Focus: Eternity

Text: Ecl.3:11

"He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end."

Man is the only creature in the physical realm in whose heart God planted or set up eternity. God crafted, enshrined, or embedded eternity into the human DNA. Within the inner fabric of his being God infused eternity. According to the second chapter of Genesis, God breathed His kind of life into the man, which in other words means that man's life is not entirely physical and temporal. As a matter of fact, his main life is divine. 

Peter declares in no uncertain terms, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE…" (2Pet.1:4). We are partakers of the divine nature. Divinity indwells our humanity. The author of Hebrews says that "we are made partakers of Christ," and also that we have been "enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost." He also says that we have "tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come," and that by divine discipline we are made partakers of the holiness of God.

We bear in us the stamp of divinity and the signature of eternity. It is important to understand that not only are we creatures of eternity, but also that the eternal one lives in us. The Lord Jesus Christ says concerning the Holy Spirit, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you FOR EVER" (Jh.14:15). In verse 17, the Lord Jesus Christ calls Him "the Spirit of truth," and says, "for he dwelleth WITH you, and shall be IN you." 

Since the Holy Spirit is going to be with us forever, it therefore means that we are going to live forever. We are essentially eternal beings living in a time-bound world.

People of eternity should not get themselves preoccupied and occupied with things that pass; they must always pursue the things that last. Their lives should not be governed by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, and like Paul, they are crucified to the world even as the world is crucified to them. The connection between them has been broken. They let their lives lean mainly on the eternal, not on the earthly. Like Moses, they see the invisible and focus only on the eternal glory. 

Eternity defines and triggers our existence in time. We come from eternity, living temporarily in time, and going into eternity.

John writes of Christ, "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God" (Jh.13:3). He came from God and returned back to God, and so it is with us. We came from God and we are going back to Him, "for in him we live, and move, and have our being…" (Act.17:28).

Eternity is central and vital to our existence on earth. As Paul intimates, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1Cor.15:19). Our hope is beyond this life. We refuse to be the slaves of the temporal or fleeting.

Life that truly matters is:

*Love-oriented

…it's a love-centered living

*Internally transcendental

…upward looking life; a life linked to the vertical dimension of existence

*Futuristically perceived

…it's a future-minded living

*Externally eschatological

…it's a forward-looking life; a life horizontally externalized or manifested.

That's real L.I.F.E. That's existence truly and eternally realized in a world of time.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter