Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: John 11:24-26 | Date: April 9, 2017 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

If you would, take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. And then when you have that, please put a marker there or keep your finger there and look back to the Old Testament, to Daniel chapter 12. Daniel chapter 12.

Our subject for this morning, continuing our series on the Bible teaching of salvation, looking at the big picture of things, title this morning is “Salvation Now and Not Yet,” I think, Part Five or something like that. Salvation Now and Not Yet, and the subject specifically this morning is eternal life, eternal life.

Daniel chapter 12, let’s look at verses one through three:

“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never has been seen since there was a nation till that time. But at that time, your people shall be delivered. Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.”

And then again to John chapter 11. You will remember that the passage here is the death of Lazarus, and then later in the passage, of course, Jesus’ raising of Lazarus. You remember in the middle his conversation with Martha, and we’ll pick that up with verse 23, John 11:23:

“Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we’re grateful for this great theme. We’re grateful for the great salvation that you have accomplished for us in your Son, and we’re thankful that you have revealed it to us in all of its glorious aspects. And as we take up one more of those aspects of the salvation you’ve given to us this morning, we pray that you would give us an increased sense of joy in what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, and also a greater sense of anticipation of the fullness of glory that awaits us with him. If there are any here this morning, Lord, who do not know Christ, Lord, we pray that you would use your word, pursue it by your spirit, open hearts, that we may all together rejoice in the gospel of Jesus. We pray in his name, amen.

The Big Picture Of Salvation

All right, we have been looking at the Bible’s teaching about salvation, and we’ve been starting with the big picture and trying to paint out the big picture of salvation in the Bible from beginning to end. And you’ll remember we started with the Bible story. We tracked from Genesis to Revelation in one message. One study we looked through and see how the Bible is a story about Jesus.

But not just a story about Jesus, it’s a gospel-shaped story about Jesus. It’s a story of redemption and how God, from the beginning of time to the end, has set out to accomplish his saving purpose, his purpose to bless his creation. We tracked that out then with the successive covenants of Scripture. God made a promise to Adam and Eve that he would send a champion who would fix this mess and defeat the tempter. And then successively, he made more promises.

He promised to Noah that he would keep this created order in order so that he would accomplish his saving purpose. He promised to Abraham that in his seed, in his offspring, all the families of the world would be blessed so that he has a saving purpose that includes all of humanity. All of the families of the world, of the earth, will be blessed by the time his saving purpose is complete.

We saw in the Mosaic Covenant that God there demonstrates for us the righteousness that is required for blessing, and he also establishes in the Mosaic Covenant the structures by which that blessing of salvation will be secured. And then we saw in the Davidic covenant that God promised to David that his son, one of his descendants, would sit upon his throne and reign forever. And we saw how that promise was expanded and amplified and reiterated throughout the prophets and the Psalms, that David’s son will come and rule over the whole earth in righteousness.

We also saw how that promise was paralleled with another promise that God will come and reign over his people the world over in righteousness. And we saw how that came together in the incarnation of Christ. And then God promised in the new covenant; he promised to Israel that he will accomplish his saving purpose in them individually, that he’ll write his law on their hearts, that he will establish fellowship with him because he will forgive their iniquity. And all of that we saw accomplished through Jesus Christ. And we also saw that in keeping with the Abrahamic promise, this new covenant promise made with Israel expanded to include Gentiles as well. And so in the church we find God’s saving purpose accomplished worldwide and all the families of the world blessed through Jesus Christ who comes in the fulfillment of all of those covenant promises.

And so we saw in broad sweep God’s purpose from Genesis to Revelation that he has set out to fix this mess that we have gotten into by our sin. God created humanity with the intent of blessing. We saw how that was stressed in the early chapters of Genesis. We rebelled against God. Humanity has fallen into a sin and a curse and under judgment, and under a sentence of death. And then there is the hope of the age to come in which God will come and accomplish all of his saving purpose and bring it to fruition.

