This seems to last forever . . .

 

 

We are in a cold snap. This morning it is -23F or -31C with a wind that makes the air feel like -38. What is it about days like this that make summer sunshine feel so far away? Almost to the point of forgetting what it feels like? Winter gives a sense of eternal, even though I know better. While I use the words eternal or forever to describe things that only seem to go on and on and on, the Bible speaks more literally of the eternal.

The OT word actually means “ancient, forever, everlasting.” It can be used to describe days long past, or the future. When applied to God, it could mean “always” for our God is ETERNAL. In that sense, this OT word is about His faithfulness, trustworthiness, and goodness. It also means that He always is.

1 Chronicles 16:34. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”

Psalm 90:2. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Isaiah 60:19. “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”

There is more, but most interesting is Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” I know that eternity is a reality, yet I cannot quite figure it out. How can there be no beginning or end? How can God always exist? What is life like beyond the grave, outside of or without time?

The NT word for eternal is an adjective that defines the everlasting God and His realm; the blessings of salvation; and everlasting conditions that have neither beginning nor end. In more than half the times this word is used, it is linked with “life” creating more questions. How can I be given something that has no beginning? The NT has the answer.

This word is used to describe God, His glory and Spirit, and that He is immortal and the source of our eternal salvation and eternal life. He also delivers us from eternal judgment.

1 Timothy 6:14–16. “Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

Hebrews 5:9. “And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”

This eternal life is a gift from God to all who believe in Jesus. It is His life that I am given.

John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

1 John 5:11–12. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

1 Timothy 1:16. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”

Receiving this gift through faith puts us in a different realm that has neither beginning nor end. Colossians 1:13–14. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

His kingdom is eternal and the life we are given is eternal. 2 Corinthians 5:1 says I “know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” yet while I know it, full understanding eludes me for I still walk in the realm of time with beginnings and endings. In that dual existence, God tells me to “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” I’m to look forward to that day when my “resurrected body will also be eternal, dwelling forever in heaven” because my eternal Savior has so “richly provided for me an entrance” into His eternal kingdom. I don’t understand it, but I can believe it — because my Eternal God said it!

 

God is in the construction business . . .

 

The biblical words for BUILD, BUILDER, BUILDING UP refer to making something by combining materials and parts. It can also mean enlarging, developing, increasing by stages, or making nearer to fullness or completion a project, including building moral strength or conscience and creating and developing a spiritual community. This is a picture of God holding blueprints and tools as He puts together His plans.

In the first part of the OT, this plan includes the Lord building a community of worshipers and promising them a faithful leader: “And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.” (1 Samuel 2:35)

King David and his son both desired to build a literal house of worship yet both realized the true Builder was God and “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

The prophets also realized that God was the builder of nations and that He has the power to tear them down by thwarting their plans . . .

If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. (Jeremiah 18:7–10)

If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you. (Jeremiah 42:10)

Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. (Hosea 2:6)

This God who build nations and established a people for Himself also came to earth as a man and created another “building” — the church, not a literal structure as many view the church today, but a spiritual community in which He is the creator, sustainer, protector and strength, all the things that a builder does . . .

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)

“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’ ” (Mark 14:58)

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:9)

The Christian community is not limited to a building nor are its members limited to a physical body. As Paul wrote, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1) Our “home” is secure, created by God to be our eternal dwelling!

In the meantime, this body or community is given what is needed that we might do what our Builder has designed us to do. “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13)

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The Bible is clear that even though people might build all sorts of things here on earth, “the builder of all things is God.” (Hebrews 3:4) Not only that, so also is our eternal dwelling designed and built by God (Hebrews 11:10) giving a sense of stable permanence and purpose to life in general and to eternal life in Christ forever. Looking at God as Builder gives me a sense of who I am, how well I am created and how long I will endure. This also challenges me to keep His dwelling place worthy of the honor He gives it!