Eternal Life or the Wrath of God: Which Will You Choose?
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” — John
3:36.
/l|r TE have in these words of God a most vivid Y // contrast. I know of no verse in the Bible ▼ ▼ that is more full of glory in the first part
of it and more full of darkest despair in the last part of it. It presents God’s alternative, an alternative open to all, “eternal life “for all those who believe on the Son, the wrath of God” for those who refuse to believe Him. It leaves each one of us to choose which we shall have.
‘One of the most meaningful and glorious phrases that was ever uttered is that which was so often upon the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ, “eternal life one of the most awful and appalling phrases ever uttered is that other phrase which occurs in our text, “the wrath of God.’^ It cannot be put into words, it cannot be even conceived in fancy, the wealth of glory there is wrapped up in those two words ‘‘ eternal life,” nor can it be put into words, nor can it be conceived by human imagination the depth of dishonour, horror, shame, woe and despair, that is wrapped up
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in that other phrase “the wrath of God.” It is between these two, the unutterably glorious “eternal life” and the immeasurably and unspeakably awful “wrath of God,” that each of us to-night is called to make his choice: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
The question then that confronts each of us in this place to-night is this. Eternal Life or the Wrath of God?
Which shall it be? Which shall I choose? That should not be a difficult question to settle. If any man is not a hopeless fool or an utter maniac he will certainly say, “Give me eternal life: as for the wrath of God, Jesus, Thou Son of God, save me from that.” But that is not the choice that some of you who are here to-night really are making. You are deliberately turning your backs on eternal life, and you have been turning your backs on eternal life for years. Some of you are deliberately choosing the wrath of God and you have been choosing the wrath of God for years. How can we doubt the existence of a personal devil of great cunning and great power when we see how men are so utterly blinded and deceived by his cunning and so completely enslaved mentally by his power, that they choose the wrath of God rather than eternal life? The existence of such a devil as the Bible presents is the only rational explanation of this indubitable fact. You question the existence of a personal devil, yet you yourselves are living demonstrations of his existence and of his marvelous cunjiing and his exceedingly great power.
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I. The Things Contrasted.)
Now let us look more closely at the two possibilities that are put in such vivid contrast. We cannot possibly conceive the glory of the one or the horror of the other, but we can get some hint of what they paean.
I. First of all, ^‘eternal life,’” what is it?
(i) In the first place, Eternal Life is Real Life. In I Timothy 6: 19 Paul says, ‘’lay hold on eternal life.’’ The Revised Version translates this differently. It reads, “lay hold on the life which is life indeed.^^ The Revised Version gives the correct translation, and that is what Eternal Life is, “Life Indeed,” life not merely in seeming but life in reality. Much that we call life is not really life at all, but death. Many a young man or woman plunges into a life of gaiety, worldliness and sin and cries as he does it, “I am going to see life for myself.” No, you are not going to see life, you are going to see death. Paul was right when he said, “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth” (i Tim. 5:6). It is really God who says it, God speaking through Paul. It is not life that you see in the saloon with its carousals, it is death. It is not life that you see in the gambling hell with its strange fascination and intense excitement, it is death. It is not life that you see in the theatre with its appeal to your lust and your impure fancy, with its many times married actresses, with their fair faces and foul hearts, and with its actors who are so often the wreckers of happy homes, it is death. It is not life that you see in the movies with their constant appeal to all that is lowest and vilest in men and women, it is death* It is not life that you see in the ballroom where supposedly decent women permit a familiarity of approach and contact that is nowhere else permitted except by the most indecent women, it is death. It is not life that you see in the costly receptions of the rich with their vain display of jewels and fine apparel, and with their so frequently disgusting and shocking immodesty in dress, it is death. Anywhere and everywhere a life of sin is death, a life of selfishness is death, a life of pleasure is death (i Titus 5:6), a life of worldliness is death; it is not life, it is death. But ‘‘ eternal life really is life, it is life indeed,”’ it deserves the name life, and no one really knows what life is who has not received eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Eternal Life is Life Indeed.
l,{2) In the second place. Eternal life is fullness of life. It is life abundant. Jesus once said, I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10, R. V.). Eternal Life is life full of beauty, full of peace, full of joy, full of power, full of glory, abundant life, abounding life, overflowing life.
y (3) In the third place. Eternal Life is satisfying life. No life but Eternal Life can ever satisfy the longing and capacity of these souls of ours made in the likeness of God. No life that is purely earthly, no life that we inherit from our ancestors, no matter how fine they may have been and how refined in character, no life but the life we derive directly from God when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ, no life but Eternal Life can satisfy the infinite yearnings of
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these spirits of ours made originally in the image of God, and that still in the most depraved of us in their infinite longings retain traces of that divine image in which we were made. “Give me wealth,” one man cries, ‘‘ and I shall be satisfied.” ‘‘ Give me power/^ another cries, ‘‘ and I shall be satisfied.” Give me pleasure,” another cries, “and I shall be satisfied/^ Give me fame,” another cries, and I shall be satisfied.” No, you will not be satisfied with any of these nor with all of these. You would far better cry, “Give me God and I shall be satisfied, give me Eternal Life and I shall be satisfied.” Oh! how many I have known to whom this world seemed to have given all that it had to give — but they were not satisfied. And how many I have known to whom this world had given very little of all it has to give, and yet they were satisfied; for they had God and they had Eternal Life.