And we saw then that within that, the biblical outlook is that of two ages. There is this present age and there’s the age to come. This present age marked by evil and rebellion and death and injustice and suffering and sickness and all that marks sin and its consequences—this present evil age—and then there’s the age to come in which there will be this grand restoration where all of that will be reversed. No more sin, no more curse, but a redeemed world and all the families of the world blessed in Jesus Christ.

And we saw how all of that was summarized for us in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 10 where Paul speaks of God’s ultimate purpose to restore, to gather together all things in Christ. And there’s that marvelous outlook that in the end, all will be brought into union with the head, Jesus Christ, in a grand restoration and accomplishing of his final purpose. For now we live in this present evil age, but we look forward to the age to come, which is the age of blessing, when his promises will be brought to fruition.

The Now And The Not Yet

But then we saw that the New Testament teaching is that the salvation that we have today is, in fact, an inbreaking of the age to come. That the New Testament presents our salvation that we have today as nothing less than the blessings of that age brought forward into this age. Not in fullness. There’s more coming. And so we have this expression that’s common: we have the “now and the not yet,” or the “already and the not yet.”

And the reason that’s important is not simply to say that we have some blessing now and we have some greater blessings later, but to stress the fact that the blessings that we do have now are nothing other than the preview and the foretaste of the blessings of that age to come when God’s purposes will be realized in full. And so the New Testament describes us, for example, as those on whom the ends of the ages has come. In fact, Jesus’ coming, his incarnation, is itself the realization of that promised theme of the Old Testament: the coming of God. God came, and God came to the rescue.

He is coming again to complete his saving purpose, but in his first coming, our Lord came to accomplish salvation. He has accomplished it for us in these last days. And we stressed, you remember, that all of this came about for us, an experience of the age to come ahead of time. All of this comes to us by virtue of our union with Christ, who not only died for sin, bearing the curse of sin, but has been raised from the dead. And being raised from the dead has himself entered into the age to come, and united with him, he has taken us with him in it. And we have a foretaste of glory today because of our union with Christ who has passed into the heavenlies already.

And so we then are people who live in these two ages all at once. Or you might say it another way, we’re caught between two ages. We live in this present evil age and yet we have been made to enter into the age to come as well until Jesus returns and we receive the age to come and its blessings in fullness. All of this is the big picture, the big story of the Bible to see how it is redemptively shaped that God has set out to redeem us and in the end that purpose will be carried out in full.

Now that big story that we’re talking about, this big picture of the Bible, that in turn is carried… that story is carried in the scriptures by a number of different themes. And we’re working our way through some of them. We’ve seen two already. One, the kingdom of God. It was promised that in the age to come, God would establish his kingdom by means of his king, the son of David, who would come and bring it about. And in the first coming of Jesus, that kingdom has been established, and in union with him, we enjoy participation in the kingdom of God ahead of time.

We saw it also, our second theme was a new creation. That creation is ruined and fallen and destroyed under judgment. And yet in the end, God promises a new creation that will be restored and brought to its original perfection. And that in Jesus Christ, we have become new creatures, new creations in Jesus. And that story is carried then, you see, by these various themes throughout the Bible. Now they’re hopelessly intertwined, but they are distinguishable as distinct themes running through the Bible. And we have seen a kingdom of God theme carrying that story, leaving us then with the now and the not yet salvation. Realize now, salvation consummated later. We’ve seen it with the kingdom of God theme. We’ve seen it with the new creation or creation and new creation theme.

Eternal Life

And today now, all that to bring back the context for today, today we look at that same story only under a different theme: the theme eternal life. Eternal life.

The expression eternal life was a familiar concept to the Jews of the first century, in Jesus’ time. And once again, what we’re going to see is that eternal life is also—I’ll use the big term and then I’ll explain it—an eschatological concept. It’s a concept that has to do with the end times. Eternal life is the life that we will have in the day of resurrection when Jesus comes.

Now I want to stress that and I want to work through a few passages so you see that that’s the case. Go back to Daniel chapter 12. Here the prophet Daniel is giving us a broad picture of the end times in verses 1 through 3. He speaks of it as a time of tribulation and then followed by a time of rescue and blessing. And then verse two, it’ll also be a time of resurrection. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. These to everlasting life and those to shame and everlasting contempt.

