Eternal Life
Series: CREED: Truths that Unite
Brad Bailey – March 21, 2021
Intro...
Well.... another good morning to everyone who is joining live right now...and a welcome to you who may be watching later.
It’s been said that an essential key in life... is the wisdom to navigate life WITH THE END IN MIND. [1]
When we understand what we want our life to lead to.... we are able to form a life that is consistent with that end. So it’s vital that we consider...where are we going? What is the end that defines each day? Where is your life ultimately headed?
That is the question we are going to explore today.
And we do so as we come to the CLIMATIC END of our series entitled “CREED... Truths that Unite”...in which each week we have considered the most central beliefs declared in what is known as The Apostles Creed. It’s the oldest and most widely shared creed... which affirms the central truths shared by those who come to believe in Jesus. And these truths have the power to center us... and to unite us...and to form us.
The creed begins with God...the Father almighty... creator of heaven and earth.
It continues with Jesus Christ... God the Son... and some essential truths about Jesus.
It declares the distinct role of the Holy Spirit... the new community called the church... the forgiveness of sins...which sets that community apart.... and now concludes...
I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
With these words... the creed concludes with what could be described as both the end...and the true beginning of what is to come.
These are words that we need to take time to take in. “I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”
These words may be the most defining declaration that the human soul can make.
These words are ultimately a declaration of liberation... a liberation from to the ultimate power that holds us captive...which is the power of death. Many have described death as the great power that rules over humanity. And that is nothing has more power to transform us than recognizing that there is a life that transcends the death of these bodies.... a life that is everlasting...that is eternal.
And that is why this may find this declaration hard to make. To declare that I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. ... I am engaging that which lies beyond the great barrier of death. Life as we know it... has always known death...and has always been defined by death.
As far back as we can discover... we find that human life has wondered about life beyond the death of these bodies.
And what’s so notable about our current culture, is how our current western culture has tried to avoid the reality of death in ways that only reflects how unsettled we are.
We nearly worship youth... and we become increasingly uncomfortable with getting old. So we tell ourselves that 50 is the new forty and 60 is the new fifty... as if we can console ourselves that getting old is just a state of mind. [2] As many have described, we seem to be living in the denial of death.
Now... some will suggest that the answer to death is simply to accept that there is nothing more.
Some will deny we are anything but chemical compounds. They believe that our sense about being personal beings with thoughts about personal value...and moral meaning and a spiritual nature is simply a strange mistake...and that the truth we must face, is that we are nothing more than chemical compounds that have somehow advanced beyond what would seem logically possible by pure random chance. Strangely, this also implies that somehow the feelings we have about personal affections and meaning are a mistake. It’s not just the cynical atheist...but the uncertain nature in any of us...that might wonder...is believing in life beyond these bodies just wishful thinking? One can naturally wonder if we should really believe in anything more. We might think...maybe this is all there is ...and the problem with humankind...is our lack of courage to just accept that what we call life is just the survival of the fittest chemicals.
As Richard Dawkins, the bold atheists said,
“We are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.” - Richard Dawkins [3]
While I can appreciate the courage that might be reflected in stripping life of some potentially false meaning and aspirations ...I would encourage anyone to step back and question whether such a position really lines up with reality.
One must stop and realize that Dawkins and those who declare that there is nothing beyond us... actually have a profoundly limited knowledge of the whole of reality. They, like all of us, are mere finite beings... specks in the universe...who have a history of certainty that was later found to be wildly mistaken... because it was based on not realizing how limited our perspective actually was. And most notably, they have no answer to the source of our very existence. They have no way of knowing if our lives have been endowed with a spiritual nature or are part of a greater reality. [4]
The truth is that life points beyond itself. And many would suggest that it must point to a dimension outside of time and space...in other words... that which is arguably eternal.
