Sir William Russell was sentenced to death and while on the scaffold, he handed his watch to a friend and said, “I shall not need this any longer. From now on I shall be dealing with eternity.” The truth is that all of us, every day, are dealing with eternity.
Sometimes when a person thinks someone else is behaving stupidly or frivolously that person says, “Get a life!” Air New Zealand picked up on the phrase and chose phone numbers for its Pacifica Vacations Packages that spell “Get-A-Life.” New Zealand is certainly a grand place to visit, and the destinations of Air New Zealand are exotic, but one can get a life on other parts of the globe. There is however only one place to get eternal life. That is through the Lord Jesus Christ. No one comes to the Father except by Him.
-Robert Shannon, Preaching May/June 1998
In June, 1998, World Press Review carried an article noting the progress in
lengthening human life. Scientists had taken human cells, put them in test
tubes, genetically manipulated the DNA, and made them live twice as long as
they normally do. The writer wondered if this held the possibility that people
might live to be 180 years old.
The article speculated on the good and bad results of such longevity. But the
title of the piece was most arresting. It was “Not Ready to Live Forever.”
Christians are ready to live forever, but not in these bodies and not on this
earth.
In November 1993 Esquire magazine carried an article entitled “How to Live
Forever.” The article said that if all gerontogenes are deactivated, if
cancer and heart disease are conquered, if genes can be tricked into
regenerating organ tissue, and if all causes of senescence are eliminated, the
median life span will increase to 1,200 years! That is a very long list of
“if’s.” And 1,200 years is a long time, but it is considerably short
of eternity.
The fact is that our bodies were never intended to last forever and we were
never intended to spend eternity on earth. Jesus told us how to live forever.
In chapter 4 of John’s gospel He spoke of water that would bring eternal life.
In chapter 6 He spoke of bread that would bring eternal life. In chapter 17 He
said plainly, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”