There’s a lot we could talk about here, but what I want to focus on is that expression eternal life. Notice, many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life. So you see that eternal life or everlasting life is a concept that’s related tightly to the resurrection. That in the resurrection, in the end time, we will have then eternal life.

Eternal life is the life of that age to come. Let me say it again so we get it. Eternal life is the life of the age to come. It is the term that has come to express that state that we will enjoy in the end, when God’s purposes are finally and fully accomplished; we will have then eternal life. Life of the ages. Life of the ages or life of the age to come. It’s a difficult… you can translate it several different ways. Life of the age, life of the ages to come, life of the ages, eternal life, life of that day is what’s going on. Clearly that’s what Daniel is speaking of here because it is the time of resurrection. And don’t over spiritualize the resurrection being described here. It’s those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Come out of their graves, physical resurrection into eternal life.

All right, let’s look at a few in the New Testament that speak of the same. We may come back to Daniel 12 again. Look at Matthew chapter 25. This is Jesus’ famous Olivet Discourse, his Sermon on the Mount of Olives, where he describes in broad strokes the course of this age and then the age to come and his second coming. We get to verses 31 and following. We have a description of the final judgment and the separation that will occur between the sheep and the goats and so on. He describes that in some graphic detail in verses 41. This is Matthew 25 verses 41 and following. Speaking of those who followed him and served him and those who did not and the corresponding difference that will occur in the judgment. And then verse 46: “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” You can see again that the concept eternal life is a concept related exactly to the end times. It corresponds to eternal punishment. Those who be cast in hell because they have refused Christ be cast in hell for their sin. On the other hand, those will enter into eternal life. It’s an end times concept.

All right, look over a few pages to Mark chapter nine. Mark chapter nine. Verses 42 and following, Jesus is preaching regarding sin and the seriousness of it, and the seriousness of following him and being his servant and living accordingly. And, well, let’s pick it up with verse 42:

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me, that’s one of his disciples, to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life.”

There’s our shorthand expression, to enter life.

“…crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life, there we are again, to enter into life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.”

And then he does the same, verse 47, if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It’s better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell where the worm does not die. But you can see here, we don’t have the full expression, eternal life. We have the shorthand expression, life. But you can see here again, it’s clearly a concept that’s associated with the end time and it corresponds to eternal punishment. On the other side, eternal life, or life, the short expression, is the life of the age to come.

Go over a page to chapter 10. I’m sorry if I’m overworking this, but I do want you to see how this is the consistent connotation of the word life or eternal life. Chapter 10, we have in verses 17 and following the rich young ruler coming to Jesus with his question. But notice this question. Good teacher, verse 17, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And clearly he’s speaking of what can I do to go to heaven in the end, right? And Jesus answers in those kinds of terms. And notice how he finishes up his answer in verses 29. Let’s just take another verse. Let’s take 29 and following.

“Jesus said, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions. And in the age to come, eternal life.”

Notice where Jesus here has set the contrast. There is this time, this present time, and the contrast is the age to come. And the age to come is marked by eternal life.

Okay. Let me do one more. Look at John chapter five. This one is very important. John chapter five. We’re going to a lot of passages this morning. I’m not expounding one particular passage this morning, but a theme that runs through the Bible instead. So we’ve got to jump around. John chapter five, look at verse 28:

“Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming. Sounds like end times, right? An hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

Notice that expression, the resurrection of life. Not only does that associate eternal life with the end time, the time of resurrection, but it sounds like an echo of Daniel 12, doesn’t it? Raised to life, to eternal life. Well, if you’d like to jot down another one, John chapter 12 verse 25, where Jesus contrasts life in this world with life, eternal life, or the life of the age to come as well.

All right, the point in all of that was to run through several passages just to make us see that eternal life is in the thought of the Jews of Jesus’ day, and in the language of Jesus and the biblical writers themselves, it’s a thought associated with the age to come. Eternal life is the life of the age to come. And again, it reflects that big picture that we’ve been talking about, God’s purpose to reclaim history, to reclaim creation, to restore all that has fallen. Eternal life is the age of that age to come, the day of resurrection.

