ETERNITY
"The things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18
There are star depths in the heavens that the most powerful telescopes cannot pierce, yet it is well to look into them and learn something if we cannot learn everything. There are heights and depths about the subject of eternity that mortal man can never comprehend, but God has spoken of it and we have no right to turn away from it altogether. In examining points like these we have nothing to do with preconceived notions about God's character and what we think God ought to do with man after death. The thoughts we have a right to hold are the thoughts He has been pleased to reveal to us in His written Word, the holy Bible. If you are tempted to doubt that, consider this: Imagine a judge who calls in witnesses and pretends to examine them while simultaneously issuing a statement that no matter what they say or evidence they give, their cause is so absurd and unjust that no evidence will be sufficient to prove it. Do not be that kind of judge.
1. We live in a world where all things are temporal and passing away. Everything around us is decaying, dying, and coming to an end. In a practical sense, there is nothing undying about us except our souls. That is what this line by a dying poet in the hymn Abide with Me attempts to capture: "Change and decay in all around I see. O Thou who changest not, abide with me."
Beauty is only temporal. Sarah was once the fairest of women and the admiration of the court of Egypt, yet a day came when her husband, Abraham, said, "Let me bury my dead out of my sight" (Genesis 23:4). Strength of body is only temporal. David was once a mighty man of valor, the champion of Israel against Goliath, yet the day came when he had to be nursed like a child in his old age. As humbling and painful as these truths may sound, it is good for us to take them to heart. The houses we live in, the relations we enter into, the professions we follow, the riches we accumulate, the plans we form are only for a time. "The form of this world is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7:31).
Think of pleasures, amusements, profits, and earthly callings as poor ephemeral things that cannot last. Love them not too well or grasp them too tightly: they are useful as servants but dreadful as idols. You cannot keep them and must lose them. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness," said Jesus, and then everything else needful will be added as well (Matthew 6:33). "Set your mind on things above," not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2). The world and its lusts are passing away, "but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17).
If you take these things to heart, you may take heart because your trials and conflicts are only temporary. They will soon come to an end and even now are working for you "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17). Bear them patiently and quietly. Look upward, forward, and far beyond them. The cross shall soon be exchanged for a crown and you shall sit down at a feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 8:11).
2. We are all going toward a world where everything is eternal. The Bible teaches that the great unseen state of existence lying behind the grave is forever. Whether it be happy or miserable, in one respect it is utterly unlike this world: it is eternal. There will be no change and decay, no end, no goodbyes, no mornings and evenings, no annihilation. "The things unseen are eternal." We cannot fully grasp this: the contrast between now and then, between this world and the next, is so enormously great that our feeble minds will not take it in. The consequences it entails are so tremendous, they almost take away our breath and we shrink from looking at them. But when the Bible speaks plainly, we have no right to turn away from a subject.
A. Future happiness. The future is eternally bright for those who, by definition, have been rescued by their saving faith in Christ's righteous life, death, and resurrection on their behalf. At God's "right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11). Awaiting them is "an inheritance ... imperishable, undefiled, and unfading," including "an unfading crown of glory" (1 Peter 1:4; 5:4). Their fight is over; their work is done. No more will they hunger and thirst. They are traveling towards an "eternal weight of glory," towards a home that shall never be broken up, a meeting without parting, a family gathering without separation, a day without night. Faith shall be swallowed up by sight and hope by certainty. They "shall always be with the Lord." No wonder Paul adds, "Comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18).
B. Future misery. For those who have no faith in Christ, the future is eternally bleak. That is a solemn truth and flesh and blood naturally shrink from the contemplation of it, but it is plainly and mercifully revealed in Scripture. Whoever spoke such loving and merciful words as our Lord Jesus Christ? No one warned more about hell than Him, describing it as a place "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:47-48). No one has written more eloquently about love than the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 13), yet he warns that the wicked "shall be punished with everlasting destruction" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). The same words that describe the eternality of heaven likewise describe the eternality of hell.
Sin and death entered the world by the devil's daring falsehood, "You surely shall not die" (Genesis 3:4). Thousands of years later, the great enemy of our souls is still using his old weapon, trying to persuade men and women that they may live and die in sin, yet at some distant period be finally saved. Let us not be taken advantage of by being "ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11). There is nothing Satan desires more than we should believe he does not exist and that there is no such thing as eternal torment.
