Full Life for Eternal Life

As I began my life in Christ, one of the most difficult issues for me to understand is the issue of eternal life. He who does not understand the promise of eternal life is left halfway in understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. Eternal life for the repentant sinner is the promise of promises. It is the supreme gift, the final consequence of the sacrifice made on the cross. As faith and knowledge of the Word of God grow, the Lord reveals the meaning of a life with Christ, in the here and now and in eternity. Today in Christ, tomorrow with him, and as his love and mercies chisel the redeemed heart, the conviction of eternity in his presence becomes more visible and conclusive. It was he himself who promised it: “And this is the promise that he himself made us: eternal life. (1 Jn 2.25).

Only in Christ is there eternal life (1 Jn 5.11) and the conviction of eternal life brings full life. The fullness of life in Christ is not exempt from falls, but it is without the certainty that He raises us up when that happens. A great Latin American and universal thinker of the nineteenth century said: "We need to get up (ourselves), not poeticize the falls." We tend to poeticize the falls or, in the best (or worst) of cases, we blame the devil for our iniquities by giving him a power he never had. A warning: the deserts of Christ are also part of the inheritance that he has bequeathed to us to understand the mysteries of his Glory. Deserts are the scenarios where God manifests himself to remind us of his greatness and the assurance that we will not cross them alone.

To feel the fullness of life in Christ, you have to go from time to time through the Jordan of his sufferings and swim fiercely to the other shore where grace extends its hand and his Word ceases to be the promise of eternal life to become your reality. Eternal life must become a reality in the Christian mind and heart, convinced that the path will not be easy because it is narrow, as the Scriptures say, but it brings blessing and full life.

David sang: "You will fill me with joy in your presence, and with eternal bliss at your right." (Ps 16.11). Is not the Son at the right hand of the Father? Of what eternal bliss is David singing? Who is that fountain of eternal life that is to the right of the Father? Is there no fullness of joy in his presence? There is no doubt, the fullness in Christ is the fullness of life; of a life that points to eternity.

Judas, brother of the Lord, suggests to us: “keep yourselves in the love of God, eagerly awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life” (Jud 21). My prayer is that we do not stop looking at the cross so that eternity becomes real, not as an illusion or a mirage, but as a reason for hope rooted in the fullness of life that we have in the One who fills everything in everything.

God bless you!