How Long Is Eternal Life?

By Justin Johnson

Talking of eternal life is like talking about a trillion dollars. They are both so large that their magnitude is often unrealized. One million dollars may be attainable by some, but people concede that a trillion is a lot more than a million and leave it at that.

 

Living for a hundred years is a long time and has been reached by a few in modern years. The nine-hundred sixty-nine years of Methuselah seems other-worldly.

 

Eternity is something much longer than a mere thousand years.

 

The host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea Jer 33:22

 

I'm sure there are more than a trillion sands in the sea. Human brains tend to shut off from reality when we try to think of numbers this large. They are only numbers on a page. But God knows:

 

[God] hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure Isa 40:12

Scientists and manufacturers spend billions of dollars to try to extend our life just a few years at a time. This is like trying to add a few more sands to the seas. But God, the source of life, is able to give life abundantly!

 

He has defeated death, paid for our offences toward Him, and has offered the gift of eternal life to all those who put their faith in the atonement and free justification of Jesus Christ.

 

If we would spend a trillion dollars to offer healthcare and medicine to help extend the life of the infirmed for a few years then how much more important would it be if we could extend life a thousand years? Ten thousand? What about forever? This would be worth all our time and money if we could receive it!

 

Jesus made this value statement, 'what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' (Mark 8:36)

 

We only have a short time to receive eternal life before our death. God has helped us by providing us with the written means by which we can know how to receive it. The instructions are in Romans 4:5 and 25.

 

Unfortunately, humanity refuses to turn to the source of life or the book he provided. Scientists continually fail to find eternal life in a laboratory. They need to ask the question, how long? The answer til death is Not long. The answer that only God can provide is forever.

 

Your life is a few granules of sand and a few drops in the oceans of eternity. Spend it seeking eternal life (2 Cor 4:17,1 Peter 1:24). Find it in God's grace in the death and resurrection of Jesus for you (2 Cor 5:21).