Title: WORLD WITHOUT END
Focus: Eternal life entails doing God’s bidding in a world without end.
Function: To move the people to draw strength from God’s future work of salvation already accomplished in Jesus, God’s Son
Text: John 17:1-5
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 23
When our oldest daughter, Jessica, was a young child, I explained to her the concept of eternal life. Thinking that she would respond with delight about the prospect of living eternally, I was shocked to hear her response: “Dad, who wants to live forever? It’s scares me to even try to understand what it means to have eternal life.” Jessica’s response made me realize again the mystery of God’s gift of eternal life. Who can understand it? Who can imagine what eternal life really looks like and consists of?
Throughout the centuries, Christians have defiantly declared, in light of Scripture, that we “believe in the life everlasting.” I say “defiantly” because everything around us (and in us) points to the power of death and mortality. Nothing lasts: sickness, death, and funerals are daily companions to deal with. Human life is frail and temporary; science, garbage dumps, and cemeteries testify to that. So, how can we even speak of life everlasting? Is everlasting life then simply wishful thinking or an illusion? No. It’s a wondrous mystery that gives us great comfort and strength!
Some of
that mystery comes out in our songs of praise. Listen to this one: “Glory be
to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.”
This is a doxology that fits beautifully with the text of John 17:1-5. For in that passage, the Lord Jesus prays to his heavenly Father and speaks of glory and eternal life. And whereas Jesus defines eternal life in terms of a relationship, the doxology captures the concept and mystery of eternal life in terms of time and matter or space: “…as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.”
Here is the good news: As God will complete his rescue work of saving the lost and restoring all of creation in Jesus Christ, we draw strength today from the Bible’s teaching on eternal life. And we declare with confidence that eternal life consists of doing God’s bidding in a world without end.
If our idea about eternal life consists of a “pie in the sky” notion that seems totally irrelevant for us today, we need to stop and pinch ourselves: belief in eternal life is not an escape from reality, where you think of life after death as a life of floating or flying around in heaven, wings on your shoulders, playing harp or chanting songs of praise to God. Rather, eternal life consists of doing God’s bidding in a world without end.
If you wonder why you need to draw strength from this teaching about eternal life, you need to step in the shoes of those who are mourning the loss of loved ones; we need to balance our reading of comics with reading obituaries. More than that, if you want to experience comfort and power from this Christian teaching, you and I need to embrace the essence of eternal life by living it already today: Eternal life consists of doing God’s bidding in a world without end—today, tomorrow, and forevermore.
The Bible’s teaching on eternal life is relevant for us today because what is to come in its final form has bearing on our lives today. Eternal life--in all its fullness—will come in the future when Jesus returns. But that future life impacts us already today. The life that is to come nurtures us already today. The life that God’s people will live eternally has already begun, in principle, today. That’s why eternal life calls for doing Gods’ bidding in a world without end.
Listen to this question and answer (L.D. 22): “How does the article concerning “life everlasting” comfort you?” “Even as I already now experience in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, so after this life I will have perfect blessedness such as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no man has ever imagined: a blessedness in which to praise God eternally.” Here the Catechism emphasizes that already now we experience in our hearts the beginning of eternal joy. In other words, something of the everlasting life (call it “eternal joy,” or call it “blessedness”)—something of that eternal life nurtures and strengthens us today.
This is not hard to understand. Many of the Bible’s teachings have this already—not yet dynamic. Consider: When a person comes to faith in Christ Jesus, she is a new creation (already today), yet, she also waits for the day when she will be fully restored in the image of Christ and be made new; a Christian is someone who is made right with God; his sins are forgiven because of Jesus’ work on the cross and in the tomb. God has removed already today the cloud of condemnation, but each one of us realizes the need for daily repentance, confession of sin, and forgiveness of sins because God’s Spirit is not yet done with reconstructing us completely in the image of Christ. That will happen when Christ returns and makes all things new.
We say with confidence: Already today, we belong to Christ, we have been forgiven in Christ, and yes, we have eternal life. These are spiritual realities that move us deeply in life today. But we also long for these spiritual realities to become totally visible in our lives. We live our lives in the present; we draw strength from the story of God’s rescue work in the past; and we receive comfort and power from God’s final work in the future. “I believe in the life everlasting,” is NOT a pie in the sky notion; it’s a defiant declaration that eternal life calls for doing God’s bidding in a world without end. It’s a powerful motivation as we live our lives today.
Eternal life consists of living in a world without end. God has created this world and universe. God has given us life in this world—a life to be lived out on this creation. Sin has brought death into our world and into our lives; But Christ the Son of God has paid the price of our sins. He died, he conquered the powers of sin and death; he arose again; he ascended into heaven; he sent his life-giving, life-renewing Spirit, and Christ is preparing this heaven and earth for its final restoration, when Christ comes again.
As God restores human life in Jesus, so he restores all of creation. The two go together. Eternal life, then, has its beginnings already today, and has bearing on how we live today, and takes place on this creation, this heaven and earth, which is waiting for the great day of renewal. This creation will not evaporate at the end of time; it will be purified, cleansed, totally renewed. And we will live forever in this renewed creation.
It’s as the apostle Peter says: (II Peter 3:10, 13) “The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare…in keeping with (God’) promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” That home of righteousness is the “world without end.” Eternal life consists of doing God’s bidding in a world without end.
There are different levels of knowing. For example, I know my wife’s name, date of birth, and family history. These are facts I know. But I also know her as a friend, a soul mate and companion in life. I love her deeply with all my affections. We also know each other on a level of intimacy that belongs to marriage. This is a level of knowing where two become one flesh. Thus there is knowledge of facts, of affections, and of intimacy.
Jesus prays
to his heavenly Father and says: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your
Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all
people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given
him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and
Jesus, Christ whom you have sent.”
Here the Scripture defines eternal life in terms of knowing God the Father and God the Son. To know the Father and the Son centers on a relationship that is shaped by the knowledge of God as he reveals himself in creation and in his Word. Such knowledge leads us to praise our heavenly Father.
Also, to have eternal life is to know the works of God in his Son, the Lord Jesus. Such knowledge includes the facts that Jesus died, and rose again and is seated at God’s right hand as our King today. But it also includes a relationship of faith that brings intimacy, friendship, and a daily walk with Christ.
Such
knowledge of God the Father and God the Son calls forth a response of gratitude
in our lives, where we do God’s bidding and serve him with all our lives. And
knowing God in that way—doing his bidding here on earth today—leads to the
experience of joy, of blessings in our hearts. And that experience is the
“beginning of eternal joy”; it is the fruit of eternal life. The experience of
knowing God the Father and God the Son today by doing his bidding gives us a
taste of the life that is to come in the world without end.