WHY ETERNITY?
Most people are familiar with that famous verse in John which states that:
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life.
(John 3:16)
But have you ever questioned just why He, after putting up with our behaviour here on earth, would want us hanging around for ever? After all, eternity is rather a long time. Perhaps a few thousand years would have been more understandable but no, He said for an everlasting life.
David, in Psalm 22, says this:
My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?
…I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear…
But You are holy…
Our fathers trusted in You;
They trusted, and You delivered them.
They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.
But I am a worm, and no man…
David was someone chosen by God but still considered himself no more than a worm, able to be trampled by God and others at will. And if this is the way David felt God looked upon him, then how must the rest of us be looked upon as well? And why would God want to spend the rest of eternity with us?
It is obvious that a reason God came to earth as a human and subjected Himself to the indignities and sufferings that He endured was to change us from the “worms” that we are into the beings that we need and deserve to be. David had great trust and confidence in God, the same as we must have to grow into the existence of an eternity with God. And we can do that by communicating with God and studying who and how He truly is.
But God is an infinite being. How can finite beings such as ourselves get to know a being of infinite knowledge and wisdom? A being all powerful and all present and with complete understanding. It’s evident that, no matter how often or long we study His teachings and word here on earth, it’s never going to be enough to encompass it all.
…He has put eternity in their hearts…
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Great is our Lord…
His understanding is infinite.
(Psalm 147:5)
We can start changing from the worm to the being that God truly created by reading His word and communicating with Him; but that’s only scratching the surface. It will take an eternity to even start to know an infinite being. Even Paul, who likely knew Jesus as well as anyone on earth, requested that:
…I may know Him and the power of His resurrection…
Not that I…am already perfected; but I press on…
(Philippians 3:10,12)
It will take an eternity to even start to know all there is about an infinite God and perhaps that is just why He wants us to have an everlasting life.
Just a little something further to think about.
.jpg)
