The Free Gift of Eternal Life

Hebrews 11 is a famous chapter of the New Testament, sometimes coined "Heroes of Faith" or something like that. It recounts many stories from the Old Testament, like Noah building an ark for years while people looked on and mocked him. Abraham moving his entire family to an undisclosed location (and moving was no small deal in that day and time).

The author praises these heroes because they had faith. Their love for God was shown in the way they lived, to a dramatic degree.

All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:13-16 

They died still believing a promise that God gave them. They "agreed" (in accordance with this promise) that they were "foreigners and nomads" here on earth.

I was told recently that the word "holy" means "set apart". So when we sing of how holy God is, properly understood, we exalt Him at the sight of who He is in contrast to everything else. Being "most holy", he is "most set apart". He's nothing like anything else, in a good way. Far above.

These heroes of faith were set apart too. They didn't see themselves as being just human. Considered their national heritage as being second to the country they were seeking. A "heavenly homeland". Their true created identity.

Jesus told His followers He went to prepare a place for them as well. I sometimes wonder what it would be like if every Christian everywhere really believed that. It's worth dwelling on.

So for these people in the Old Testament, and for every Christian today (followers of Jesus), we have the idea that we weren't made just to be human. This isn't the full extent of our existence. We were created for more. Created for a different place. Something about believing that causes us to be set apart from the ways of life considered "normal" here on Earth.

Jesus says in Matthew 16:25:

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Similar to the idea that we are foreigners here, we have Jesus telling us that an attempt to hold our lives selfishly will actually result in the loss of life. I think this is actually a loving appeal for us to accept a truth that challenges entitlement and pride: you weren't made for you.

I think we see this in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve live in harmony with God, but decide they want to decide for themselves what is good and evil rather than submit to God's Lordship (the tree they ate from gave "knowledge of good and evil"). They have lost their access to God's presence because their taking of this power is a giant rift in how they were created to live. A disconnection with God occurred, because they wanted to take something rightly His, for themselves. They've actually lost their identities.

We are all in this same state of being severed from our true created identity, and we all experience the emptiness/treadmill of life that forever keeps us wondering why we're here .. "is really it?" Subliminally wondering if after we graduate college we'll finally be fulfilled and happy, or maybe after marriage, or after travelling a lot and seeing the world, or after raising kids and seeing them succeed....

Some simple examples of this seen in my own life: When I was a kid I had a hard time with competition. Especially wrestling or play fighting. I took it too seriously and would over-react. I didn't find it fun. That applied in many avenues of competitiveness, really. Even in to young-adulthood.

God spoke to me and told me that I was afraid of what I thought losing meant about who I was. You don't need to be much older than 4 to begin being mad at yourself and crying because you feel like "you suck" and wish you were better.

Adults do the same thing. Whether it's me slamming weights around angrily at the gym because I didn't get the bench press I wanted, or a self conscious teenager worrying about her hair - we look to anything to affirm that we don't suck. We need to believe something good about ourselves, and it's painful to believe the opposite.

Jesus tells us that we weren't made for ourselves, and we observe it in all of these insecurities and attempts to prove ourselves. They will never satisfy. You will never bench enough. Even if you're the best in the world - you're selling yourself so short of who Jesus is saying you were really meant to be.

For most of us who never get to be the best at bench pressing in the world and deal with the constant comparing ourselves with others, feelings of worthlessness, questions about what the point of all of this is, obsessively worrying about what others think of us for fear that our insecurities might be true.

For most of us haunted by this constant fear and exhausting battle to fight the destructive things we believe about ourselves: the faults we always find in the mirror, the never-ending focus on everything we did wrong or should have done better without getting to rest in improvement or a job well done. To us, Jesus speaks words that the whole world has hung on for thousands of years:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

I strongly encourage you to read the entirety of Matthew 5

We are blessed, because God sent His son as a way of restoration back to the Kingdom of Heaven. A new life, a fresh start, and a clean slate from every sin, that we may stand before Him "holy and blameless". An eternal life that no one can take from you. God calling you a friend, a co-worker, a child of God.

It takes accepting His invitation to be King again in our lives. The way we lived thinking our lives were for us is turned from, and we walk with Him, being born again and becoming a new creation.

It's as simple as asking Him, if you're curious. You don't need to be in a church or a special place.

Jesus puts an end to our identity crisis, and gives us rest. Like it said in Hebrews, as we live believing that we haven't found our home yet - we live each day believing that who we are in Christ is the real us.

Don't miss that God calls you "holy and blameless" if you've received that cleansing gift in Jesus (if you're a Christian). "A child of His own". You didn't need to bench press a lot of look nice for Him to call you that, and that won't change. He teaches us to see ourselves in the mirror as He sees us, and it's not fault-finding.

For many Christians this is, in practice, is not much more than a distant biblical truth. I think it looks very different in all areas of life when you walk around believing every day that you are a holy, blameless, child of God.

I should mention that I'm not suggesting that the bible teaches us we are all perfect at living out the truth of who we have been made in Christ. We grow in that, and that process of growing is called "sanctification" in biblical terms. Growing to be more like Christ.

I'm suggesting that even our greatest failures are paid for in Christ, and sin is still sin, but He wants us to stand on the forgiveness that gives us access to Him in the first place, and keep learning from Him, seeking Him, and living every day with Him.

It should not spiral us in to an identity crisis every time we mess something up, it should be a platform for the "true" us to come through in this life, by "being transformed in the renewing of our minds".

You are not only as good as how well you do. You are as good as Jesus made you clean in his atoning blood. How's that for the opposite of religious thinking?

"Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" Matthew 16:25B

Here's to the great freedom set before us that we don't need to fight to live for ourselves anymore. Here's to the peace, love, joy and abundance that it is to allow our lives to be about Him. The free gift of eternal life. The "better" way that cannot be taken from us".

Here's to an answer for every fear and insecurity. Here's to lives filled with unending love that no longer competes in the mad scramble of the world to "get theirs".

Here's to living water - John 4:14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”"

And to a treasure worth selling everything for.