THE GIVER OF ETERNAL LIFE

THE GIVER OF ETERNAL LIFE

Almost every religion has some sort of idea or concept of what Christians call Heaven.  It is, to some extent, the carrot at the end of the stick; if you are good enough, nice enough, jump through all of our hoops, do the right things in your life, give enough…blah…blah…blah – then you can get to “heaven” when you die.  For some religions “heaven” is not even someplace else, it’s just that you get to come back to this existence in a better form or a higher caste.  

I guess a big question is; who determines if I get to go to “heaven?”   If I have to do the work then I guess I am the determiner of whether or not I go.  How good do you think my work needs to be?  From my rudimentary understanding of Islam if I do the 5 Pillars then I can get there.  It’s nice to know eternal life is that easily obtained!  But if the determiner of who goes to heaven is perfect and won’t let anything that is imperfect into heaven, then my works have to be perfect – that will certainly be a problem for me!

When we read John 17 we come face-to-face with a rather disturbing sentence, “Since you have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him.”  This is particularly upsetting to all who look to their own efforts or other means for eternal life.  It seems, and from the passage it is, the Father who gives to the Son the authority to grant eternal life, and that eternal life is granted only to those whom the Father has given the Son.  Sure sounds like those who get eternal life are determined by the Father!  Of course, He is perfect in righteousness, holiness, justice, etc. so maybe He is the only One who is qualified to give eternal life.  If He is the only One qualified then He also determines how it will be given, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.