How Safe and Secure are we? Part 1 -Eternal Life

All Christians will say there is no security outside of Christ. We all know Christ is the only way, the Rock, and to build without Him as Lord is to build on sand. 

However there's a continuing discussion among Christian believers about whether you can lose your salvation. It's a deadly serious issue, literally.

Here's one of the verses sometimes quoted to say we can lose our salvation.

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

2 Peter 1:10

Peter tells believers to confirm their calling. In view of the following Romans verse it's hard to see how you would confirm your calling before God. He has already chosen you. Certainly you might reassure and remind yourself, and you might thereby start to live better. But in the thoughts of God, this passage applies:

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Romans 8:29-30

That's a straightforward statement of God's thinking toward us. He foreknew some would come to Him. This does not mandate that men don't choose or reject Him. They do. We all do choose. However God has always been aware of who will choose what. (Predestination without the condition of foreknowledge leads us to the hard Calvinist theology where we have no active part in our salvation). However, the foreknowledge of God resolves the dilemma. God is sovereign, but in that sovereignty He has granted us a freewill to choose certain things for ourselves. We are a living spirit, not a programmed robot. We do make a real choice about eternal destiny, either for glory or damnation. 

God is not constrained by time in the way we are. These verses from Romans read as a fait accompli, a done deal. Even the glorification of the saints is done. He knows who chose Him and who rejected Him. He knows the end from the beginning. He sees all history simultaneously*. 

He foreknew some would step out of the temporal realm and enter the eternal realm. This happens at the new birth; we enter the eternal realm, with our innermost being, and so the true self, our real identity, is established (Ephesians 2v4-6, 2 Corinthians 5v17). Our mortal body stays where it was for now. So can our 'true self' drop back out of eternity?

Imagine two sides of a street. There is the possibility of crossing over, in one direction at least. (There's an Abba song about this, it's not Christian though!). 

One side of the street is the path of natural life, the life of this world. It starts at natural birth and ends at natural, physical, death. Death of the mortal body. On the other side is eternal life, the sort of life Jesus has, and the Father has also. The street has a certain finite length to it on the first side, but continues in both directions forever on the other side.

The man on the first side of the street has two kinds of life, but lacks a third. The man on the second side has all three. This requires explanation.

Three Kinds of Life

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself

For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.

John 5v26,21

There is a type of life possessed by God. It is not a derived, created, life. It is a self-existing, uncreated life**. 

The Father gives this life to the Son, and the Son gives it to whom He will.

There are three Greek words all translated as 'life' in English versions. They are bios, psuche, and zoe. They represent, loosely, biological life, soulish life, and the life of God, respectively. This is how the words are most often used in the Bible. We can see that the English words 'biology' and 'psychology' are derived from the first two. Bios represents the physical processes of life. Bios is impressive enough as far as it goes. When I look at a well-used guitar, someone has played it regularly for decades. It is worn, the fretboard has hollows, the frets are grooved, the finish is eroded. Yet the fingers of the musician are just fine. Bios did that, the callouses may be there but the cells are renewed. Psuche represents the functions of mind. The mind is complex, nuanced, multi-facetted, different for each person. It may be fragile and delicate. The emotions are also involved in Psuche. 

But beyond these, there's a further category of life. Jesus used the word zoe to refer to the life He and the Father shared***. The same word is used to describe the life which He gives to us. The verses from John above use either zoe or a derivative of the root word for zoe. It is the same throughout the New Testament when God's life is involved.

Now the word zoe was not invented for the New Testament: it was a pre-existing Greek word. Strictly speaking, as originally used, the word does not refer only to 'the God kind of life'. Bible teachers often call it that, and that is how it is used in the New Testament. Originally though, it refers to what we might call vibrancy, vigour, productivity, freshness. It is the zing, the beans, in bios and psuche when everything is singing along nicely. It is a very positive take on 'life'. When we combine zoe life with the Greek aioneos, which means something like 'perpetual' or 'always ongoing', we get a phrase usually translated 'everlasting life' or 'eternal life'. This is the Greek phrase from John 3v16, for example. The permanence and the quality of life are both emphasised by the Greek words used. The KJV sometimes translates aioneos as 'everlasting', and sometimes as 'eternal'. Various other versions may prefer one or other word when associated with zoe life.

