Everlasting Life

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” — Rom. vi. 23.

Tins is the most important of all subjects, concerns each one: “that ye may know that ve have eternal life; and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God “(1 John v. 13). I. What is the gift? To value it, we must look at the contrast; eternal death. He hath” set the one over against the other.”

The Holy Spirit has used only one word in the original for the duration of both (Matt. xxv. 46). No use imagining an alternative; no annihilation, etc., etc.; instinct as well as revelation tells this. After all arguments of infidels (overturned again and again by voices which they won’t go to hear and books which they won’t read) there remains an awful if which none can set aside. If they turn out to be wrong, if the Bible be true, then” what remaineth? “1 ’ blackness of darkness for ever, “” where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark xi. 46). But there is no real “if”: God has revealed all this.

Now contrast: “gift of eternal life”; life which no decay can touch, no death can shadow; in which the grave will be only “parenthesis,” not “period”; gift worthy of Giver. Why eternal? because not mere prolongation of our life, but Christ’s own eternal life given to us, as His mortal life was given for us. “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John xiv. 19). (Col. iii. 3,) Can Christ, the Very Life, die? Faith makes one with Him, and partakers of His life (Luke x. 42).

Describe eternal life. ist, negatively; no sin, sorrow, pain, death, etc.: 2nd, positively: life of perfect love, knowledge, holiness, bliss.

II. Who is the Giver? The Father, “the gift of God is eternal life” (Rom. vi. 23). The Son, “I give unto them eternal life” (John x. 28). The Holy Spirit, “the Spirit giveth life” (2 Cor. iii. 6). Gift of the triune Jehovah; “King eternal, immortal, invisible.” Value of the gift enhanced by consideration of the Giver.

III. Who may have the gift? First, the thirsty ones (Isa. lv. 1; John vii. 37). But even if not hitherto among these, and cannot claim “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matt. v. 6), a wider offer still. Secondly, “whosoever will” (Rev. xxii. 17): you and I.

IV. Why we may have eternal life. (1) Because God has promised it for us to Christ (Tit. i. 2). “In hope of eternal life,” which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. He holds the promise for us (illustration of promise made to parents for a child). (2) Because Jesus has taken our sin and its wages, death, upon Himself, in our stead.

V. How we may have eternal life. “Only believe.” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts xvi. 31).” Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John v. 24). What can hinder? only one thing; we can’t receive a gift in a full hand: “Nothing in my hand I bring.” It is offered on no other terms, can be had on no other, than as a “free gift.” Gift too, not to friends but to debtors and enemies (Rom. v. 6, 7, 8). How debtors? Take one point only (Mark xii. 30): “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first command,” absolute debt: who can dare say we have rendered obedience to this one command. Verily “nothing to pay.” What if we persist in clinging to false hopes and vain efforts! (Illustration. Five sailors were clinging to the broken mast of a sinking ship in Dublin Bay. A rope was thrown to them. At the trumpet signal “Now!” they were to loose their hold of the mast, and trust themselves to the rope. Four did so, and were hauled safe to shore. The fifth hesitated to let go, and was lost!)

VI. When we may have eternal life. This very day and hour. Now! “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John iii. 36). “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life’’ (John vi. 47). No reason in delay: “If you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all. (Illustration. One summer’s evening a traveller hired a boat on a wide and apparently safe river. He was warned not to go too far, not to delay in turning, at a signal of danger, where the current swept down the falls of Niagara. He knew there was danger; after amusing himself still floating down the stream, he fell asleep. Onward, downward, went the boat, past the signal post; the sleeper slept on. Passers by on the shore shouted, “Stop!” “stop!” The sleeper woke; too late to turn back, one cry of despair — and he was hurled to the depths beneath.)

But perhaps you have eternal life without knowing it. Listen to God’s word: (1 John v. 11). Rest your soul on this, and make God a liar no longer, but believe the record that “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son,”