Well, we can look back again and see how all of that fits in the Bible story, can’t we? It’s pretty easy. God said to Adam in the garden, you have all of this to eat. Take of all the trees, but not that one. In the day that you eat of that one, you will die. And there’s discussion what was meant by that because the threat wasn’t carried out in Genesis 3 when Adam sinned was “in the day that you eat of it, you shall die.” And there’s discussion regarding physical death and spiritual death and eternal death; spiritual death, separation from God; eternal death, which is separation from God forever under punishment.

But the point is that sin has brought about death. We have in Genesis chapter 3 with its threat in Genesis 2, we have the explanation for death. Death, in every instance, is a reminder of human sin and divine judgment. Now that is not to say—make sure you hear me correctly—that is not to say that every time someone dies it means God’s been judging him for something he did. It’s not that equivalent tit-for-tat thing. But death, in every instance, is a reminder of God’s judgment against human sin. Humanity is placed under a sentence of death. And every generation since Adam, he lives and he dies, he lives and he dies, he lives and he dies. And you remember how that’s brought out for us in Genesis chapter 5. We have these people with these incredibly long lives, hundreds of years, and he died. And another one who lives incredibly long years, and he died, and he died, and he died. Driving the fact that this is the story of humanity under sin and under divine judgment.

Ever since the garden, when we rebelled against God in our father Adam, God has pronounced a judgment, a curse of sin against humanity and every generation comes and goes and comes and goes and comes and goes and that’s the story of humanity under death. God’s purpose is to bring all of his created order to restoration. And God’s purpose in this regard then is to reverse all of that and it will be a day of resurrection. When the dead will be raised and those who are his will be raised to eternal life.

We have hints of that in the Old Testament as well. Let’s take time to look at a couple. Look at Job chapter 19. Job chapter 19. You remember from our studies before that this is one of the high points in Job where he expresses his confidence that in the end he will be vindicated. But notice how he captures it in these words, in verse 25 and 26: “I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”

Now there’s lots of discussion in various places as to what did the Old Testament know about the doctrine of the resurrection. This is one of those and it’s just hard to get around it to make it say anything else, isn’t it? After my skin is destroyed, decomposed, rotted, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another.

All right, we have that hope there. We also have it, if you’d like to jot it down, Isaiah chapter 25 and verse 8, where God promises to swallow up death forever. What a great expression, huh? Isaiah 25 and verse 8, God promises to swallow up death forever. Well, that’s not an exact statement of resurrection, but it’s hard to understand it apart from the idea of resurrection, right? Isaiah 26 and verse 19, God says, your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy. For your dew is a dew of light and the earth will give birth to the dead. Isn’t that a fascinating expression? The earth will give birth to the dead. Resurrection is the idea.

And then, of course, most clearly, as we’ve seen, Daniel chapter 12 and verse 2. If you’d like to see it one more time, Daniel chapter 12 and verse 2, we have the resurrection. He says, many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And there again, we have eternal life immediately associated with the day of resurrection.

The Goal Of Jesus’ Ministry Was To Give Life

Well, with all of that in the background, you can see why, when we come to the New Testament times, that this expression, eternal life, or the shorthand expression, life, has become a standard term to describe that state of the end, the experience of the end time when God brings all of his saving purposes to consummation in the day of resurrection. It is the day of life or eternal life, the life of the ages then come to experience.

Well, with all of that then, as the big picture, it’s not surprising that the goal of Jesus’ ministry was to give life. The goal of Jesus’ ministry was to give life. And here we’ll spend some time in the Gospel of John. John chapter 10. John chapter 10. This is the midst of his Good Shepherd discourse, beginning with verse 7 and on. But notice the language of verse 10, John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I came that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.” We’ll come back to that as well. Notice that’s the goal of Jesus’ mission. He came that they would have life.

