Basic Christian Beliefs: Eternal
Life and Assurance
This is the last in a series of sermons
on basic Christian beliefs. One of the great claims of our
faith is the belief in eternal life, that there is a meaningful
life beyond the grave. Many times in church we use the Apostles’
Creed, that ancient affirmation of faith that dates back
to the second century. When we say that creed we say, “I
believe in…the communion of saints, the forgiveness
of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”
The United Methodist Discipline, in a section
that describes what United Methodists hold in common with
other Christian traditions, it states: “Scripture
witnesses to the redeeming love of God in Jesus’ life
and teachings, his atoning death, his resurrection, his
sovereign presence in history, his triumph over the powers
of evil and death, and his promised return. Because God
truly loves us in spite of our willful sin, God judges us,
summons us to repentance, pardons us, receives us by that
grace given to us in Jesus Christ, and gives us hope of
eternal life.”
Aren’t we dealing here with one of
life’s ultimate questions? As long as human beings
have existed, we have wondered: “Is there a life beyond
this one?” Each time we lose a friend or a loved one
the question takes on new importance. Although when we are
younger we kind of think we’re going to live forever,
the older we become the more pressing the question becomes:
Is there life beyond death?
There are some differing ideas about life
after death that are common today, but which do not represent
the Bible’s teaching on this subject.
1. Many simply don’t believe that
life continues after death. Death is the end. We just cease
to exist after we die.
2. Then, there are some people who believe
in some form of reincarnation. We return to life again in
some other form – whether we come back to earth as
a canary or movie star or whatever. It depends on how you
lived in your previous life. I find nothing in the Bible
to support a belief in reincarnation.
3. Others believe in a kind of universalism.
They believe there is a heaven and everyone is going there.
All people will be saved. Now there are Scriptures that
speak of a final redemption of all creation and an ultimate
reconciliation of all things (cf. Ephesians 1:9-10). Yet
this should be balanced by words of Jesus and other Scriptures
that tell of judgment and separation after death.
For instance, Jesus said, “Enter
through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road
is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who
take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that
leads to life, and there are few who find it…not everyone
who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the
kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of
my Father in heaven” Matthew 7:13-14,21.
Jesus also said this: “Very truly
I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the
dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who
hear will live…do not be astonished at this; for the
hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear
his voice and will come out - those who have done good,
to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil,
to the resurrection of condemnation” John 5:25, 28-29.
Not all will be saved and go to heaven. Traditional Christian
belief is that our everlasting fate is determined by our
response to Jesus.
4. A very popular belief today is a belief
in the “immortality of the soul”. This belief
says that there is a soul within us which is inherently
immortal, and that when we die the soul separates from our
body and lives forever. You may be surprised, and even shocked,
to hear me say that this is not taught in the Bible. That
idea comes from ancient Greek philosophy. The Bible teaches
that only God is immortal. We are mortal. The Bible takes
death seriously. We humans are mortal. We die. Life as we
know it ends. Genesis 3:19 states, “You are dust,
and to dust you shall return.” There is no hope of
immortality unless God brings new life out of death.
Rather than the immortality of the soul,
Christian belief is in the resurrection of the body. The
New Testament proclaims the resurrection of the body as
our hope - that God can take the dust that was man and fashion
from it a new resurrection body suitable for the life to
come. Jesus’ own death and resurrection set it off!
Those who believe in Him and are in Christ will share a
resurrection body like His!
When the Bible talks about the “resurrection
of the body” it is saying that the self, the person,
will come to life again in a new form! By the mercy and
power of God we will have a self-conscious existence beyond
this life – whatever it is that makes you you and
me me will live on in a new form.
In his book Beliefs of a United Methodist
Christian, Bishop Emerson Colaw tells about someone sitting
in a boat, near the shore, reading a book. Suddenly this
person was aware that a big, black beetle (a nymph) had
come out of the water and crawled up on the boat. He looked
over the side of the boat and could see there on the muddy
bottom of the lake many of these ugly little creatures.
Under the heat of the sun the nymph that had crawled out
proceeded to die. Then a strange thing happened. His glistening
black shell cracked down the back, and out of it came a
shapeless mass whose ugliness was transformed into brilliantly
colored life.
Out of the mass gradually unfolded four
iridescent wings from which the sunlight flashed an array
of colors. The metamorphosis complete, this gorgeous dragonfly
was soon dipping and soaring over the water. But the body
it left behind still clung to the boat. While the dragonfly
explored its wonderful new world, his relatives still plodded
below in the mire. Could they understand the beautiful dragonfly
flitting over their heads? No - but out of the mud had come
an incredible new life! Bishop Colaw then asks, if God can
work such wonders with the lowliest of His creatures, can
we not believe in a resurrection, where “this mortal
shall put on immortality”(1 Corinthians 15:3)?
