Already Alive: The Eternal Life That Begins Now

By Dean Collins

What are you waiting for? Well, probably a lot of things. This time of year, you might be waiting for the sales, so you can get the best price on your Christmas gifts. Or maybe you are waiting for the delivery truck to show up with your packages. You likely are waiting for a friend, a child, or a spouse to help you with decorating for the season. Or it may be you are waiting for the phone call that says you got the job, or the call from the doctor with the results of the tests to determine your diagnosis. 

We do a lot of waiting, and waiting is sometimes very difficult. In fact, waiting can have a negative effect on your mental state. The longer we wait for consequential news, the more likely our stress level will rise. Over time, stress can take its toll on the body and the mind. 

As we get older, we are increasingly aware that there are fewer days ahead than there are behind. Fairly early in life, we make jokes about aging. It depends on the age of your peer group as to what is jokingly called old. Is it turning 30, 40, 50, or older when the black balloons are given as a reminder of our fading youth? 

As we get older and health concerns mount, our circle of activities and friends get smaller and smaller. In those situations, we might hear a loved one whisper, “She is just waiting to die.”

In John’s gospel and in his epistle, he reminds us of good news that we sometimes seem to forget. We are not waiting for eternal life. It has already begun!

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

In 1 John 5, the apostle wrote that God gave us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son. I know we are all more focused on the birth of Jesus this time of year, but have we forgotten the Easter story? Christ has risen from the dead and is alive now. So, our life in Christ is in and tied to the resurrected Jesus. Our waiting has to do with when we shed our aging and faltering physical bodies for the eternal bodies we will one day have. Our baptism gives us a beautiful reminder that the body of sin has been buried and we have risen in Christ, not just for the minute we were wet in the baptistery or river, but forevermore.

John reminds us of one other life giving truth: because we are in Christ, we can have confidence that when we pray, God hears us and answers our prayers. Our loving Heavenly Father is neither inattentive nor absent. He is always present and always waiting to hear from us. And he hears whatever we have on our minds.

John explained that when we ask according to his will, he hears us and will answer every one of our prayers. This is one reason we should consume, even memorize, scripture and use it often in our prayers. When we align our requests with God’s word, we can be confident that we are praying for God’s will to be done in us.

Jesus, of course, is our example. When facing his suffering, he prayed that God would let this cup of suffering pass, but then he added, “Not my will but yours be done.” Whenever we pray for God’s will to be done and for God to receive glory, God will always answer in the affirmative.

For the rest of our lives on this side of the thin space between heaven and earth, we will continue to wait in lines, wait for solutions to problems, wait for outcomes we hope for, and so on. But know that we do not have to wait for our abundant and eternal life to begin; God is alive in us now and will be with us until the last breath on this side of heaven, and he will be with us in our first breath on the other side. As we live today, he is eagerly waiting to hear from us and meet every need we have.

Father, thank you for the reminder of scripture that we are already alive in Christ. Today, we ask that you accomplish your will in us. Strengthen us, that we might reflect Christ to the world today, and that someone might discover that Jesus is your son who gave his life that all people might experience forgiveness for their sins and eternal life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Your Time with God’s Word
1 John 5:11-15 ESV

Photo by Adrien King on Unsplash
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