God’s Gift of Eternal Life

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).

Have you ever asked yourself what righteousness, by God’s standard is? Romans 6:23 gives us an idea. Notice it doesn’t say, “One of the gifts of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Eternal life is not one of the gifts of God; it is THE gift of God. It encapsulates all the other gifts of God. When God gives you eternal life, it means you’ve got everything else.

In Romans 5:17, Paul declared, “For if by one man’s (Adam) offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Observe the term “the gift of righteousness.” It’s the same gift he referred to as “the gift of God” in Romans 6:23. This immediately lets us know righteousness is eternal life.

Eternal life doesn’t only mean an unending life where you live on forever. The English rendering didn’t have a better way to express it than to call it “eternal” or “everlasting” life, but it’s the life that God has as God. Now we’re made to understand that that life is righteousness. Righteousness is the nature of God that qualifies Him to be who He is. You can’t really know what’s right till God does or approves it, or what’s wrong till He says no to it. That’s because He’s the standard for measuring rightness; He is perfection personified.

Now, God’s life cannot fail or be wrong. It doesn’t know any defeat and cannot be put down or crack under any pressure. No wonder Paul says if you’ve received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness—the very nature, life and character of God—you’ll reign in life. When you have and are fully conscious of the life of God, you can’t live any other way than to reign. It is what gives you the boldness to stand in the presence of God without guilt, inferiority, or condemnation, and also before Satan and the cohorts of hell without fear but with authority and dominion, Hallelujah

Spring Up Unto Everlasting Life

 “But whosever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (JOHN 4:14)

A well is a deep hole dug to get water. Water is as important in human life as the air we breathe. The body really cannot survive without water. From generations past, digging of wells was the solution for water. Even in Bible days, Abraham dug wells and they flourished. I would want you to observe how wells were a unique part of the social life in Israel. Even though wells brought much arguments and conflicts between Abraham’s servants and Lot’s servants, they were regarded as meeting-places for friends, strangers and possibly enemies. Abraham’s servant got the solution to the choice of a wife for his master’s son Isaac, as he sat by the well where both men and women came to draw water (which is symbolic of a quest for life). He did not choose to go where in today’s world would be a pub, the pictures or a party.

A wonderful woman went the extra mile to help a tired servant, who she assumed couldn’t pay her back, and thought she might never see again. That woman qualified as the wife of the servant’s master’s son. I wonder how many Israelites made their choice of a wife from Isaac’s testimony. I wonder how many disciples won souls by the well as Jesus did. Isaiah knew the significance of the well and said, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). It is no wonder our Lord Jesus Christ stayed by the well, a place for the thirsty. In John 7:37 Jesus called the thirsty to Himself. God’s desire is for us to hunger for His Word and nothing else. He said, “…I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” ( Amos 8:11).

We are not wells without water as Peter talked about in 2 Peter 2:17 but as Jesus said, we’re wells of water springing up into everlasting life.