Your Redemption Draws Near! 5
Redemption as the receiving of eternal life, the Presence of God.
There is a literal Heaven. There is a literal Hell. We must remember, however, that in the beginning God did not threaten Adam and Eve with Hell but with the loss of life. "In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die," not you shall go to Hell.
The popular concept of salvation, that it is an escape from Hell and a ticket to Heaven, is certainly not the emphasis of the New Testament writings.
Paul and John do not use the term "Hell" in their epistles, which would not be the case if escape from Hell were a principal subject of the new covenant. The expression "go to Heaven" is not found in the entire King James translation of the Scriptures!.
What is stressed in the Gospels and the Epistles? Eternal life is stressed. The Lord Jesus emphasized that He came to bring us eternal life. It is eternal life that was lost originally. It is eternal life that must be redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
Eternal life is the Presence of God in us and with us.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)
Adam and Eve had the unimaginable privilege of having the Lord God walk near them in the garden in Eden. You and I would be very glad to have the same privilege—to walk in Paradise with God!
But God will not dwell where there is disobedience, whether on the part of an unbeliever or a believer. The grace of the Lord Jesus does not make it possible for God to walk with the sinful and rebellious. Rather, the grace of God enables the sinful and rebellious to turn from their wicked ways and to serve God with a glad heart, to behave righteously and do God’s will.
The Lord Jesus came to give righteousness and eternal life to those whom the Father gave Him, to those who believe in Him and receive Him.
Eternal life is in the body and blood of Christ. As we eat of His flesh and drink of His blood we have eternal life. We have the Presence of God in us, and the Lord Jesus will raise us into His Presence at the end of the present age.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:40)
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. (John 6:53,54)
The Lord Jesus is our Redeemer. We were born in sin and rebellion, that is, we were born in spiritual death. The Spirit of eternal life was not in us. The Lord Jesus came that we might have eternal life and have it more abundantly.
We have eternal life now. At the coming of the Lord we shall have eternal life in abundance.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. (I Corinthians 15:22,23)
Those who are abiding in the Lord Jesus shall be made alive in Him at His coming.
And so we lift up our head because our redemption draws near.
Man lost the Presence of God by listening to the enticement of Satan. The Lord Jesus, our Redeemer, has come to forgive our sins and to enable us to live righteously so we may receive eternal life and grow in eternal life.