As Jesus prepares for His last hours on the earth, the time of His passionate walk toward death, He intercedes for us. He prays that we would have eternal life, saying:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” -John 17:1-3.
Jesus makes it clear. Eternal life is knowing the only true God, the Father of glory, and His Son whom He sent to die for us. It’s that simple. Enter into the knowledge of God through the fear of the Lord, and you will live forever. Immortality starts now. The Fountain of Youth the Spaniards searched for when they came into America is actually the Word of the Living God. He is Living Water. We can enter into eternal life simply by accepting that Jesus is the Son of God, as He claims, and inviting Him into our lives to love us. We may know God by simply receiving His love. It’s amazing. We do nothing, because He did everything. He initiated, we respond. Our response is a simple “yes” to His love. When we say “yes” to Jesus as our Savior and His Lordship, He washes us in His love, and we become clean and whole. Any feelings of shame, failure, disappointment, hopelessness, depression, etc. are all washed away, because His love is so perfect and so complete. Nothing can stand before it. How did I go from immortality to love, you may ask. Well, the truth is: it all starts with love. Immortality is obtained through love. God is love. Jesus is God. And yet, He is the Son of God. This is a mystery, but not a contradiction. It’s so simple, and, yet, so profound. How can Jesus be God and the Son of God at the same time? The answer is found in His identity as the Son of Man. Another part of the mystery that is very necessary to tie it all together. No one can see God and live. So, God overshadows a woman and implants the very essence of His being into her body in the form of a man. See? Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man. Born of a woman by the power of God. Many say this is impossible, yet the same would not deny that God is all-powerful. How can it be impossible, if God can do anything in His absolute power and sovereignty? If He can do it is not an appropriate question. Rather, we should ask why He would do such a thing as restrict Himself in the body of a man and fashion Himself both the Son of God and the Son of Man? Had He not, we would not know the love of the Father. If Jesus did not show us God as Father, would we know the truth of His love? We would not. God would still be the distant, powerful, incomprehensible God that so many envisioned Him as in the pass. Jesus came to show us that God is the God of love, and His very desire is to love us and be near to us. Without this love, we would not have eternal life, and immortality would continue to be a myth and not the reality. In the Bible, John writes that all who receive Jesus are given the right to become sons of God. Jesus shows us what it means to call God Father. To see Him as our loving Daddy who wants to shower us with good things. I did not truly know God as Father until I went to Jesus. Jesus appeared before me and wrapped me in His strong arms. I was trapped in a flood of tears that were my own, as love emanated from and went through me. It cleaned every part of my being and made me whole. I was changed by the love of Jesus. Since that day, I’ve had the courage to walk boldly to the throne of God time and time again. I’ve stood before a perfect, holy, and loving God, knowing Him as my Father. I’ve climbed into His lap, laid my head on His chest, and relished the love that He pours upon me every time I go to Him. When I am tired, He rocks me to sleep in His strong arms. When I need comforting, He wipes my tears away and strokes my hair as He soothes me with words of encouragement. He sings over me and delights in me, His daughter. As a little girl twirls for her daddy, I dance for mine before His heavenly throne. As He rejoices over me, I know I am loved, because I am His child. Our Heavenly Father has our best in mind, and He just wants us to receive His love, because there is life in it. There is life in His love. When we receive His love, then we come into the knowledge of the only true God. Once we receive this knowledge, then we are truly free. It’s His desire for us to be free, and there is freedom in His love.