Interestingly, aioneos indicates a past, present and future continuity. We might think of something described as 'everlasting' as having a beginning, but no end. An 'everlasting' battery for example. (There are things called RTG batteries but they don't really last forever, just a very long time; they got left on the Moon to power instruments. Clearly they had a beginning; someone made them). But 'eternal' has the sense of times past as well as present and future. Or, equivalently, of no beginning and no end. When we say God has no beginning and no end, we are attributing to Him this kind of life. And He is always the source of it. It is granted at His discretion. He has granted bios and psuche to everyone born into this world. New Testament zoe, zoe aioneos, is only for born again believers in Christ His Son. 

When we become believers, we cross over into this zoe aioneos. It is perpetual, it is not subject to birth or death, although we are born again into it from our natural life. 

Back to the street analogy.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 5:24

'Life' here is, you guessed, zoe, and 'eternal life' is zoe aioneos. But notice what Jesus says. 'He who truly hears and believes has already passed from death to life'.

If you have passed from death to eternal life, it is very, very hard to see how you can pass back again. You have passed into a realm of permanence. I would suggest this means you simply cannot pass out again!

For me, the only question is, 'did you really pass over?'

* Yet He is also able to experience life within the constraints of time. This is how Jesus experienced life; the same as we do.

** This uncaused quality of God is called 'aseity' by theologians. 

*** Jesus very probably spoke in Aramaic most of the time; so this is the Greek word used to record what He said.

What is real freedom?

'...if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed'.

John 8v36

Christ and Freedom

Everything a man can have in Christ is the real article. The fresh, vibrant, complete, full, satisfying and abiding version!!

Christ came to bring us freedom. God knows what freedom really is. Man has his counterfeit; it holds false promise, we'll discuss that. But we are set free. (This blog is called flowoffreedom.blogspot because God spoke to me 20 years ago about Him using me to bring freedom. First I have to have living in me in good measure! I'm getting there).

If we have come to Christ for salvation, if we have been born again of the Spirit, we have also been set free! The freedom is an integral part of the package. With Christ, we get everything or we get nothing. You don't choose which bits you want. If you're forgiven, you get new life. If you're righteous, you are free. And so on. You'll get provision. And persecution! We get the whole bundle or nothing.

His freedom is the only true freedom there is, and it's truly wonderful.

Maybe you don't feel free. Often I don't either! But there is hope. God has promised us freedom. What does He mean? What has He actually done? How do we benefit from it?

Human Ideas on Freedom

Most people probably define 'freedom' as 'liberty to do what you want to'. 

Many people are looking for freedom. They don't feel free, and they want to.

The world contends for freedom. Freedom from rules and constraints. Freedom to be who you want to be, to do what you want to do. Anarchy is the idea that your urges are right and should not be supressed. Human freedom, if granted fully, is likely to end in anarchy. But that really won't be good.

Naturally speaking, your freedom to do as you wish will only work for you, if indeed it does work for you, and it won't for long.

My freedom might be your bondage. My freedom to buy what I want may put many factory workers in the East in bondage to long hours and low reward. It might be worse. My freedom to have intercourse when I want may result in the murder of the voiceless, helpless unborn child, a sacrifice to lifestyle preferences as freedom. The loud self-justification of those who pretend otherwise is deceitful and irrelevant in God's light.

Some think money brings freedom. South Africa has a party called The Economic Freedom Fighters. But the rich are not free. They look to money and are insecure about relationship. Everyone might be after your pile. And things do not satisfy for long. There's an illusory running after anything which purports to thrill and satisfy. Nothing is ever perfect enough or exciting enough. They are chasing delusions. No amount of wealth can bring peace, happiness, or indeed, as the Liverpool lads sang, love. It can buy a lustful encounter, but not real love. Love wants the best for the beloved, not some pleasure or status from them.

I could go on. Perhaps for some the motives and goals are higher. Perhaps the freedom fighter wants the poor liberated from exploitation, disease and squalor. Political parties and thinkers may imagine they have the keys to freedom. Che Guevara, the Argentinian-Cuban revolutionary, in an iconic image taken by Alberto Korda, looks like the essence of masculine resolve to bring real societal freedom from oppression. He has spawned millions of trendy t-shirts and caps. Yet he executed many of his opponents. He was unfaithful to his first wife. He stated that he would've provoked nuclear war and billions of deaths to destroy the imperialism he hated during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The champion of the oppressed very often becomes a ruthless oppressor. Guevara always claimed his motives were of love. This only shows self-righteousness as well as self-delusion in an ideology not of Christ. That is always the case.

