“The Good News Of Eternal Life”
Romans 6:23
Sermon Series: “The Gospel”
Introduction: Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. I can identify with that statement. Going to heaven sounds great. Jesus can beam me up right now. But, I don’t want to have a cold, much less die. However, it is part of the human experience. The death rate is still one per person. Rick Warren has written, “The only time most people think about eternity is at funerals, and then it’s often shallow, sentimental thinking, based on ignorance. You may feel it’s morbid to think about death, but actually it’s unhealthy to live in denial of death and not consider what is inevitable. Only a fool would go through life unprepared for what we all know will eventually happen. You need to think more about eternity, not less.” Death is the biggest problem we have, but eternal life is God’s gracious solution to that problem. This is one of life’s most important issues, and we are going to wrestle with it this weekend. We need to answer some crucial questions. Why do we die? What is death? What happens when we die? Is there life after death? What does eternal life look like? Let’s answer these questions from a biblical perspective.
I. The Bad News of Death
1. We earn death because of our sin. God told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden (Genesis 3:3). Of course, they disobeyed, and death has been part of the human condition ever since then. The last part of Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul who sins shall die.” Hebrews 9:27 says, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” Death is an enemy that is outside of God’s original design for the world (1 Corinthians 15:26).
2. The nature of death is separation.
A. Physical death is the separation of the body (outer man or physical being) from the soul (spirit, inner man). James 2:26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
Spiritual death is the separation of a person from a
relationship with God. There is no life in our souls apart from this relationship (Ephesians 2:1). Since everyone is a sinner (Romans 3:23), this is everyone’s condition apart from Jesus.
Eternal death is a person being permanently
separated from God in hell (Luke 16:19-31, Rev. 20:11-15).
II. The Good News of Eternal Life
1. God gives us eternal life as a free gift of His grace.
2. Life is found through a connection to God. It is:
A. Physical. God gives life to us (Genesis 2:7).
B. Spiritual. Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). We are made spiritually alive by knowing God (being connected to Him) through Jesus Christ. Spiritual life begins at the moment of salvation. Eternal simply tells us how long this life lasts.
C. Abundant. Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
D. Eternal. When God makes us alive, it is forever. We may die physically, but the reality is that we become more alive then than we ever have been. Here is a short version of that process:
-When we die, our body goes in the ground, but our inner man is still alive. The believer’s soul goes to be with God immediately, and he will eventually receive a glorified, perfected, heavenly body (2 Corinthians 5:1-8).
-This takes places when Christ returns to rapture the church and resurrect dead saints (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
-We will spend eternity in the presence of God in a perfect place called heaven (see Revelation 21-22).
3. Eternal life comes through Christ Jesus our Lord. We earn death, but Jesus gives us life as a free gift. He is Christ the Messiah. He is Jesus, which means Jehovah our Savior. He is Lord, which means God who rules.