And now another one. Look at John 17, verse 2. This is on the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion. And he lifts up his eyes to heaven, he says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh. And notice the purpose clause. You’ve given him authority over all flesh for what purpose? To give eternal life to all whom you have given him. The purpose of his coming is to give a life of the ages, to secure them for eternity.

Well, it’s not surprising either then that life or eternal life becomes then in the New Testament the terminology for salvation. In fact, it may surprise you that the language “salvation” is not the dominant word that we find in the New Testament describing salvation. It’s one of the big ones. It’s not the dominant word, particularly in the Gospel of John. Almost never used. In the language of Jesus, the word that Jesus uses to describe salvation is life. Or, the larger expression, eternal life.

And this becomes the standard, one of the standard expressions to describe salvation. So for example, in the gospel summary of John 3:16, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And you find that everywhere in the Gospel of John. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the bread of life. If anyone thirsts, come to me and drink and you’ll have the water of life springing up in him. And so on. As Moses lifted up the serpent of the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Whoever believes on him will have eternal life. It’s just a regular standard expression for salvation when we come to the New Testament.

Now all of that points up to us, and I hope it’s not been too laborious, but all of that points up for us that salvation on the one hand is that end times concept. It’s all looking to the end when in the consummation of God’s saving purpose we will have all that he has promised in full. But if that’s the case, any talk about eternal life now seems a little bit too soon, doesn’t it? If eternal life is something associated with that day, then how is it we can be talking about having it today? And yet that’s exactly what Jesus presses throughout the Gospel of John. Whoever believes will have eternal life. John 10, I’ve come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

And look at… the most important verse in this connection is John chapter five. John chapter five. And notice verses this time, verses 24 and 25. I’ll wait till you all get it. John 5:24 and 25:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

Jesus makes it explicit there that eternal life is something already possessed by those who believe in him. And if the present tense “has eternal life” isn’t enough for you, notice how he expresses the point in the last half of the verse. He will not come into judgment. Why? Because he’s already passed from death unto life. It’s already come.

Now, Jesus has not lost sight of the future because just a few verses later, as we’ve already seen, verses 28 and 29, he says, marvel at this, the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. He’s still got the future plainly in view, but what he is stressing is that believing in him—or maybe we can say better, associated with him now by faith—we have already the life of the age to come already.

And so Jesus stresses this, that in union with him by faith, the future has been brought forward, and associated with him, the life of the age to come has already begun. Now again, remember how… remember how this is so. The Lord Jesus has not only died, but he has been raised, and he has himself passed into the age to come. And he didn’t do this alone, but we are joined to him, united with him in his resurrection as well as in his death. We with him have passed into the heavenlies.

Let me look at one more quickly. Look at John chapter 11 where we started. John chapter 11, where Jesus says to Martha, verse 25, I am the resurrection and the life. Isn’t that strange language? Notice he does not say, I will raise you, or I am the one who secures your resurrection. What he says is, I am the resurrection and the life. And that is simply what Paul tells us that we’ve already seen in our studies in 1 Corinthians 15, that Jesus is the firstfruits and that united to him we are raised with him as well.

Notice, by the way, how he expands on that. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. That is, yet shall he come to life. He will be raised. He’s the resurrection. And everyone who is living, believing in me, will never die. That is, if you die believing in Jesus, you’ll be raised. But there’s a sense in which, believing in Jesus, you’ll never die. Because it is a life that transcends physical death. We already have the life of the age to come. Already ours. And this is why Paul can say things like, our citizenship is in heaven, or we are blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. We have gone there with him, in a sense, united with him in his glorification.

Well, I’d like to stress this a little bit further. I’ll just mention it quickly that in the Gospel of John, there’s the close connection then—we’ve already seen this a little bit—a close connection between the present possession of eternal life and the future fulfillment of it. The present possession of eternal life is closely linked in the Gospel of John to the future fulfillment of it. So for example in John 6 and verse 40, those who have eternal life now, those who have eternal life, will be raised. Or John 10 verse 28, those who have eternal life now will never perish. Or as we see here in John 11, joined to Jesus by faith, we have life that will transcend death. It is precisely because we have the life of the age to come already that we can never perish and that we will be raised in the resurrection of the just. The present realization of eternal life we have now and that present realization of it is the guarantee and the certainty of the future consummation of it.