X /(4) In the fourth place. Eternal Life is life of highest knowledge. Our Lord brings that out in a wonderful way in an utterance that He made at one of the supreme moments of His life, in His prayer with His disciples the night before His crucifixion, when as He lifted up His eyes to heaven and spoke to the Father He said, “” This is eternal life, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ” (John 17:3, R. V.). Eternal life is full knowledge of the Infinite, The knowledge the most erudite scholar has gathered from books, the knowledge the profoundest philosopher has reasoned out for himself in his reasonings, the knowledge the most brilliant scientist has discovered as he studied the rocks beneath his feet or the stars above his head, is nothing to the knowledge that the humblest man or woman obtains who enters into Eternal Life, knowledge of God, full knowledge of the Infinite.
(5) In the fifth place. Eternal Life is perfect life, completeness of life. It is life in its perfection, in its completeness. All other life than the Eternal Life which we receive when we receive Jesus Christ is partial, fragmentary, unsymmetrical, unbalanced, incomplete. ‘’Eternal life” is life perfected, filled out, symmetrical, perfectly balanced, complete. We have a suggestion of this in the words of Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15-17 where he says, ‘‘ From a babe thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.’’ Here we see that a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ comes through the written Word, and thus Eternal Life comes through the Word, as John puts it in John 20:31, these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” And we further see that by receiving the Eternal Life through the Word a man becomes complete,” obtains complete life. Eternal Life.
(6) In the sixth place, Eternal Life is Divine life, the very life of God imparted to us. The Apostle John says in his first epistle, the first chapter and the second verse, and the life was manifested (that is
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manifested in the person of Jesus Christ), and we have seen and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us,” Eternal Life then is the life of the infinitely Holy and Blessed God, the Infinite Life, imparted to us. Oh! it is wonderful, it is amazing! Oh! think of it, that it is your privilege and my privilege, the privilege of me, a poor sinner, an ignoramus, a worm of the dust, one whose heart was once set upon the silly follies of the world and revolting sin, to have the life of the Blessed God, the very life of God Himself, mind you, this Infinite Life, imparted to me!
(7) In the seventh place. Eternal Life is endless life. Endlessness is not the most essential characteristic of Eternal Life, its quality is more than its duration, but nevertheless it is endless. I thank God it is. I thank God that He offers me a life that is not only infinite in its quality but endless in its duration. I cannot be satisfied with anything that ever comes to an end. I love flowers. I look in joy upon the little daisy in the grass, on the pansy with its happy, sweetly speaking face, upon the lily of the valley, in its modesty and purity and matchless beauty, to me the dearest of all flowers, upon the rose in its rich, superb splendour; but, as I look upon an exquisite bunch of roses, sadness steals over me for I cannot but think how soon they will fade. Leaf by leaf, the roses fall; drop by drop, the springs run dry.” I love Nature, especially the glorious beauty of a sunset in the mountains or by the sea. But as I look at the green and the crimson, the azure and the gold and it seems as if the very gates of heaven were about to swing open, it all fades, and it is night and I am chill and lonely. I love high and noble and ennobling human friendships (in which I have been peculiarly favoured of God); but a few years pass and they are broken by separation or by death and it is all over, and nothing but a memory and a heartache remain.
So it is with everything of earth, it ends. Thank God for something that never ends, something that always has in it the freshness of the dawn, something that ever stretches on and on and on into the illimitable spaces of ever increasing glory before you. Thank God for everlasting life,’’ Such then is eternal life, real life, fullness of life, satisfying life, life of highest knowledge, complete life, the life of God imparted to us, and life that never ends. Do you not desire it? Do you not desire it with an intensity that will not take No’’ for an answer? I do. I would, if necessary, sacrifice everything I hold dear on earth to obtain it, and still think I had made a good bargain even if it should cost me the sacrifice of everything that men hold dear on earth. Thank God Eternal Life is mine! It is mine! It is mine! I have it now. I already have it in its beginnings and I have the sure promise of its fullness. I shall never lose it (John 10:28, 29). Will you have it tjpo?
