Perish or Eternal Life?

This is eternal life – that we may know Him!

Perish or eternal life? This ultimatum comes to all of us at some point in our lives. Nicodemus was the first “seeker” confronted with the truth:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:14-16 NKJV.

Our Soul Matters

The words of our Lord are clear, but without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, they are mere words. We, the modern-day reader, may or may not understand Jesus’ paradox as he draws a parallel between the serpent staff of Moses and the cross.

If we move to Numbers 21, we find people impatient and fed up with things not going their way. The freed, who were once slaves, became discouraged in the inner depths of their souls. They spoke harshly against God and His servant, Moses. They said that they had had enough, and they even loathed the manna sent from heaven, calling it worthless bread.

What we say from our hearts hurts the soul. Never underestimate the power of complaints and words of dissent. Actual harm comes to those who stir up the people to sin.

God became angry with them because they refused the goodwill of God, the provisions He provided, and the leader He directed them to the Promised Land. When would they ever take Him seriously?

Perishing – Venomous Snakes

So, He sent venomous snakes, and people died. I can only imagine that bitterness and discontent were attractive to these snakes.

Under such judgment, they repented and asked Moses to pray away the snakes. They grieved their foolishness and rebellion. So, Moses prayed for them.

They repented, and Almighty God responded.

The Nehushtan

He could have easily just sent the snakes away into the desert or killed them on the spot, but He didn’t. They needed to learn a lesson. God instructed Moses to create a bronze snake and place it on a pole so that everyone bitten would look at it and survive.

The “serpent staff”, later called the Nehushtan (II Kings 18:4), was a foreshadowing of the cross – a gruesome instrument of execution. All of us deserve death, but our Lord Jesus took our punishment for all of us.

The Nehustan was “lifted up”, and people lived. The cross is “lifted up” and people can live and not perish.

Perish or Eternal Life – an Invitation

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 NKJV.

Clearly, there are the perishing and the saved. There’s a stark contrast here – the beautiful gift of life and the horrible, inevitable alternative of perishing.

Truth is truth. There’s no other option – no other resolution to the problem. Either you’re in or you’re out. When we sin, we sin against God, just like those in the desert. There’s no getting around it. Our behavior, believe it or not, sets our destiny. Saying that all paths lead to eternal life or claiming that there is no God or Savior doesn’t make things right – does not free one from the destiny of the perishing.

What Does That Mean?

So what does it mean to “perish” and what is “eternal life?” I could go through paragraph upon paragraph on its meaning, but let’s keep it clear and succinct.

Perish: Eternal conscious punishment (Mark 9:42-48 & Rev 14:9-11) – final state of the damned. To become destroyed or die. It means to be lost spiritually, representing a state of living without God’s presence, peace, and guidance. Perishing is the reality of the unsaved; “perishing” is a state of eternal separation from God.  

Eternal Life: Life with God into eternity without end. The peace of His presence and confidence in His sustaining power to help us walk into eternity with Him. He is our constant Companion and we’re safe. We may not understand everything in this life, but we trust our Savior. We can say with confidence, ‘We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.’

The difference is in what you believe and who you believe and who you do not. What we believe is the difference between life and death. But what does it mean to believe?

What Does it Mean to Believe?

When we turn our hearts to God, we focus our thoughts on the Holy. We begin to believe He is who He says He is. Believing in Jesus means:

We believe wholeheartedly that Jesus is the Son of God sent to seek and save the lost. We believe His love is enduring and His care heartfelt. God wants to forgive us and for us to be reconciled. It is wrong to see God as merely an angry judge imposing His laws on us and ready to punish every misstep or indiscretion. God is not some hard-hearted judge prepared to pounce, but a Father longing for His wayward children to come home. It was love that sent Jesus and love that cost the life and death of Christ. It is love’s power that brought resurrection and newness of life.
We cannot be Christians and live the “with God life” until we believe with all our hearts that what He said is true.
We must believe that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God sent by the Father. Believe that in Him is both the mind and heart of God. We believe that he knows God so well and is so close to God that they are One. Yes, and believe that what He’s saying is the absolute truth and nothing but the truth.
Finally, we must stake everything on it. Whatever He says we must do, whatever He commands of us, then we must obey, and wherever He goes we must go. If we take Jesus at His word, then we’re breathing the breath of honest faith.

Every move we make, every step we take, He’ll be watching you – watching over you with love.

John 3:16 – An Invitation to Live!

People have quoted John 3:16 so often, blasted it in so many sermons, and written it on billboards from California to New York like some marketing campaign. But it is no marketing campaign – it’s a matter of life and death.

Imagine hearing this invitation for the first time:

For God so loved the world that He gave

His only begotten Son

so that whoever believes

should not perish

But have everlasting life.

Perish or live? That’s the question, and John 3:16 is the invitation.

Love Makes Eternal Life Possible

God, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, loves the world of the once born whose stench of sin and death mark them for destruction. He displays His enduring tender love by sending His only Son, His beloved Son, so we could believe – so that we would not perish. By accepting, we agree that we gain the life-changing privilege of eternal life—a life of sweet communion with the Savior daily.

Don’t be deceived; eternal life is not merely living forever and gaining that ticket to heaven, so to speak. But it is knowing God intimately to live under the shadow of His love. It refers to the quality of life He gives so that we may know Him more and more intimately. Honestly, even though we have eternity to know Him, that is not enough.

The treasure compounded beyond measure is eternity in the shadow of the Almighty God’s enduring love.

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3 NKJV.

Perish or eternal life?

Here’s the sad, but honest truth: to say no to this invitation is to say yes to eternal death. God is gentle, loving, forgiving, and kind. He does not wish that any perish-no, not one.

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 2 Pet 3:9

Every move of God is characterized by goodness and tender loving care.

God looks at our hard hearts, disobedience, rebellion, and traitorous thoughts and still loves us. It hurts the heart of God, and yet He doesn’t move immediately to destroy everyone of us to start all over. He doesn’t say he’s going to discipline or punish us until we come back.

He doesn’t send snakes, but an invitation.

God is not seeking an alliance with us to satisfy His desire for power.

No. God moves out of love – we move away out of self-love. The root of disbelief is a self-centered life. God is a Father grieving for His wayward children. He loves the unlovable and unlovely – the lonely one who no one else sees or no one else loves. God even loves those who never think of Him.

“God loves each of one of us as if there was only one of us to love.” ~ St. Augustine.

Call to action

The choice is yours: perish or have eternal life.

If you are a believer, when did you make that choice, and what difference did it make in your life? Try to remember God’s great love for you and share in the comments below.

If you’re not a believer, then let’s begin today. Will you accept His invitation and join us in life with God? I would love to hear from you. Please comment or contact me on the contact page.