Now this is just massively important and all of that in a sense comes down to this in terms of your own appreciation and experience of it. There’s often confusion. How dare we speak of salvation already? Now you’re used to that. You’re members of Reformed Baptist Church. But think bigger. In Roman Catholic theology, for example, it is a mortal sin to insist that you are saved now. That’s presumption. We don’t know that. We don’t know that until the final judgment.

I remember one time—this was years ago—I was preaching. A daughter of one of the men in the church came, she was a young adult, and she came to church with him, and after the service, she made a beeline for me in the foyer, and she was upset, and she was going to set me right and correct my theology, and she was clearly disturbed, and she even started it that way. I really don’t like… I’m almost offended.

Well, what’s your problem?

Well, how can you know already? You talk with confidence now that you’ve been saved. You don’t know that.

I said, well, when will I know that?

You can’t know that until the judgment.

And you know, both she and Roman Catholic theology are onto something. And that is that in the end is when the saving purpose is consummated. There will be a judgment. We even sang that this morning. There’s a higher throne, you remember the line? Salvation comes, it pictures us in the end. Salvation comes. As soon as she accosted me with that, my mind went immediately to John chapter five, verses 24 and 25. Whoever believes in him has, has, has eternal life and shall not come into judgment because he’s already passed from death unto life. It is precisely because we have that life now that we can be assured of the consummation of it to come. That’s the assurance that Jesus gives us.

This just has massive implications with regard to what we call the security of the believer. You might be one of those who has from time to time at least wondered, okay, I’ve been saved, but might I lose it? Might I sin it away? Might it slip off? And what Jesus emphasizes in all of this is that if it is the life of the age to come that I have now already, then of course I will never perish. It is a future blessing, yes, but it’s a future blessing that’s been brought forward.

To put it simply, it is not a question—get this—it is not a question of will we make it. We already have. That’s the point. Some at times have argued that for eternal security, just based on the translation “everlasting life,” it lasts forever, it must be forever. Others have argued with him and said, well, that translation, everlasting life, doesn’t quite capture the sense of eternal life, the life of the age to come and all of that. And of course, I think both sides have a point, but the fact that it is the life of the age to come that we have already simply defines as that something that will last forever. I give to them eternal life. And so as a consequence, they will never perish.

Again, the implications with regard to the security of the believer are just massive. It is not presumption. It is our Lord’s affirmation, exactly that. Joined to Him, we have entered already into the age to come.

And so the big picture: Humanity has fallen under a curse, in sin and under a curse of death. God promised a champion who would come to restore the whole thing. And he sent his son, and he gave him an assignment. And he says, go, stand in for these people that I’ve given to you and secure their salvation. And the Lord Jesus, God the Son, came on the mission of salvation willingly. And he says, I’ll go, and I’ll stand in their place, and I’ll bear their sin, and I’ll take the curse myself.

And he goes to the cross, bearing our sin and our curse, and swallows up the judgment of God against us and exhausts the curse, and is raised from the dead, entering into the age to come, taking us with him so that we enter ahead of time. Through faith in him now, we enter ahead of time into the age to come, and we have eternal life.

And I have to say if there’s anyone here, you don’t know Christ. You have not yet come to Christ. You are still lost. You are under a sentence of death and judgment and there is no escaping it. But our Lord offers this great blessing that the life of the age to come may be ours today through faith in Him. He that has eternal life will not come into judgment because he’s already passed from death into life, and we will never perish. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we are grateful for the fullness of blessing that awaits us, but we are also so grateful for the glory that we enjoy already in Jesus Christ. We thank you that we have been rescued out of the domain of Satan into the kingdom of your son, that you’ve made us new creatures already, and that you already have given us eternal life. Lord, help us to rejoice in the great salvation we have in him. We ask in his name. Amen.

Please take out your blue Trinity hymnal.