Can we live endless lives?

¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiful (1 Corinthians 15).

“And they lived happily ever after!” This is a familiar tail end to many stories we read as children. Happy endings are always refreshing, especially when they come at the hills of battles or struggles. Most trials we go through feel like there’s no end in sight.  It’s just not fair that every good thing also has to come to an end. Endings are part of cycles we try to get accustomed to. “Happily ever after” gives the construction of glee that lasts forever. It has a nice ring to it, because we all yearn for an endless life peppered with bliss. How can we be sure that we can ever attain it? Is there hope for such an imperishable life; and one that is void of sorrow, tears and pain? Given our experiences on this Earth, how could anyone desire to live an endless life?

“A new creature is outfitted for a new creation.”

²⁴ “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life (John 5).  

Everlasting life is a guarantee to those who believe in God by heeding to the word of The Lord Jesus Christ. There is no death for them and they are not slated for damnation. This is a blissful outcome. They are translated from one dimension to another. Death is not an inheritance for believers. We serve a God Who reigns over life and is the author of it. 

²⁶ But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷ He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken (Mark 12).”

The Lord Jesus rose from the dead, because He is the God of life; death could not restrain Him. We are made in His image and likeness; as the Son of God so it shall be with the children of God. We live under Christ’s Authority, His teachings and He is our High Priest who went before The Throne, to make intercession for us so that we receive forgiveness for our sins. 

“Repentance is the exchange of our death, for Christ’s Eternal Life.”

¹⁴ For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. ¹⁵ And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest ¹⁶ who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. ¹⁷ For He testifies: “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” ¹⁸ For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unfruitfulness, ¹⁹ for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God (Hebrews 7).

The Lord went before us as a High Priest, made remission for our sins; took upon Himself our body of sin by His death on the Cross—drank the full Judgement of God. The high priests of Israel came from the tribe of Levi according to God’s election. The Lord Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, therefore He was not a High Priest under the Laws given to Moses. We who are not Jews had no hope of grace, because we had not received the Law, nor did we have a high priest who offered animal sacrifices for our sins. Christ had to bring us into the fold, because there’s One God for all. 

Since Christ was approved by God to be a High Priest forever, He became overseer of those who also live forever; those who would surrender their lives to Him, without the Law. His message was for all to repent for the remission of sins. Repentance is the exchange of our death, for Christ’s Eternal Life. He died in our place, so that we would not come into judgement; as the Scripture states, “And shall not come into judgement” . A dead body has ceased all it works—good and evil, so cannot sin any longer. But a risen life lives forever, to new deeds.

“A resurrected life is a new beginning.”

⁷ For who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6).

I have seen God use creation to explain deep things to mankind. In the winter, trees have already shed their leaves, flowers are gone, and plants seem dead. Then, spring rolls in and we begin to see leaves poking through, flowers budding, and the perennials start to shoot their stems. If we can believe plants can come from a dead state, why can’t we believe an endless life for ourselves? God delights in new beginnings which He orchestrates with cycles of life, and seasons. A resurrected life is a new beginning. 

“The endless new life begins with Christ in us.”

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself; not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5).

With fresh starts comes a new way of thinking and of living. The resurrected Life of Christ in us, is a mandate to put off the old nature. The endless new life begins with Christ in us. We have been forgiven, we have been justified, this life is no longer our’s to do as we please anymore. It’s a life surrendered now to God and all things now belong to God, through Christ in us. We now live forever to do His Will. These bodies though made in the flesh, become a habitation for Christ to reveal Himself. We are a new creature, with a new Spirit that is no longer made for this life but an endless life—eternity. A new creature is outfitted for a new creation.

⁴² So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man (1 Corinthians 15).

Stop, right now. Go back and read that passage again. Our physical being is going to perish but our spirit lives forever. The weak body will be raised in power; the corruptible will become incorruptible. So what of all the ailments, and the wear and tear of these bodies? It’s beauty for ashes; like a caterpillar going through unsettling growing pains, to be transformed into a glowing butterfly. 

The spirit we decide to occupy these bodies will determine where we go. The spirit leaves the body when it dies, since its destined for another place. If we have the Spirit of The Lord Jesus Christ, we are clad for Heaven. If you asked NASA to get you to the Moon in what you have on right now, they would tell you that you need to get your head examined. The life-giving-Spirit is the spiritual power that goes on living beyond this life. Did you ever consider yourself heavenly? Our bodies bear the image of the man of dust; temporary bodies that were never meant to last. So happily ever after, isn’t about these bodies and the perfunctory grind they go through. 

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

⁵ Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14).

The Lord has already gone to prepare a place for our eternal happily ever after. We are going to dwell forever, in The House of Our Heavenly Father. The Lord Jesus Himself has done all the architectural exterior and interior designs. There’s plenty of room in the Father’s House. Eternal life is only in The One Who took our place, and has already gone to prepare a place for our heavenly beings. Eternal life starts here; we must begin to live as those who have already attained. We start by  putting off the old nature that’s created for this fleeting world, by living our endless life in the life-giving Spirit of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

“We now live forever to do His Will.”

¹² Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together (Romans 8).