The Gospel Word shows these three categories of human existence.
Most Christians I know live their faith for salvation.
Immediate and instantaneous rescue.
Salvation of the problems of life.
Salvation of diseases and diseases.
Salvation of financial matters.
Salvation of personal needs and anguishes.
Salvation of family problems.
Salvation of the devil and his evil deeds.
Salvation from hell and its eternal damnation.
Salvation from sins and the terrible judgment that will fall on sinners.
In short, there are many reasons why people "serve" God and go to churches today!
Many people think that faith in Jesus is also an "elixir" of immortality.
Like, reach the resurrection.
Do not go through the "Great Tribulation".
Enter the "new Jerusalem."
Living in the "millennium".
Have an "abode" in Heaven.
Walking the "streets of gold".
I do not discuss the reasons and legitimacies of these "desires."
But none of this is the essence of Eternal Life.
Alas, few people today are living the eternal life. That is, for most Christians, eternal life is something that is "pushed" and thought in terms of "the future," but Jesus said that whoever believes in Him HAVE eternal life and will NOT have eternal life.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus shows us that eternal Life has no relation to the future, but to something that can and should be experienced NOW.
For the majority of Christians I know salvation is something that strikes anguish every day against sin, the devil and the world. They never enter the REST (Hebrews 4). It is a life of "berean" and "apologetic" all the time. True "doctrine" must be "saved," otherwise God and Jesus will "lose" and Christianity will be "threatened" by Islam, the new age, and heresies.
"Christian" life is characterized by the possibility of "losing" salvation or the "crown of life".
It's living on the razor's edge.
None of this is related to eternal life.
And what is Eternal Life?
Jesus himself gave the answer in John 17: 3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."
Eternal life is not living in heaven.
It is not forgiveness of sins.
It is not believing in true doctrine.
It is not getting rid of sin.
It's not not going to hell.
It is not "walking the streets of gold".
It's nothing like that, plus it includes all of this!
Paul, the apostle, said that he renounced all that he was and all he had to "know him"! (Philippians 3:10). He did not want to "go to heaven" but "to be with Christ." Like this: if Jesus were not in Heaven, nor in Heaven, he would want to be more! The sky is not heaven without Jesus there! Now hell turns to Heaven if Jesus is there! Or rather, any place that exists becomes heaven if Jesus is present, on the other hand, any "paradise" becomes hell if Jesus is not present!
Realizing this, "he that shall boast (of anything!), Glory in this: to know me, and to know that I am the Lord, and to do mercy, and judgment, and righteousness in the land: wherefore doth it please itself, saith the Lord "(Jeremiah 9:24).
Eternal life has begun long ago!
It began on the cross in Jesus!
Reinaldo de Almeida
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