And if I consider the premise that the bold atheist such as Dawkins presents... I find a deeper sense that we were made for more than this. Jesus says that the pain and brokenness in our world is largely the result of our living as “robot vehicles” blindly focused on serving the self. Jesus calls us to be authentically human, to love, give, serve, and rise above our selfish genes. As we do so, we not only make the world a more just and compassionate place; we find joy in the process.... and we sense that we are more truly human. [5]
There is something in us that longs for a better world... but we can’t even really grasp what this life is all about. That is what the Scriptures speak of when we read in Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11
Here lies the first point about eternal life.
Eternal life is in our heart... but outside our personal knowledge.
In every human soul is a God-given awareness that there is “something more” than this transient world. And with that awareness of eternity comes a hope that we can one day find a fulfillment not afforded by the “vanity” in this world.
As C.S. Lewis has noted, we long for a better world. And every longing points to something that actually exists. We hunger because there is food. We thirst because there is water. And we long for beauty and justice and transcendence because such realities exist.
It is like a dream that eludes us... that we wish we didn’t wake up from... or that we could return to...but we find that we can’t simply create it in our own minds.
As C.S. Lewis once quipped...
”How could an idiotic universe have produced creatures whose mere dreams are so much stronger, better, subtler than itself?” - C.S. Lewis [6]
We have a God-given awareness that there is “something more” than this transient world. ... Yet... the Scripture notes... no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. It is so far from us to understand on our own. This captures what we see throughout human history. Human history for as long as we know... has always had a sense of life beyond these bodies. There have always been ideas of another world... we find some were buried with wealth to take with them.... ideas of joining the spirits in another realm.... ideas of being reincarnated in a cycle of enlightenment.
Finite creatures simply cannot understand the finite...unless the finite meets us at the intersection. And that is precisely what God did in Christ.
When Jesus comes declaring God’s kingdom... he confronts the common ways in which so many just wanted to gain a little more power in this current life... they just wanted him to run the temporal world a little better....and to this he was very clear... that his kingdom was not of this world...it was the reality of heaven coming to earth... and bringing the rule that exists in the heavens into the created world as we know it.
Jesus was revealing that human life was created to live forever with God. It was a relationship that he lived in....a relationship that he would make possible to begin now.
What we find is that....
Eternal life was central to Jesus.
In our current culture there have been some who tend to see Jesus as the most profound of all teachers .... and want to draw upon his teaching...but leave the radical stuff about new life and eternal life on the side....as if it was secondary to Jesus. The truth is that the reality of eternal life was central to Jesus. There was no thought that the current state of creation was the end in itself. This world is suffering in a state of separation from the nature of the heavens. And that is why he engaged those who were suffering to show what the eternal rule of God actually bears. His works of power...in healing and deliverance were signs and wonders...signs of what is to come when life is united with God.
And that life will bring a new existence in every way...including life beyond the death of these bodies. That’s what the resurrection refers to.
And at the time of Jesus’s coming...the Jewish people had two main religious factions... the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees... held some notion of a future resurrection... while the Sadducees denied it.
And into such uncertainty...Jesus was filled with clarity. [7] He was himself the intersection....and he boldly declared.
I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. 26 The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son. 27 And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man. 28 Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, 29 and they will rise again. - John 5:25-29 (NLT)
And later... he explained this was central to his very purpose...
This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." - John 6:39-40
Jesus seemed to have a strong reaction about the way people thought that the current state of this world was the end that God intended. He knew what one felt when death came to those one loved...to those one belonged to. He had likely experienced his own father’s death... the man who had risked his life to raise him...the many who provided for him... the man who played with him...and the man who taught him his craft as a carpenter. And he had seen the uncertainty about what was to come when these bodies are laid into the ground. So he wants to make it quite clear that there is a coming resurrection... a restoration of all things.
Some may remember that mid-way through the Creed, we affirmed that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, and then on the third day he arose from the dead. His death provided a sacrifice for our sins and separation from God...and his rising from the dead revealed that he had defeated the power of the consequences of that separation...which is death. We can now be united with Christ and reconciled with God in eternal relationship. And as the Scriptures state so clearly....we will be raised as he was. And so the creed naturally concludes declaring the resurrection of the body. The clear truth is that...
Eternal life includes a bodily life of a new kind.