Human ideas of freedom are subjective, unbalanced and misguided. They do not bring personal or societal freedom, just more strife. The problem is man himself. Man is a sinner, under the power of sin. The problem is deeper than even his emotions, his mind, his capacity for self-reform. Very often it is beyond his self-awareness. 

Guevara was a sinner. He succumbed to self-promotion, vanity, infidelity, vengeance, cruelty, ruthlessness. He was actually an oppressive tyrant. The world would not be free if he prevailed.

Jesus Christ was not a sinner. He was the only man born of woman who never sinned. He was a revolutionary characterised by genuine and prefect love. He showed no vengeance on his enemies. He died for our freedom. In his Deity, He created the World, the elements, the fundamental particles. He worked with wood from the trees he made, and probably with iron from the stars he made. He was, in dreadful irony, nailed to a cross by angry, jealous, vengeful men. He chose the death, and also took up His life later. He cried in pain, but he never cried in vengeance. He said 'Father forgive'. His death and resurrection are supremely empowering for those who understand it and partake of it. He does impart freedom, and his Kingdom will be perfect for all who come to Him.

Christ's Freedom

Christ has set us free from sin. It is sin which keeps us from experiencing real freedom. Men without Christ are under the power of sin and death. God is spring-loaded, by disposition, to love, to live, to give, to share of Himself, to the absolute maximum, to the limits. He is love. He is life. He is the resurrection. He conquered death. And he wants us to be living in this same spiritual place, actually living out of heaven. He reaches out to all mankind with these things.

He wants us to grow in wonder, in glory, in new life, in freshness, eternal freshness, eternal giving, eternal freedom. He wants to grant us a new heart, aligned with His purposes and yet leaving us fully ourselves, not suffocated or suppressed to any degree.

He has solve the freedom equation, and only He has. He want us to have this life, He doesn't need to be persuaded or nagged into this, it's His passionate desire. Sin gets in the way. Sin poisons everything to the very depths of our being. But He has provided the answer. Sin has been dealt with completely and totally. The price has been paid for all men. The answer, as always, is to believe. Accept the problem, agree with the answer. Again and again, as necessary.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

So reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:11

By faith, we can truly say we have died to sin. We have moved into freedom. We are free indeed, as the opening verse quoted tells us. The word 'reckon' in Romans 6v11 just quoted is an accounting term. It means 'ascribe correctly as true', and not 'try to persuade yourself and this might work'. To reckon, here, flows from believing. God has done it. To the uttermost.

Real freedom means you feel the sunlight of God's presence within, along with the messages of love He has left even in the present fallen creation. It means you have a supernatural love for God and others. Live from this; if you return to practicing sin these feelings will die and you will struggle to find your way back. When I got born again, I first experienced the freedom and presence of God. It was the most intense and yet the most restful experience I had ever had. Totally different, totally new.

How does our freedom work in relationship, in community? Before God? How can we do what we want and it still be right and good for everyone? 

God is community. It's His idea. God the Father and Christ are one, of one essential nature. To speak of the will of one is to speak of the will of the other. The same with the Holy Spirit, He is along fully too. Jesus in his mortal flesh had to complete and perfect this association on behalf of humanity by surrendering to the Father, in Gethsemane. Even Jesus struggled with this, when faced with what lay before Him. And He came through for us. Our freedom is that important to God. His love for us is that strong. He gave His Son. His Son yielded.

How, in outworking, in community, can Christ offer real freedom, freedom for as many as would come to Him?

The New Birth brings us into a God-orchestrated harmony with Himself. The astonishing thing is that He has also brought about a complete harmony with others, who have also been made new. He is author of a new societal peace and consonance. The Old Man where unbridled and selfish passions and conflicts reign, dies with Christ. We rise new with Him. The New Man is baptised into love, and into a community of love. Christ is the rightful King.

In each of our natural selves is someone like Guevara. A self-glorifying, self-absorbed, self-justifying, self-centred soul is in there, pretending to be pure and good. That soul is inflamed. It is self-righteous and hypocritical.

