The Pursuit of Eternal Life
We have given the title "Paradise or Eternal Life?" to the present booklet. This is because Paradise and eternal life are not the same thing. The Lord Jesus and His Apostles came preaching eternal life. They never emphasized our going to dwell forever in the third heaven where the Paradise of God is located.
How many times in the four Gospel accounts did the Lord Jesus stress eternal life? Many, many times. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Notice that the contrast is not between Hell and Heaven but between perishing and eternal life. But aren’t these basically the same ideas? Not at all.
Hell is God’s prison where He confines the wicked. Perishing has to do with our physical body. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished [if there is no resurrection of the body]. (I Corinthians 15:18)
The Lord Jesus came so we might not remain a disembodied spirit after death, our flesh and bones returning to the dust of the earth from which they were taken, but might be reunited with our body now made wondrously alive by the Holy Spirit of God.
But won’t all people eventually come forth from the grave? Yes, they will.
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28,29)
But it appears that the bodies of the unsaved, even though they come forth from the ground, have never been touched with God’s Life. What will be the end of their bodies we do not know except that they shall not be renewed with the Life of God.
Therefore the individual who has been raised from the dead apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, has perished as a person, having no hope of ever entering the Presence of God or His Kingdom.
Whether his or her destiny after he or she is raised and judged is Hell, or the Lake of Fire, or the outer darkness, or to be a wandering star, only Christ will decide. The point is, the individual has perished.
The problem with perishing has at least four undesirable features:
The body will never be made alive by the Holy Spirit.
The person will never again be able to experience the Presence and blessing of God (this is the worst of all consequences).
God may not erase the painful memories of the individual who perishes as He will those who are received into His Kingdom.
The person may be cast into the Lake of Fire or some other area of torment.
It must be kept in mind that the Lord Jesus did not come to earth to give people a pass from Hell to Paradise. The Lord Jesus came to forgive us and furnish us an opportunity to be transformed so we are acceptable to the Father. There is a world of difference between these two concepts.
Heaven (or the heavens), as we have said, includes all the areas of physical space and the areas of the spiritual realm. Eternal life, however, has to do with our entering the Life of God.
John 3:16 tells us that whoever will put his continuing trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will not perish as a person but will be received into the Life that fills the Godhead.
Perhaps what we have said to this point is not too surprising to the experienced saint. However, the serious problems residing in Christian thought are that eternal life is (1) eternal existence; (2) a gift that is given in its fullness upon our receiving Christ; and (3) a legal state that exists in our mind and the mind of God rather than what it truly is—a form of life, just as biologic life is a form of life.
"Receive Christ and you have eternal life." In today’s preaching this means that when you die you will go to a mansion in Paradise to live forever among the angels. The truth is: Eternal life is not eternal existence. All spirits, righteous and wicked, will exist for eternity. We have only a firstfruits of eternal life upon our conversion to Christ, an "earnest," a pledge of a fullness yet to come.
Eternal life is an actual, substantial life. It is the Life of God dwelling in us, not a legal state that can never be affected by our behaviour. As the parable of the sower reveals to us (along with many other passages), we certainly can lose the initial Divine Life given to us when we received Christ.
Anyone who has known a person who was filled with God’s Life, and then has fallen away, can tell you that his personality has changed in a visible manner. The glow of Divine Life has departed.
Eternal life has nothing whatever to do with dwelling in Paradise. Eternal life has to do with the life that is motivating our personality. Paradise, on the other hand, is the environment of God, our true home, a place of love, joy, peace, and indescribable beauty.
Can you see the difference between eternal life as our life force, and Paradise as the place where we dwell? Both eternal life and Paradise were lost to Adam and Eve. Apparently Paradise was withdrawn immediately into the spiritual realm. The loss of Divine Life resulted in the physical death of Adam and Eve almost a thousand years later.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. He came to restore eternal life to us. Paradise will follow in its time. But, as we shall see later, our true goal is to be transformed into a life-giving spirit. Then we can enjoy Paradise to the fullest. But to enter Paradise on the basis of forgiveness alone (if that is possible), without having experienced transformation into a new creation, would be to suffer inconceivable loss.
We desire a splendid environment. God desires transformed people who can maintain the splendor and beauty of Paradise. Does this make sense to you?
Saved people will dwell forever in Paradise on the earth. But the process of redemption is the transformation of the future rulers and citizens of Paradise.
Eternal life is not a gift that is handed to us in full measure upon our receiving Christ. Eternal life is an actual kind of life we receive in embryonic form and then must pursue every day of our discipleship.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. (I Timothy 6:12)
Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. (I Timothy 6:19)
The above two verses are addressed to saved people. They had received the initial portion of eternal life. Now they must pursue eternal life by their godly behaviour. The only manner in which we can grow in eternal life is by practicing godly behaviour.
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:14)
The gate is small and the way is full of pressure that leads to life. Receiving Christ gives us access to the way, it does not bring to us the fullness of life unless we follow Christ closely throughout our lifetime on the earth. There is life and there is more abundant life.
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; (Hebrews 3:14)
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (Philippians 3:10)
Does the above teach that we receive unconditionally the fullness of eternal life when we first put our trust in Christ?