Jesus rose from the dead in a way that people could see and touch. It wasn't just a spiritual resurrection and it wasn't a metaphor. When Mary goes to anoint Jesus body, the body is gone, and in every Gospel, Jesus shows up in person. He eats and drinks ,,,and he even invites Thomas to touch his wounds so that Thomas may be satisfied that what he is seeing is real.
Now, having said that, it is also plain that Jesus' resurrected body is not the same as the one that went into the tomb. This resurrected body is often not recognized as Jesus. Mary mistakes him for the gardener, disciples walk several miles with him on the road to Emmaus without realizing who they are talking to. He appears inside rooms without having used doors or windows to get there. The resurrected body of Jesus is correlated with what we would call a body...but it’s bodily life of a new kind.
And the Apostle Paul explains this in the Biblical book of I Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 40, 42-46, 53 (NLT)
Someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 What a foolish question!. When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. ... 40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies... 42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever.
He describes how we see the principle all the time in seeds. We put a seed in the ground. It breaks apart. The seed "dies." But out of that seed grows something entirely new, a flower or a tree or other plant. The old body dies and a new body more suited to a new environment takes its place. There is a connection between the new body and the old, but they look and function very differently.
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 40, 42-46, 53 (NLT)
Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. 45 The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. 46 What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. ...53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
There is a radical transformation. A new bodily life will still be correlated with our personal nature... but it will also be of a radically different nature. This isn’t about face lifts and tummy tucks and hair coloring. This is the end to everything related to aging. There will be no entropy... no fear of the inevitable end. There will be no time... and no decline... and no being past your prime. No women will ask if they look fat. No man will ask if they still have it. There will be no such fear... no comparison... no vanity and no pride. How does that sound? I would venture to believe that we all have a sense that it’s sounds like life the way it should be... YET... it’s also hard to imagine...because it’s beyond or current nature. As was said... it reflects eternity in our hearts...it’s the better state we long for...YET...we cannot fully fathom it.
While Jesus provides the first fruits of what is to come...and Paul notes how naturally we can see this in the nature of seeds being planted ... there is no presumption that human beings can fully understand the very nature of God’s creative power. We are creative beings....but we are finite creative beings. We know how to create from what has been created...but we cannot conceive of God who creates something of a new nature. And as such, we can affirm our belief in God as the creator of heaven and earth... without presuming how he created. And we can affirm our belief in God to transform the nature of our bodily life ...without expecting that it should be within our understanding. [8]
This is probably why Paul says that when asked about the type of bodies we will have...he says there is something foolish in expecting to understand the nature of future bodies based on the bodies we currently have. Paul’s point is that we can’t know what the resurrected body will be like on the basis of our knowledge of the body we now have, any more than we could know from the shape of a seed... the character of a tree. The depictions that we may come up with... usually won’t serve us well. ...whether by the details of someone’s near death experience ... or a Hollywood portrayal of heaven. For even the images used in the Scriptures... are but symbolic ways to speak of the awe and glory and enduring nature that is beyond our capacity to fully grasp. [8b]
Now this closing of the creed declares the resurrection of the body AND...the life everlasting. In other words...we will be raised in a new bodily state AND we will exist in a new state all around us...a state in which everything is vastly different than what we have known. And this is what is being declared as the central message of Jesus. Jesus came to declare that the kingdom or rule of God was being inaugurated... God’s rule has now entered in himself... and opened a way for all to join... and one day transition...into the age to come.
As Jesus’s closest disciple John was nearing the end of his earthly life... he carried the weight of hardship so many faced... and he was given a revelation. It’s recorded in the Biblical book of Revelation. And here he is given a glimpse of what is to come...in a way that could only come in the imagery of such a vision. He writes,
Revelation 21:1-5
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
Here John describes the end of this world...but not merely in the nature of destruction... but of being consumed by the eternal nature of heaven. What was deemed the holy city of Jerusalem... is now replaced by the truly holy city of the new Jerusalem. It is the moment in which the long-awaited bride and groom are finally united. It is he moment in which life that had operated outside of God’s will is now operating in the eternal peace in which God reigns...and is at the center.