It is inflamed like yeast or leaven inflames bread. The leaven of the Jewish teachers was hypocrisy, as Jesus warned in Matthew 16. They taught what they did not do, and could not do. The world does that. Leaders demand their rules be honoured, but do not comply themselves. The whole world system of thinking is like a leaven which inflames people. The leaven with the Pharisees was hypocritical self-righteousness. But our natural desires are inflamed in many ways, this being just an example. Greed is natural appetite inflamed. Parts of us are too big, but not in a good way, like an inflamed internal organ. Less functional, not more. We are all, by ourselves, jostling for attention and resource in an insecure, strife-ridden, anxious way.

This utterly corrupt, inflamed soul is not a trivial problem, and so our soul, susceptible to the yeast of this world, must die. But we die in Christ when we come to Him, expressed in Baptism. He died on our behalf. He incurred the necessary penalty for us. Because He was God and Man, He could pay the price for everyone. He paid in kind, in quality, in His humanity. He paid in quantity because He was infinite God. The old man of sin is left behind, at the Cross, and in the waters of baptism. We rise with Christ to a new life, freed from sin!

So God has fixed absolutely everything for the meek, for those who come to Him. They shall inherit earth and heaven, because only they are genuinely worthy, fitted and suitable. Because they have allowed God to orchestrate the community of the redeemed, on Earth as in Heaven, and to perfect their salvation.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:5

The soul, as we have said, needs to die and to be reborn. Then God is in control. He is building a Kingdom. He is including you. He is fitting you in. He is working on your life, your desires, your thoughts, your emotions. The task has been completed in heaven, in our lives on Earth there is a process involved.

Which bit of you, in the here and now, still needs to change? You have already been born again (or need to be). But your mind needs to be renewed by changed thinking. You need to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The intention of this blog is to help with that, acknowledging it is the Word of God which is the central part. If we are truly born again, we have been changed eternally into a new creature. Our body is the same though, for the remainder of the age, though God may heal and restore it. To reflect who we really are now, our minds need to function differently.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:1-2

In verse one, Paul tells us we must yield our bodies to God, to serve Him. In this life, that will require a conscious decision at times. In the age to come, it will be entirely natural. In verse two, he tells us how that is going to happen. We renew our minds, so we think how God thinks and not how this world thinks. There are profound differences. We go to the written Word, the Bible for the necessary input, and change our thinking according to the revelation and doctrine in it.

To use the crude analogy of programming an electronic device, when God programs everything there is harmony. If not, there is incompatibility, driver conflicts and suchlike.

God will not program our desires so those desires are unachievable. Neither will he do so in a manner which causes problems and frustrations for others. We may have to be patient, but He will not disappoint. God will not set our desires in a way which causes another believer to fall short or go short.

God has both abundant love, and intimate knowledge, fully encompassing the big picture. He has the means, the wisdom and the power. He will build His Kingdom how He wants it, and the citizens will be truly happy forever. Only pride keeps us locked out. Those who stubbornly resist God and stay in their prideful ways, refusing to repent and believe the Good News, will be in a disharmonious condition forever.

There is indeed no rest for the wicked, and without Christ, we are evil. Jesus didn't mince words. He told us our natural condition here:

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:11

There's common grace, we all do some good. Hitler was nice to his dog. But we are, without Him, evil. 

Once we are in the Kingdom, and once we have stayed the course and gone to Heaven, we will find the perfect completion of this freedom. Our desires will be our actions, our actions will be righteous. The inner conflicts will be gone, and so will the outer conflicts. We will experience the unity, joy and fulfillment the Father and Son experience.

We can taste these things now, if we walk closely with God, even in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23).

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Galatians 5:22-24

The virtues Christ won for us come as a package deal. I said this at the start. We can't pick and choose, and stay with the program. We have to continue, surrendering more and more of our lives up and letting Him have His way. The end is rest and peace, true freedom, true joy. It won't always feel that way on the way, but it will start to manifest more and more and if we continue there will be a final consummation into the perfected Kingdom. There's really nowhere to go back to, as Peter realised.

Those who reject God, God will give over to the disharmony, the turmoil, the regret, the frustration.

Like the Father and the Son, we the redeemed will still be individuals. In fact we will have the only truly clear and solid personalities and identities among men. At the same time we will be harmonised within the community of the redeemed, constrained by love. We will do as we please, and yet it will please God and others! That is wonderful. It's life, love, peace and rest.