Think: what was the use of God's Son becoming incarnate, living a perfect life, agonizing in Gethsemane, and dying on the cross to make a substitutionary atonement for sin for all who trust in Him if people can be finally saved without believing in Him? Where is the slightest proof that saving faith in Christ's blood can ever begin after death? We are told, "It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Where is the need for the Holy Spirit if sinners are at last to enter heaven without conversion and renewal of heart? Hear what Solomon the wise says to curb youthful lusts: "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment" (Ecclesiastes 11:9). Unrepented sin is an eternal evil and can never cease to be sin. He "to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13) is an eternal God.
The words of Psalm 145 are strikingly beautiful: "The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You....
"The Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works ... near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy" (Psalm 145:8-20).
3. Our state in the unseen world of eternity depends entirely upon what we are in time. The life we live on earth is short and soon gone: "We finish our years like a sigh.... What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (Psalm 90:9; James 4:14). The life before us when we leave this world is an endless eternity, a sea without a bottom and an ocean without a shore. "Do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8). But as short as our life is here and endless as it will be hereafter, it is of utmost importance that eternity hinges upon time. Our lot after death depends, humanly speaking, on what we are while we are alive. It is written that God "will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath" (Romans 2:6-8).
We ought never to forget that we are all, while we live, in a state of probation. We are constantly sowing seeds that will spring up and bear fruit, every day and hour in our lives. Eternal consequences result from our thoughts, words, and deeds, of which we take far too little account. Jesus said, "For every idle word men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:36). No wonder Paul was inspired to write, "He who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life" (Galatians 6:8). So what we sow in life we shall reap after death and to all eternity.
The Bible teaches clearly that as we die, whether converted to Christ or unconverted, whether believers or unbelievers, whether godly or ungodly, so shall we rise again when the last trumpet sounds. There is no repentance in the grave. There is no purgatory. Now is the time to believe in Christ and lay hold of eternal life. As Jesus said, "The night is coming when no one can work" (John 9:4). "In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie" (Ecclesiastes 11:3). If we leave this world impenitent and unbelieving, we shall rise the same in the resurrection morning and find, as Jesus said of Judas, that it would have been better not to have been born.
Remember this and make good use of time. Regard it as the stuff of which life is made and never waste it or throw it away. The means of grace, including prayer, Bible reading, and faithfully attending public worship, are given to help you toward an eternal world. Not one of them should be thoughtlessly treated or lightly and irreverently handled. Use them all as one who remembers eternity.
Place in the face of temptation the thought of eternity, setting aside thoughts such as, "It is only a little one," "Never mind. What is the harm? Everyone is doing it." The soon-to-be- martyred English Reformer John Hooper was tempted to recant his faith in Christ in exchange for safety with a concerned enemy telling him this: "Life is sweet and death is bitter." But Hooper remembered eternity when giving his memorable reply: "True, quite true, but eternal life is more sweet and eternal death is more bitter."
4. The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Friend whom we all must look to for help, both in time and eternity. The reason the eternal Son of God came into the world is to give us hope and peace while we live among "the things that are seen," which are transient, and glory and blessedness when we go into "the things that are unseen," which are eternal. He came to bring "life and immortality to light through the Gospel" and to "release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:15). He saw our lost and bankrupt condition, and had compassion on us.
These mighty privileges our Lord Jesus Christ purchased for us at the cost of His own precious blood. He became our Substitute and bore our sins in His own body on the cross and then rose again for our justification. Christ "suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." He who knew no sin was temporarily made sin for us that we poor sinful creatures might have pardon and righteousness while we live, and glory and blessedness when we die (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus offers these blessings freely to everyone who will turn from his or her sins, come to Him, and believe. "I am the light of the world," He says. "The one who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37). "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). Whoever believes in Christ "shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). The only way to pass through "things seen" with comfort and look forward to "things unseen" without fear is to have Christ as our Savior and Friend. If you and I have no comfort amid the temporal and no hope for the eternal, the fault is all our own. It is because, as Jesus said, we will not come to Him that we may have life (John 5:40).
Are you wasting your time or turning it to good account? Are you preparing to meet God? It is not too late if you are reading this. Christ waits to be gracious: He invites you to come to Him. Before the door is shut and the judgment begins, repent, believe, and be saved. Cling to Christ and live a life of faith in Him. Follow Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, seeking to know Him better every day. So doing you will look forward to eternal things with unfailing confidence, and feel and "know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1).
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