He is describing how...
Eternal life will bring a re-creation in which all that is good and right is restored forever.
It’s a completely radical transformation. It’s actually quite profound how it describes a new heaven and a new earth. In the early chapters of Genesis, we see the creation of the heavens and the earth. Here, we see the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. In the Garden of Eden, there is a river, and a tree of life. In the new Jerusalem, further in this revelation, there is a garden in the middle of the city, and a river, and on the banks of the river is the tree of life. Genesis 3 tells the story of sin and death and curse. Revelation 20–22 tells us that God will ultimately show his power not just to create...but the power of mercy to overcome rebellion.... of love to overcome hate... and of his life to overcome our separation and death. Revelation gives us a picture of God undoing the fall and evil and death and the curse.
This is reflected in the Biblical book of Romans, where the Apostle Paul sees how creation itself has been affected by sin ...and suffering from operating outside of God’s goodness. He tells us that...
Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. - Romans 8:21-22
Here again....the language that elsewhere suggests destruction and recreation... seems to suggest a profound transformation... a liberating transformation...in which all of creation is given a new nature .... just as our bodies are given a new nature. It is the new cosmic order... that is depicted in the revelation given to John. There will be no more death...no more suffering...no more sorrow. Humankind has long raised it’s desire for things to be set right... and this is the setting right of all things. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes….”
Some fans of JR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, may recall when at the end ...Sam Gamgee discovers that his friend Gandalf is not dead, as he’d previously thought. He sees Gandalf and cries, “Is everything sad going to come untrue?” That echoes what John sees in his revelation: everything sad is going to come untrue.
And there is something else we can see in this revelation given to John. John writes,
"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. - Revelation 21:3
The very nature of eternal life is that it exists in relationship to the eternal nature of God. The nature of eternal life flows from the nature of God. It is the beauty we have only tasted... the peace we have only imagined...and the love we are almost scared to consider. So another truth about eternal life is that,,,
Eternal life flows from an unending relationship with God...the source of all love, beauty and goodness.
When we think about eternal life... we may naturally think of the type of place that it will be. The Bible gives a few pictures... each of which are clearly metaphors. Jesus speaks of the great banquet... a wedding feast. He spoke of mansions with plenty of rooms...in his Father’s house. But it’s as if the ability to explain it is beyond our capacity to grasp. Jesus lived in the unending bonds of love of heaven. The wedding feast is not about the décor or the menu...it’s about the day of one’s wedding...the day in which one is finally united with another...in which
you are bound by God’s love. What we get from Jesus about the Father’s house is not how the house is constructed...but whose house it was. It was his Father’s house. He always lived in that eternal love. It is where one experiences what it means to belong...to belong in a way we never have known.
If we are united with Christ... the life that is to come is naturally a place we have never been... but the God in whom we have known...will be there. [9]
I’m reminded of a story about a man who lived alone and was nearing death. This was in the days before cars, and the doctor arrived in his horse-drawn carriage to check on his patient. The doctor brought his dog along, leaving the dog outside on the front step as he entered the house. The doctor sat down beside the man, took his vital signs, and then told the man that the end was near. The man asked, “Doc, what is death like? What’s on the other side?” At that moment the doctor’s dog began to whimper and scratch at the front door. The doctor said, “Do you hear that? That’s my dog. He’s never been in your house. He doesn’t know what it’s like in here. What he knows is that his master is on the other side of that door, and if his master is in here, it must be OK.
And the truth we can all know...is that our Master is on the other side of death’s door.
And in this sense... while we wait for the transformation of the world as we know it... the relationship with the master of life...begins now. Eternal life is not something that simply comes in the future.
Eternal life is a decision we make now...about a relationship that begins now.
This may sound obvious...but eternal life exists in relationship with the God of eternity. It is a relationship.
And God has spoken of how we have all gone our own way. We are those who want to run our own lives. We may not THINK of ourselves as trying to be our own gods ...but if we reflect a bit ...we can begin to recognize that a part of us that refuses to surrender our own self-rule.