One of the ways in which our life in Paradise will be affected is that those who are transformed will possess flesh and bone bodies that have been clothed with a glorified body from the spiritual Heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ at the present time is in Paradise in a flesh and bone body.
Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. (Luke 24:39)
One of the great errors of current thinking is that every believer will receive, at the coming of the Lord, a body like that of the Lord Jesus—even though he or she has not lived a victorious Christian life. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The concept is as follows. When we receive the Lord Jesus as our Saviour and Lord we begin a struggle. The result of our victory in the struggle is the redemption of our physical body. All the forces of darkness, including those resident in our personality, fight against our wrestling, our effort to grow in eternal life to the point we are competent and eligible for the adoption of our mortal body into the eternal Life of God.
Every day of our discipleship death and life struggle for the mastery of our personality. Our body remains dead in sin while our born-again inner nature struggles against the darkness. The victorious saint is the one who keeps looking to the Lord for victory in the battle.
The Apostle Paul presents the struggle and its outcome clearly.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11)
The resurrection to eternal life in the body must be attained!
That Paul is thinking of the redemption of his mortal body is shown a few verses later.
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:21)
The redemption of his mortal body was Paul’s goal.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:14)
Paul taught that the resurrection of our physical body is the purpose of our salvation.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. (I Corinthians 15:19,20)
The resurrection of our physical body is our entrance into life.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (I Corinthians 15:22)
The resurrection of our physical body marks the destruction of the last enemy.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (I Corinthians 15:26)
The growth of Christ in us is the growth of the Resurrection in us, for the Lord Jesus Himself is the resurrection.
If we thus attain to the inner resurrection, then, when the Lord appears, we will be clothed externally with the fullness of God’s Glory.
It is the overcomer, the victorious saint, who is permitted to eat of the Tree of Life (who is Christ), and thus gain eternal life in the inner man in preparation for the donning of immortality in the outer man.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7)
Every time we overcome by denying ourselves, putting to death the desires of our flesh and soul, we are permitted to eat from the tree of life. Adam dies and Christ lives. Adam dies and Christ lives. Adam dies and Christ lives. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in in corruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [life-giving] spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (I Corinthians 15:42-49)
We attain to eternal life, which is the same as the resurrection from the dead, which is the same as Christ Himself (for He Himself is the Resurrection and the Life), by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. This is how we partake of the Tree of Life. As we put to death the deeds of our body we are fed in the spiritual realm with the body and blood of the Lord Jesus.
Notice in the following verses the relationship between eating Christ’s flesh and blood, eternal life, and the resurrection from the dead.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (John 6:53-57)
If we are to attain to the fullness of eternal life in our inner man we must follow the Spirit closely in putting to death the deeds of our body. As we pursue the life of victory over our sinful desires we keep on eating the flesh of Christ and drinking His blood.
As we keep on eating the flesh of Christ and drinking His blood we are dwelling in Him. We find that just as Christ lives by the Life of the Father so we now are living by the Life of Christ.
As Paul says, we now are experiencing the power of His resurrection and sharing His sufferings. As He is, so are we in this world. He lived in self-denial and we must be willing to live in self-denial if we would be part of His resurrection.
Thus far we have discussed the attaining to the resurrection in our inner man. Now we shall consider the resurrection body.
The resurrection body consists of two bodies: our flesh and bones, which will be raised from death at the coming of the Lord, and our house from Heaven.
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (II Corinthians 5:1)
The "house not made with hands" is our robe of righteousness, the Glory of Christ that will clothe our raised flesh and bones in the Day of the Lord.
The critical understanding the present-day Christian churches must come to possess is that our house from Heaven is created as a counterpart of the forming of Christ in us in the present hour. We are building a mansion in Heaven, so to speak.
Our heavenly house, which now is before the throne of God in Heaven, reflects directly the decisions we make on the earth. As Paul says:
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; (II Corinthians 4:17)
The "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" that is produced by our faithful, godly response to our afflictions is our house from Heaven.
The meaning here is that today we are determining the nature of our resurrection from the dead. The day of resurrection will reveal what we have become through Christ. This is why the rewards of the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation are dependent on our overcoming, on our gaining victory over the forces of sin and self-will that fight against us continually as we press forward in order to attain to the first resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of the royal priesthood.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)
When the Lord appears, the flesh and bones of the Apostle Paul will be raised from where he was martyred in Rome and will be clothed with a great mountain of fire and glory. He will resemble His Lord.
All the others who have attained the first resurrection will be raised and then clothed with a body that will directly reflect the decisions they have made during their discipleship. That which we have practiced in the body will be given to us in that day.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (II Corinthians 5:10)
The mark set before us is an inner nature transformed into the image of Christ by being infused with the Divine Nature of Christ, a transformed inner nature filled with the Presence of the Father and the Son, and all of this contained in a flesh-and-bone body that has been clothed with a house from Heaven that reveals in itself what we have become as we have lived by the body and blood of the Lord Jesus.
This is salvation and the fullness of eternal life. This is the first resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of the kingdom of priests who will govern the creation of God forever.