2. Now let us look at the other experience that is offered us, The wrath of God.” What is that?
It is just what the words express. I have given a good deal of study to the etymology and the usage of the Greek word which is rendered wrath” in this verse. It means the intense and settled dis-THE GOSPEL FOE TO-DAY
pleasure of God, the intense displeasure of that infinitely Holy Being Who created us and all things, and Who has the absolute control of all the powers and forces of the universe. Every true and wise husband dreads the displeasure of his wife, that is, he would not if it could be avoided do anything to incur her displeasure. Every true and wise citizen dreads the displeasure of his government. Every true son dreads the displeasure of his father. But how much more will every man of understanding and of character dread ‘‘ the wrath of God.’’ The Wrath of God! There is nothing more awful than that. To have yon infinitely Holy One displeased with you; to have yon Holy Being, before whom the seraphim veil their faces and cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty,’’ displeased with you; to have yon omnipotent and infinite ruler of the universe displeased with you; to have yon mighty One who holds the sun, and moon, and stars, and all the myriad systems of worlds of light that stud the illimitable expanse of heaven, in the hollow of His hand, as they move through space with incredible momentum displeased with you; to have yon infinitely wise ruler and shaper of the whole history of this tiny ball that we call the earth displeased with you; yes, to have God displeased with you, to incur His wrath, His intense, deep-seated settled displeasure, that is awful! That is appalling! But that is certainly what stares in the face to-night many a man and many a woman in this audience. The wrath OF God.” Gather your thoughts together. Think of it! Will you have it? Will you choose it?
Here then there are before you the two alternatives.
On the one hand Eternal Life, real life, fullness of life, satisfying life, life of highest knowledge, complete life, the life of God, never ending life, blessedness and glory. Eternal Life. On the other hand, the Wrath of God, the intense, deep-seated, settled displeasure of the All Holy One, the Maker and Governor of the Universe. Which will you choose? If you choose the latter, some day you will be among those who are described as saying ‘‘ to the mountains and to the rocks. Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand? ‘’ (Rev. 6:15).
II. How One Determines Whether Eternal
Life or the Wrath of God Shall be His
Portion.
Now we come to the question, and it is a tremendously important question. By what act do we determine whether Eternal Life or The Wrath of God is to be our portion? Listen to God’s own answer to this immensely important question. It is not the answer of all modern philosophers, it is not the answer of all modern theologians, it is not the answer of all modern preachers, but it is God’s answer and therefore it is true. You will find that answer in the words of our text, he that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Nothing could be plainer or more simple or more unmistakable than this answer. The one and only act by which we get Eternal Life is the act of believing on the Son of God, believing on Jesus
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Christ. The one and only act by which jve lose Eternal Life and bring upon ourselves the abiding “wrath of Ckpd” is by refusing to believe on Jesus Christ.
Whosoever believeth on Jesus Christ gets Eternal Life. There it stands in God’s sure Word in language a child can understand, “he that believeth on the Son hath eternal life,” irrespective of who he is or what he is, irrespective of what he has been or what he has done. He may be a millionaire or he may be a pauper, he may be a scholar or he may be unable to read or write, he may be moral and upright and clean, or he may be immoral and dishonest and vile, but the moment any man or woman or child believes on the Son, believes on Jesus Christ, that moment that person gets eternal life, they get the actual experience of the beginnings of it, and the fullness that awaits them in the world to come is assured. Any man, any woman may get eternal life right now. You may get eternal life before you read another page in this book if you desire to do so and you can have that perfect assurance that comes from knowing that you have God’s own Word back of you when you say it.
But what is it to believe on the Son of God? It is to accept God’s testimony about Jesus Christ, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and to act upon that testimony by putting your full and absolute confidence in Him Who is so entirely worthy of your confidence, and therefore accepting Him to be to yourselves all that He offers Himself to be, your crucified Saviour, Who bore every one of your sins in His own body on the cross and thus settled them.
your risen Saviour Who has all power in heaven and on earth, and is therefore able to keep you day by day, and your absolute Lord and Master, to whom you surrender the entire control of your thoughts and life. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is putting your confidence in Him, It leads you to entrust to Him your salvation, and to entrust to Him your whole self. Believing on the Son of God will lead you to go right to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and say to Him, Lord Jesus, I believe God’s testimony about you, that you are God’s Son, and that you bore my sins in your own body on the cross, and that you rose again and are a living Saviour to-day, and I commit myself to Thee to save, and keep and guide and teach and govern, to do what you will with me. I put my trust in Thee to save me from the guilt of sin by Thine atoning death, I put my trust in Thee to save me from the power of sin day by day by Thy resurrection power, I surrender to Thee the entire control of my life and thoughts.” It is this unreserved committal of yourself to Jesus Christ that brings Eternal Life, and when you make it you can say with Paul, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Tim. 1: 12).