When we understand that we have gone our own way...we can begin to appreciate what God has done.
God has come after us. He didn’t come because he owed it. He didn’t come because we deserve it. But rather, as Jesus said,
God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NLT)
God loves the world so much that he came for it...and He came for you. Why? To make it possible to live with Him forever.
Jesus is the one who took the penalty of our sin and separation when he was crucified ...and offers us the opportunity to unite our lives with him... to be united with him... who is raised and ruling in the unending life with God. [10]
You and I can have “life everlasting” here and now. It begins the moment you believe... which means giving your life ...entrusting your life... and it continues right on through your death, and into all that is to come.
The truth about eternal life...is that what we want now reflects what we want then.
Jesus lived as one who clearly had the ends in mind... eternity in mind.
He saw that humanity’s grand illusion was believing that this world was the judge of who we ultimately are. We can tend to see eternal life with God as a backup plan, something that will happen a long time from now. Meanwhile we get busy living as if this world is all there is. But we are disappointed again and again. And even when we are successful, nothing lasts forever. As Solomon said... when we live as if this is the end... it proves to be vain...we will find that we are “chasing the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:14).
To believe in life everlasting is a call to become free from the power of death... and free from chasing the winds of this world to ultimately define us...an free to live in a relationship that never ends. It’s about beginning with the end in mind...and seeing that in Jesus... that which claims to be the end...is not the end.
So I encourage us to let the power of this final statement of the creed sink a little more deeply.
I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
I want to invite us to pray. And as we do.... this is an opportunity to choose eternal life... because...as we saw, eternal life is a decision we make now...about a relationship that begins now.
PRAYER
Conclude
Now there is a final word I want to conclude this series with.
There is one final word that completes the Creed It is the word “amen.”
This word that is the common conclusion of any prayer... is not just a final tag...or some way to say the prayer is over. The word “amen” means ...”let it be.” It declares our agreement and confirmation. It doesn’t mean that we will fulfill these beliefs in every way...for they represent what we can only aspire to fully embody. But like the co-signers of our constitution... these are the truths that we give ourselves to...and aspire to. And so in that spirit...I can’t think of a better way to conclude this series...than to invite us to recite this Creed ...the Apostles Creed... one more time together before we enter into worship.
You can simply say these words aloud wherever you are.
The Apostles Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen
Resources: Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Creed The Crown Publishing Group; Hamilton, Adam. Creed (Creed series) Abingdon Press; Cannata, Ray; Reitano, Josh. Rooted: The Apostles' Creed, White Blackbird Books; Ligon message - “I believe in Jesus Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried”, Matthew 27:1-2; 32-60
Notes:
1. The phrase “begin with the end in mind” is well known as the second habit in Stephen Covey “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” It echoes a spiritual truth than we can see in the Scriptures. King David said he looked at what appeared to be the the advantage of the wealthy, until he went into the sanctuary of God...then I understood their end.” (Psalm 73:3-17) Paul writes in Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” We faint or become weary and quit when we lose sight of our goal. In I Timothy 6:17-19, Paul writes, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” This is a call to make spiritual investments with the “end in mind.”
2. We now have over 200 euphemisms for speaking about someone dying.... to avoid saying they died. - Noted by: Cannata, Ray; Reitano, Josh. Rooted: The Apostles' Creed (p. 77). White Blackbird Books. They note that their personal favorite was a clinical one: “negative patient care outcome.”
When one considers the massive role of violence in movies and video games... it may seem like we are obsessed with death... but in truth we are using fantasy to separate ourselves from reality. Death is the last thing we want to enter into the conversations of real life.
As J.I. Packer described... death is the “new obscenity... the nasty thing that no polite person nowadays will talk about in public.
3. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
4. As Blaise Pascal... the great French physicist notes, “What reason have atheists for saying that we cannot rise again? Which is the more difficult, to be born or to rise again? That what has never been, should be, or that what has been, should be again? Is it more difficult to come into being than to return to it?” - -Blaise Pascal, "Pensees, XXIV". In other words, our very existence itself is an even more greater expression of creative power.
