ETERNITY IS A LONG TIME! We live in time--seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, decades, centuries, etc. The concept of time is so ingrained in us that we have difficulty with timelessness. To us, every thing has a beginning and end. For that reason, the eternity of God is largely beyond our grasp. A being that has ALWAYS been, and ALWAYS will be? Humanly inconceivable, but nonetheless a FACT. We serve an ETERNAL God. Not only is this so, but--once having been created-- man himself is endowed with ETERNAL life (or death). Almost beyond our capacity to grasp, we will be SOMEWHERE for eternity. Paul, in Romans 2, says (for those who by patient continuance in welldoing, seek for glory and honor and immortality), ETERNAL life.. He also pictures a like period of tribulation and anguish for those who are selfish, unforgiving, and wicked. In Matt 25:46, Christ specifies this period of punishment as everlasting. Our existence will be eternal, everlasting, forever, WITHOUT END! Few can bear to dwell on it--perhaps because we are reluctant to accept the enduring sentence for disobedience. Eternal life appeals to us...endless happiness in the presence of God, an eternity of fellowship with God and the righteous, total pleasure with no more tears, etc. Not so with eternal death (separation from God)...this is a life of outer darkness, the gnashing of teeth and the despair of endless torment and suffering. For how long? Think of your own life...perhaps it has seemed to stretch out for an extremely long time, especially for the young (advancing age makes the brevity of life more obvious). Compared to eternity, even the longest life lived in time is the briefest of moments. Your life lived in eternity will literally be ENDLESS, with the equivalent of years, decades, centuries, and even millenniums passing by with no fewer segments of time still to be lived. And what is the significance of this concept? It is that NOW, in time, we are setting the course we shall continue for eternity. An action needing but a moment to complete can have everlasting implications. Even in this life, the brief action of murder bears the penalty of LIFE imprisonment, or even the loss of ones own life. It will also result in an ETERNAL penalty, unless one gains the mercy of God through penitent obedience. WHO orders eternity? It is the eternal God. He defines right and wrong conduct, warning that wrong conduct has eternal consequences--the wages of sin is death... (Rom 6:23) God defines the wrong as sin, and it has eternal consequences. Think of the foolishness of sin --ANY sin. Whatever momentary pleasure or gratification is derived, it cannot overcome the reality that its wages involve an ETERNAL existence of the most painful and hopeless kind. The life we now live is merely the door to eternity, and the quality of our life in time--whether or not we submit to and serve God--makes all the difference. ARE YOU READY FOR ETERNITY? (acb)
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 11:46:18 +0000
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