My friend, everlasting life begins when you accept Jesus, the only begotten Son of God as your Savior, for Jesus said "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24). This life that He is talking about is not something that comes in the future, but is a present reality.
Our salvation has nothing to do with our performance, for it is the
work of Jesus within us. When we accept Christ as our Savior, we
receive His Spirit within our hearts. We have passed from death unto
life; we have received the new birth and are now children of God.
The thing that confuses us is that even after this new birth, we
continue to struggle with the same sinful desires as we did before. We
do not feel as though we are saved. This is because the process of
erasing the stain of sin upon our characters takes time in this life.
The forgiveness of sin that is promised us has happened, but the
cleansing from all unrighteousness happens throughout our life. But all
is the work of Christ.
For most of us the understanding of what constitutes sin is the
problem. We have been taught that sin is an action that we commit when
in fact sin is a state of being. We commit acts of sin because we are
sinful in nature, thus if we are to stop committing acts of sin we must
have a new nature. That happens with the new birth in Jesus, but even as
a new born baby needs time to grow and mature, so too do all that have
been born again in Christ.
Through the growth process we become more and more like our Father
in heaven, but along the way we continue to make mistakes; in this case
acts of sin. But while we make mistakes we do not cease to be children
of God. The child that does things that displease its parents does not
cease to be their child. The same is true for us.
My friend, if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you have
everlasting life. The work that is going on in your life today is the
process of fitting you for heaven. It is the work of sanctification and
is the work of a lifetime. The work that is not completed in the
sanctuary of your heart, is completed in the work in the sanctuary in
heaven. But whether we are fitted for translation or are resurrected
into newness of life, the promise is sure. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." (Matthew 6:47), for He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
God bless,
