paul advised Timothy to "Lay hold on eternal life" (I Timothy 6:12). The exhortation of Paul is in the context of a strong admonition to "follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." The pursuit of eternal life is related to the pursuit of the holiness of the Holy Spirit of God.
Eternal life has to do with the holiness of God. If we do not lay hold on the righteousness and holiness that God has provided for us by the various Divine resources (the Scriptures, the body and blood of Christ, the gifts and ministries of the Body, the help of the Holy Spirit in prayer and guidance) we can expect to have little or no eternal life in us now or given to us in that day when the Presence of the Lord fills His people and the conquerors are given their houses from Heaven filled with the substance of eternal life.
We must pursue diligently the Life of Christ. The Holy Spirit is our Helper. Eternal life is the result of sowing to the Spirit of God. "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Galatians 6:8).
This reminds us of Romans 8:13: "If ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live."
It is a misunderstanding of the Gospel of Christ to claim we will not enter the holy city in our own righteousness but in His righteousness, and therefore if we sin we are in no danger. It is true, rather, that we must draw continually on His righteousness and holiness of Substance and Spirit until we become righteous and holy in thought, word, and deed. If we do not we will be among those who cry Lord! Lord! and do not practice the things He teaches.
The only way in which we can gain the right to the tree of life is by doing His commandments.
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14)
A man or woman can start out in Christ and then reap corruption rather than eternal life. The Book of Hebrews, the Book of I John, and many other passages in the New Testament confirm the fact that accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior is but the beginning of the quest for eternal life.
Jude presents the concept as clearly as anyone, in the following admonition: "I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not (Jude 1:5).
If there is a message from God to the Christians of today it is the letter of Jude, the "servant of Jesus Christ." It ought to be posted in every shop window.
In order to get past the cherubim and the flaming sword that guard the way to the tree of life we must partake of the holiness of Christ. The cherubim are God’s servants, and the flaming sword is the Word of God that discerns good and evil. As long as there is sin in our life we do not have access to the tree of life (Revelation 2:7).
The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil stand side by side in the middle of the Paradise of God. Until we mature in the Lord and are able to perceive the difference between good and evil, and then voluntarily (by Christ’s ability) cleave to righteousness and despise and reject evil, we are not fit to eat of the tree of life and live forever (Hebrews 5:12-6:2).
We are speaking now of the fullness of life in the Presence of God, including the overcoming of physical death in the body at the appearing of the Lord from Heaven. Our pursuit, as was Paul’s, is directed toward the redemption of our body.
There are many passages in the New Testament that indicate the relationship between the living of the sanctified life now and our status during the Day of the Lord. For example:
To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. (I Thessalonians 3:13)
A little further in I Thessalonians we find that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming with "sudden destruction" and "they shall not escape." We are "children of light" (meaning we are walking in righteousness) and therefore that Day will not overtake us as a thief).
Our deliverance and salvation in the Day of the Presence of Christ, according to this context, does not depend on our profession of Christ but rather on our conduct—on our bringing the righteousness and holiness of Christ into our daily living.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Thessalonians 5:23)
The precious promises of Christ enable us to partake of the Divine Nature and to escape the corruption that lust always brings.
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (II Peter 1:4)
The hope of being received by the Lord as His children must lead us to holiness of personality and behavior.
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (II Corinthians 7:1)
The closeness of the Day of the Lord should move us toward a holy manner of living.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation [conduct] and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto [hastening] the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (II Peter 3:11,12)
When we first accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we are saved from the coming wrath of God and we receive eternal life. Notice, in the following passage, where our new life is located:
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify [put to death] therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence [desires], and covetousness, which is idolatry: (Colossians 3:3-5)
The concept of these verses from Colossians is that since our "life is hid with Christ in God" we ought to be seeking the things that are above. In keeping with our heavenly position we must put to death the lusts of our flesh.
It would be useless for a person to attempt to live at the right hand of God in the spirit realm and at the same time to pursue the lusts of his flesh on the earth. Either his new born-again spiritual nature will prevail or his flesh will prevail. One shall conquer the other.
Either his life at the right hand of God will result in his putting to death the desires of his body and his fleshly mind or the desires of his body and fleshly mind will overcome the new life from Christ that is working in him.
A Christian who continually indulges his earthly passions may well succeed in destroying the spiritual side of his nature to the extent he loses his eternal life. "We are not of them who draw back to perdition [destruction], but of them that believe to the saving of the soul" (Hebrews 10:39; Romans 8:13).
The Apostle John, in agreement with Paul concerning the absolute necessity for righteous and holy behavior, associated our hope of being like Jesus at His appearing with a present-day attention to the cleansing of our personality.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (I John 3:2,3)
A faith that does not bring about a holy manner of living is not a strong faith—not strong enough to raise us in the first resurrection (Philippians 3:11).
To maintain that we all shall be raised at the next sounding of God’s trumpet and all receive the same reward, all rule as kings and priests, even though we are not learning to walk in the Spirit of God, is unscriptural. Our common sense and our conscience, as well as the Scriptures, teach us differently. Yet, many Christians act and speak as though this is what they believe.
It never is God’s will that a Christian walk in known sin.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (Romans 8:12)
The physical body, even of the Christian, is dead because of sin. The mortal body is cut off from the Life of Christ. The body is bound by the law of sin in its members. God has in mind to save the body of the Christian just as He saved the body of Jesus. Therefore we do not owe the body any servitude at all that we should be bound by its lusts.
The commonly-accepted belief among Christians that we are required to sin because we still are in a body of flesh and blood has no foundation in the Scripture. There is power in the blood of Christ to "forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"—all unrighteousness!
We no longer can be forced to live in the lusts and bondages of the flesh and fleshly mind. We are free to choose to become a servant of righteousness. (Romans 6:18).
In order to live in the Spirit of God and not in the appetites of the flesh we must give ourselves wholly to the discipline of the Spirit. We must obtain the power of resurrection life. We must have the upward pull of the life of Heaven. The attraction of sin is so strong it is necessary that the Holy Spirit impart the Life of Christ to us in sufficient quantity to overcome the earthly passions that drive and bind us.
We must walk in the Spirit of God every moment of every day or we rapidly will be drawn into the concerns of the flesh. God’s grace always is available in the kind and amount needed to solve our problem; but we ourselves make the choice continually as to whether we will indulge our flesh or follow the Spirit of God.
In God’s sight we owe the flesh nothing and Christ everything.
Living according to the flesh means spending one’s time and strength each day in the ordinary pursuits of people without a consciousness of the Presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to be a disciple of Jesus and to lead the customary life of the pursuit of material gain. Such a life leads to spiritual weakness and death.
And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. (Luke 8:14)
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your heart be overcharged with surfeiting [weighed down with dissipation], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. (Luke 21:34)
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