To return to the subject of salvation I have an additional post I would like to share. So many people look toward eternity in hopes of getting out of this life. I can’t say I haven’t occasionally longed for a grand exit with Jesus. “I’ll fly away oh glory,” anyone?! And granted eternity is a huge reward. Eternal life with Christ is one of the greatest gifts, but actually that eternity starts now. When we are saved we enter into our eternal life. I mean if you want to go deep theologically, Christ chose you before the foundation of this world, but we experience that eternal realm with our new birth. Salvation is the experiencing of eternity now and forever more.
But everyone My Father has given to Me, they will come. And all who come to Me, I will embrace and will never turn them away. And I have come out of heaven not for My own desires, but for the satisfaction of My Father who sent Me. My Father who sent Me has determined that I will not lose even one of those He has given to Me, and I will raise them up in the last day. For the longing of My Father is that everyone who embraces the Son and believes in Him will experience eternal life and I will raise them up in the last day!”
John 6:37-40 TPT
Eternity Now
OK, so what does eternity now look like? And how is eternity expressed now? I am glad you asked…LOL. At salvation we enter into another reality. The born again believers experience their new Life now. And while we still live in a fallen world, that world’s control and hold on us is over. Sure, we can struggle and strain against it, but as we live and breathe in faith, that eternity has come to us as our reality. How?! Christ is eternity.
Here is the catch. If Satan can convince us of our fallenness we will struggle with it as if it is real. The new creation in Christ no longer has the old nature and this is a fact. Our only connection with that old nature is being convinced we are not new. This is one of the greatest cons out there. The devil convinces us that we are what we weren’t made to be and then we live as if we are not who we are. It is visually very much like a butterfly living as the caterpillar. This butterfly can fly but if he lives like a worm he will miss his butterfly life.
How in the world could this happen?! The enemy uses our fear to gain our faith. And if he has our fear, he holds our faith. Yes, it is a false-faith but it has power nonetheless. It is an inverted faith used against us.
Born again to a leaning Life
Our born again life is intended to express and reveal Christ. As we lean into Jesus through faith we lean into His life. So what does the scripture say about leaning? Well the Amplified Bible defines faith like this: “leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness.” The leaning life experiences Christ’s Life. Faith that we are no longer the worm, we have entered into eternity.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