As Luke Timothy Johnson notes, “Paul connects the power to raise the dead and the power to create. Speaking of Abraham, he says, In the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist, hoping against hope, he believed that he would become the father of many nations . . . he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead [for he was about a hundred years old] or when he considered the barrenness [literally, the deadness] of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. (Rom 4:17—20) The power of God to create from nothing, says Paul, is more than sufficient to raise the dead to life. And he goes further, connecting the birth of Isaac from the “dead” Abraham and Sarah to the resurrection of Jesus, so that the words “It was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6) applied not only to Abraham, but also “to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom 4:24). For Paul, and for all Christians who have managed to see reality through the eyes of Paul and the other New Testament witnesses, if one grasps what is claimed by calling God “Father almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible,” it is just as easy (and rational) to accept God’s capacity to raise one human being (Jesus) from the dead as accepting God’s capacity to give a child to elderly parents. If God did this, God can be expected to raise all humans from the dead. - Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Creed (p. 291). The Crown Publishing Group
5. Drawn from Adam Hamilton, Creed (Creed series) (pp. 75-76). Abingdon Press.
6. C.S. Lewis, A Severe Mercy, letter to Sheldon Vanauken, 23 Dec 1950, p. 92
7. We can also note....
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.- John 6:44 (NIV)
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. - John 6:54 (NIV)
As Luke Timothy Johnson notes,
Jesus scorns the position of the Sadducees, the Jewish sect that denied the resurrection of the dead (Mark 12:18—27; Matt 22:23—33; Luke 20:27—36).
According to the Acts of the Apostles, the proclamation of the resurrection went hand in hand with the proclamation of Christ (4:2, 33; 17:18, 32). In his defense speeches, Paul declares repeatedly that he stands trial because he witnesses to the “hope of Israel,” which he identifies as the resurrection from the dead (see Acts 23:6; 24:15, 21; 26:23). The letter to the Hebrews lists “the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment” as among those “elementary teachings concerning Christ” that ought to be assumed for those who wish to move on to more mature considerations (6:2). The Book of Revelation envisages both a first and a final resurrection as part of God’s triumph over evil (20:1—15). When speaking of the resurrection and enthronement of the Lord Jesus, we saw how Paul, in particular, connected what happened to Jesus.
He bases this assurance on the resurrection of Jesus: “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died” (1 Thess 4:14).- Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Creed (pp. 287-288).
8. Noted well by Luke Timothy Johnson,. The Creed (pp. 291-292). The Crown Publishing Group.
8b. C.S. Lewis regarding the tension with bodily eternity
Let us confess that probably every Christian now alive finds a difficulty in reconciling the two things he has been told about "heaven" - that it is on the one hand, a life in Christ, a vision of God, a ceaseless adoration, and that it is, on the other hand, a bodily life. When we seem nearest to the vision of God in this life, the body seems almost an irrelevance. And if we try to conceive our eternal life as one in a body (any kind of body) we tend to find that some vague dream of Platonic paradises and gardens of the Hesperides has substituted itself for that mystical approach which we feel (and I think rightly) to be more important. But if that discrepancy were final then it would follow - which is absurd - that God was originally mistaken when He introduced our spirits into the Natural order at all. We must conclude that the discrepancy itself is precisely one of the disorders which the New Creation comes to heal. . . Spirit and Nature have quarrelled in us; that is our disease. - -C.S. Lewis, Miracles, Ch 16, p. 159
And of the symbolic...
“There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of ‘Heaven’ ridiculous by saying they do not want ‘to spend eternity playing harps’. The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.” - C.S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity..
9. D. A. Carson suggest that eternal life is explicitly defined in John 17:3, where Jesus says in his High Priestly Prayer, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Carson says of this verse that "Eternal life turns on nothing more and nothing less than knowledge of the true God" and that it is "not so much everlasting life as personal knowledge of the Everlasting One. - D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Apollos, 1991), p. 556.
10. Consider also:
Romans 6:23 (ESV): “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
1 John 5:11–12 (ESV): 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
John 14:6: Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
