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ETERNAL LIFE
IS CHRIST
by
Major W. Ian Thomas
What is eternal
life? Is it a place that you are going to when you are dead? Is it a
peculiar feeling inside? If you were to ask a normal congregation, or
any sort of Bible class or Sunday school in an evangelical church to
define eternal life, you would be amazed at the strange answers you
would get!
What is eternal
life? When does it begin? I noticed just the other day, in a hospital
chapel where I was speaking, a tablet on the wall in memory of one of
the previous chaplains, and in giving the date of his death it said,
"He entered into eternal life." Is that true if he was a
Christian? Is it right to imply, as did that tablet on the wall, that
eternal life begins when a man is physically dead? No, indeed!
"And
this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not
the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:11,12)
Jesus Christ
and eternal life are synonymous terms, and eternal life is none other
than Jesus Christ Himself, of whom it is written in John 1:4 "In
Him was life; and this life was the light of men." If you
have eternal life at all, it simply means that you have the Son, Jesus
Christ now! Jesus said, "I
am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life" (John 14:6)
Eternal life is
not a peculiar feeling inside! It is not your ultimate destination, to
which you will go when you are dead. If you are born again, eternal life
is that quality of life that you possess right now, at this very moment,
in your own physical body, with your own two feet on the ground, and in
the world TODAY. And where does this life come from? Of Him! He is
that Life!
So if you have
eternal life, it means that you have Somebody, Jesus Christ, and the
life that you possess is of Him.
From: The
Saving Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. ©1961
RECOMMENDED
READING:
ALPHA
AND OMEGA
I
AM
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