Putting on this new resurrection body and
living in heaven (or the kingdom of God) gives us hope of
ultimate fulfillment. No matter how good or productive our
life may be on this earth, isn’t there still a certain
incompleteness? Victor Hugo once said, “For half a
century I have been writing my thoughts in prose and in
verse; history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, satire,
ode, and song; I have tried all. But I feel I have not said
the thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to
the grave I can say, like many others, ‘I have finished
my day’s work.’ But I cannot say, ‘I have
finished my life…’”
I don’t know about you, but there
are so many things I’d like to do and accomplish before
I die. But I’m running out of time! In addition to
all the things I’d like to do and all the places I’d
like to go, I’m still working on personality traits
and character flaws that need improvement. I wish I were
more complete in my ability to praise the Lord and to know
His will and to serve Him. Well, I am counting on that unfinished
business to be completed in heaven! For the Christian, life
after death is not idly floating on clouds sipping Orange
Juliuses, but activity and growth and fulfillment doing
God’s will in heaven.
It’s important to realize the Bible
teaches that eternal life begins now. In the 17th chapter
of the Gospel of John a prayer of Jesus is given us. In
that prayer Jesus says, “This is eternal life, that
they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom you have sent” John 17:3. Notice, Jesus says,
“This is eternal life.” When we surrender our
life and will over to Christ as Savior and Lord, we already
begin to get a little taste of what it’s going to
be like later on in heaven. The peace and joy and love and
closeness to God that will be there in heaven we can already
experience to some degree!
So, how we respond to Jesus Christ is of
utmost importance! There are many Scriptures that could
be used to show that Jesus is God’s gift to us for
eternal life. One of the better known verses of Scripture
is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish, but have eternal life.” Do you know what the
next two verses say? “God did not send the Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world
might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are
not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned
already, because they have not believed in the name of the
only Son of God” John 3:17-18.
Page after page of the New Testament blurts
out this message: If we trust Christ and yield our wills
to Him in obedience, we will enter into a relationship with
God that will last forever! That’s the Christian hope!
Do we have this assurance that we have
eternal life through God’s Son?
Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross is a physician
who became famous after she wrote the book On Death and
Dying. She worked with terminally ill patients, and did
ground-breaking work in describing the various stages people
often go through when they are grieving. She discovered
through her interviews that terminally ill patients were
asking questions she didn’t feel qualified to answer.
Patients wanted to know what comes after death. So she asked
a group of theological students to help her in her interviews
with the patients, but they didn’t seem to be of much
help.
She called these theological students together
and asked them: “How many of you, without any shadow
of doubt, believe in life after death?” No one was
confident enough to raise his or her hand. Dr. Kubler-Ross
said, “I then knew why they were unable to help the
patients with their questions about life after death. They
were using the right phrases, but their own uncertainty
was coming through in the interviews with the terminally
ill patients.”
There are a lot of people today living
with little or no hope of anything beyond this life. However,
there are a lot of people who claim to be Christians who
are not certain they have eternal life. We say we believe
it…but maybe we’re not sure. I think we need
to be honest about these doubts.
One of the unique emphases in our United
Methodist tradition has been that we can have assurance
of salvation and eternal life.
In the United Methodist Discipline there
is a section highlighting some of the distinctive emphases
in our tradition. It includes these words: “Our Wesleyan
theology also embraces the scriptural promise that we can
expect to receive assurance of our present salvation as
the Spirit ‘bears witness with our spirit that we
are the children of God’”. Our emphasis on assurance
has its roots in something that happened to John Wesley,
the founder of the Methodist Church. He was an ordained
minister in the Church of England. He had served as a missionary
as well as a parish priest. Yet for years, he was not sure
that God had forgiven him or that he was saved.
On the evening of May 24th, 1738 John Wesley
reluctantly went to meeting on
Aldersgate Street in London. As he was
listening to a man read from Martin Luther’s preface
to the Book of Romans, something happened that changed his
life. He described his experience in these memorable words:“I
felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ,
Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me
that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and had saved
me from the law of sin and death.”
The Bible says we can have assurance of
salvation and eternal life. 1 John 5:13 says, “I write
this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that
you may know that you have eternal life.” (Notice:
that you may know). Romans 8:16 also talks about the assurance
we can have: “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness
with our spirit, that we are children of God.”
If we are Christian believers, the Holy
Spirit wants to give us inward assurance that we are saved
and are part of the family of God forever! For some, this
assurance may come right at the moment of conversion. For
others, it might come more gradually. The longer we are
Christians and the more we grow in Christ, the more that
inward certainty takes root.
You may ask, “But if I sin and fail,
can I still have assurance?” Of course you can. Parents,
if your children do wrong and fail, do you kick them out
of the house? Are they no longer regarded as your children?
Assurance and salvation are not based on our being sinless
or perfect, but on God’s mercy offered us in Christ.
If you have given your life over to Jesus and are doing
your best to serve Him, you can ask the Holy Spirit to give
you the assurance that you are God’s child forever.
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