Will you take that decisive step? You have every reason for believing on the Son of God. The testimony that He really is the Son of God, God’s own testimony to that fact, is unanswerable. Will you yield to the testimony and believe on Him?
Now what is the act by which we bring upon ourselves the wrath of God? Oh! the answer to that is
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so plain. Here it is: “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him/” The Revised Version renders it, he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him/” The truth is in both the Authorized and the Revised, but neither the Authorized nor the Revised give the exact force of the word which is translated “believeth not “” in the one case, and obeyeth not “” in the other. The word so translated means to refuse to be persuaded, or to refuse to believe, so exactly translated it would be, but he that refuseth to believe (or, disbelieveth) the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him/” The thought is that those who have heard of Him and do not believe are responsible for not believing, for they have refused to be persuaded by the evidence, they have refused to yield to the evidence, they have refused to believe. That is the exact truth about every one who goes on without believing on the Son of God, without putting their confidence in the Son of God, without accepting the Son of God as their Saviour, their Lord, their King.
You have had abundant evidence that He is the Son of God. You have had abundant evidence that He can save from the guilt and power of sin, but through love of the world or love of sin or fear of man or for some other reason you refuse to believe, you will not believe on the Son. Well, if you will not believe on the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, if you continue to refuse to yield to the evidence that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, with that real faith that leads to obedience to His Word and trust in Himself, you will not get eternal life.
No, not only that, but you will get ‘“the wrath of
Godr
Do you believe Jesus Christ? Do you believe Him with that real faith that leads you to act upon what He says, with that faith that leads you to put your unhesitating confidence in His promises, and to yield unquestioning obedience to His commands, and to put your confidence in Himself? If not, the wrath of God abideth upon “” you. It makes absolutely no difference who or what you are. You may not be a criminal, you may not be a moral monster, you may not be low and selfish and dishonest, you may not be contemptible and mean; you may be refined, you may be cultivated, you may be highly cultured, you may be a university student or university professor, you may be amiable, you may be gentlemanly or ladylike, you may be true and kind and generous, but if you do not believe on the Son of God, if you refuse to be persuaded by His words and to put confidence in Himself as your atoning Saviour, your risen Saviour, to obey Him, if you are not ready to act upon His every word, the wrath of God abideth upon ‘’ you. The wrath of God, the deep, settled, intense displeasure of God is resting upon every man and woman, young and old, who does not put confidence in Jesus Christ as the Christ, the Son of God, and stand ready to act upon His every word. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.’’ Oh! it is awful! awful! awful!
If we could represent God’s wrath by a black thunder cloud, and could see things as they really are, we would see a blacker storm cloud than human eye ever beheld hanging over the head of many a man and many a woman in this audience to-night, ready to break. I have been an eye witness of some terrific storms on sea and land. I was once in a house that was struck by lightning, and at another time I was standing in the door of another house when the lightning struck and splintered a great oak a few feet away, and a part of the lightning passed through the very door where I was standing. One summer at Northfield, I had to go out into an electric storm to quiet a horse that was trembling like a leaf, and take him from underneath a tree, and the lightning in a short time struck three times within sight of where I stood.
But I had a dream one night far more terrible than anything I ever saw in life. It was more than twenty years ago but I remember it vividly even yet, and the appalling horror that swept over me in the midst of the dream. Enormous bags of black, smoke-like, cyclonic clouds with ragged edges rolled up full of wind and electricity, and every moment I expected to see one burst and shoot down with deafening reverberation awful death upon my poor devoted head. That awful dream that made my blood fairly run cold even in my sleep, is I believe only a faint picture of every man and woman in this house to-night who is out of Christ. ‘‘ The wrath of God abideth upon” you. That awful storm cloud full of lightning, thunder, death, shame, woe, despair, hangs over your head to-night, ready to burst. But God is long-suffering and merciful. He ‘‘ is not willing that any should perish ‘’ (2 Pet. 3:9), and holds back the execution of His long pent-up wrath. Nay more, He
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offers you eternal life, real life, fullness of life, perfectly satisfying life, life of highest knowledge, complete life. His own life, endless life, infinite life, life of measureless joy and beauty and power and glory instead. Which will you have. Eternal Life or the Wrath of God? Do I hear some one mutter, I do not like that kind of preaching. I do not believe it” Then you are giving the lie to God; for it is not I, it is God who says, ‘‘ He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”’ Oh! men and women, there are two possibilities open before you to-night, one infinitely glorious, the other inconceivably appalling. Eternal Life or the Wrath of God, which will you take?