This unique life on earth is just the beginning. All souls will endure for eternity. The human soul is everlasting. Where that eternity will be is the question we all must face sometime.
There are but two options. We either have eternal life with God Almighty, or we are separated from Him forever. The latter is an awful consideration and should be vehemently avoided.
The simple solution is to yield to God at the earliest opportunity through faith in Jesus. But where does that faith come from? We are told in the New Testament that ‘faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ It’s not just hearing with our ears, or our senses, but hearing from within, in our spirit.
You see, the Word of God, called the gospel, has the power to revive our once dead spirit. It is the power of God onto salvation to those who believe. But we will never be able to believe if we never hear. The only thing with the power to revive our dead spirit is the Word of God received.
Dead spirit
What do we mean by ‘dead spirit.’ We are spirit beings, born to be alive to God, and to follow His will, but sin, those acts of wilfulness against God’s will, separate us from God and our spirit dies. We cannot live spiritually away from Him. We are emptied of that divine connection. Only His Word through faith in His Word can revive us.
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins…
Ephesians 2:1
So we weren’t dead physically, obviously, or we would have had no option left for salvation. Thank God for His infinite mercy. Sin killed our spirit; not our body; nor our soul; and, crucially, not our opportunity for revival as long as we live in the earth. The warning here is that physical death will end the opportunity.
It was our spirit which died, that part of us that connects and interacts with God. ‘God is a Spirit, and those who come to Him must worship Him in spirit and truth (Jn.4:24).’
Again, the gospel, the good news, has the power to revive our dead spirit and reconnect us with God the Father through faith in the work of the cross, where Jesus paid the price for our sins and trespasses, actioned forgiveness on our behalf, enabled us to hear and believe the good news and receive the free gift of salvation through our confession of Jesus as Lord.
Once we have accepted his free offer of forgiveness, favour and grace we can begin to live the life He intends for us which will lead to everlasting peace with Him. Faith is both the starting point and the new life we live.
Change is a word away
The alternative is unthinkable. Jesus gave much warning about the fate that awaits those who reject God’s free gift of eternal life with Him. Being eternally separated from God will be a most miserable existence. Never mind the theory made by some that it will be some eternal giant party in hell with the devil as the chief DJ. That is wishful thinking. It’s a fateful mistake to thing that sin continues after the judgment, in life or in death, or in the grave.
Jesus likened it to being in the ‘outer darkness (Mat.8:12),’ and that was speaking of those who were of Israel who would not believe. He referred to it in a parable as a place of ‘torment (Luke 16:8).’
We’ve all been tormented to some degree by missed opportunities, sad loss, unexpected challenges, defeats or mistakes in life. Often this torment is temporary and we are resilient enough to come through. Sometimes it lasts for a lifetime, but it will be nothing compared to missing the opportunity now in this life to accept what God is offering us that will last forever.
The good news is that no one has to be eternally separated from God as long as they are still living and breathing and able to accept His offer of eternal life with Him.
We can all believe and live. Today is that day.
