A Layman’s Look at Faith
How eternal is our God?
By Biff Price
Eternal. No beginning. No end. Always and forever. In our humanity, and our finite existence, it is hard to grasp the idea of the eternal. Life that is never-ending. No pain, no suffering, no worry, no anxiety, no depression, no doubt, no fear, no sickness, no cruelty, no madness, no anger, no war, no hatred, no envy, no jealousy, no resentment, no rejection, no lack, no unhappiness, and no meanness.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” —Genesis 1:1-5 (NASB)
Please stop for a moment and consider this: The Bible is many things. It is not the complete history of the Lord God. He is eternal. Rather, it is the history of His creation of all things, including the Earth and Man. It is the story of His relationship with His wayward children, and His desire that they turn to Him — and spend eternity within His love.
Jesus did not first appear 2,000 years ago. Jesus has been with His Father forever. Father, Son, and Spirit are eternal.
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” —John 10:27-30
When Jesus declared He and the Father are One, the Pharisees were beside themselves with hatred and anger. They could not accept His statement, let alone think of a Triune God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No one, including those closest to Jesus, understood His intentions.
He was born into the human world to suffer and die for mankind, because this was the way that God could crate a pathway for sinner to be able to come into His eternal kingdom.
The perfect, sinless, flawless Son is the only doorway to Heaven. There is no other!
The imperfect sinful human must put on the perfect Jesus Christ, be washed in His blood, and made whiter than snow. This alone makes it possible to enter the eternal Kingdom of God.
Isaiah 9:6 says, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
The verse above was written by Isaiah approximately 700 years before Jesus came into the world. Jesus is not only the Son who will be born, the Son who will have the government upon his shoulders, but also Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace. He and the Father are One!
Now, we come to this question: Where do you want to spend eternity? In the eternal Kingdom of God, or in the place of the damned in torment? Those are the choices. There is no other.
This is a crossroads at which we stand. How eternal is our God!