Commentary on "Hope"

MARTIN CAREY

 

Day 5: Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Eternal life is a difficult thing to imagine, given that there will be a new earth, new bodies, and there will be no end to it. We must be content for now, the lesson states, with having just a glimpse, a taste of what that will be. Now we “see in a mirror dimly, but then, face to face” (I Cor. 13:12).

We can learn something of our glorified existence from the resurrection of Jesus, in his body and appearance before and after his death. There was “continuity,” the author tells us, from one state to the next, so that after rising from the dead, he appeared and sounded like the same Jesus to his friends. In the same way, we can have continuity between our lives now and eternal life then, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our eternal salvation (Eph. 1:13,14).

 

Problems

This lesson is focused on the physical aspects of eternity. However, the only continuity that carries from this life to the next is not physical but is of the Holy Spirit. The reality of the Spirit’s work in us must be stated in much stronger terms. He not only enters us, he comes to take over, to indwell (Rom. 8:9), and stay forever (Jn. 14:16). His presence within us is a strong guarantee:

“When you…believed in him, [you] were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13, 14).

Believers do not have to wait until the end of time to be sealed; the Spirit seals the believer when the gospel is believed with saving faith. Paul also speaks of sealing in definite terms to the Corinthians:

“And it is God who…has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (II Cor. 1:21, 22).

The Spirit’s presence with us also creates new life within us (Jn. 3:6), a living spirit that desires and responds to God.The new life comes in God’s own time and God’s own way. You don’t just sit down some afternoon and decide it’s time for new birth. We cannot, for by nature we are hostile to God and cannot submit to him. Rom. 8:7, 8 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (Jn. 6:44).

Neither is our new life part of our bodies, as John makes clear. It has nothing to do with diet or exercise, or a new attitude. The children of God are born:

“…not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:13).

The new life is also called our “inner man” or “spiritual man,” and it is not physical but spiritual. I Cor. 2:14, 15 So the Christian believer has two sides, his fleshly outside, which desires sin, and his new, living spirit, his inner man that desires the things of God, and hears God. Rom. 8:16 As we saw yesterday, this new life does not die, just as Jesus promised in John 6 and 10.

 

Summary

1. We have strong continuity, then, between our mortal lives now, and our spiritual lives in eternity. What continues on to eternity is not a physical change in our bodies or anything we can see. Better yet, our spiritual life begins now when the Spirit comes to live in us, and creates within us a spiritual “new man.” This new life never dies and continues to eternity.
2. With the Spirit’s ruling presence, we have a solid guarantee, a pledge that seals us until we are given our full inheritance. This is no human achievement; it is all of God, from beginning to end. That is why we can have strong assurance of its fulfillment.

 

 

Copyright 2008 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised April 15, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

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