Immortality part 2
Here's my thought for today: Immortality has come to LIGHT through the gospel. I think that's important. Because when you think about it, immortality has always been, and will always be. It didn't start when Jesus died. Its like the way Melchisedec is described in Hebrews 7:3, "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God..." Eternal. Forever. Again, always has been, and always will be. But hidden. Available to us, but easily missed as we wore ourselves out trying to earn our bread by the sweat of our brows. Or as we robbed ourselves from the gift we've been given by trying to enter into the sheepfold any other way but through the door. Looking for love in all the wrong places, if I can say it that way. Trying to earn something that can't be earned. And settling for much less than what our heavenly Father wanted for us. But God, being a GOOD heavenly Father, wasn't ok with us missing out on what He wanted for us. What He HAD for us. So He gave us His only begotten Son. So that we might know that we ARE His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. So that we might know Him as Father, instead of knowing Him as a distant, angry taskmaster who is always out to get you every time you mess up. That's what religion presents to us. But that's not the God who is love. That's not what Jesus showed us. And Jesus basically told Philip, "If you've seen me you've seen the Father." Because in the beginning the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. Jesus said in another place, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). So Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, always has been and always will be. This isn't some plan B that God came up with when we surprised Him by being completely unable to keep His Law. The Law wasn't given so that you could fit into a box and keep it. The Law was given to show you that you CAN'T keep it. The Law is the schoolmaster that brings us to Christ. The One who could, and did, keep and fulfill the Law. The One who brought us out of the Old Covenant and into the New Covenant. Where our trespasses and sins are remembered no more. Where we can stop struggling with sin (unbelief) because Jesus took away the sin of the world! He gave us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in by shining His glorious light! That's why the gospel brings immortality to light... because what was hidden can now clearly be seen. Because God--who IS light--shines in our heart. Let me quote it: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your heart" (2 Peter 1:19). Jesus is the light of the world. And WE are the light of the world. Its the same light. The gospel: God is love and He loves you. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. God loves you so much that He gave you everything He has and everything He is. He gave you His Holy Spirit--the love receptor--so that you could receive and release His love. And in that way partake of the Divine Nature. And in that way experience and enjoy the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life that has always been available. Live by loving. Forever. That's immortality!