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Does eternal life begin when our physical bodies die and we continue in our spirit or does it begin while we are alive on this earth? As everyone knows, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” When we believe in God, we ‘shall not perish,’ in the future, but ‘have eternal life,’ in the present. Jesus said this to Nicodemus immediately after telling him he must be born of the Spirit. “Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5-6). “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12) When we believed, we received the Spirit. This Spirit came into us so we were born of the Spirit. This Spirit that was brought into us is divine. It is God Himself making a home in our hearts. God is eternal, so went he comes into our spirit, we become eternal. We have received God’s divine life, an eternal life, so we have the eternal life. “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'” (John 14:23) It is the most significant change a human can have. The human is born of water, burying the things of the world that is human, and is born of God, made alive in the things of God that is divine. Christ has come into us as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). That is what gives us the ability to overcome sin.  That is what gives us the ability to manifest him. That is what makes us the sons of God.

Why is the first four commands related to God? Why did Jesus summarize it to loving God with all our hearts, all our souls, and all our minds? (Mat. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27) Why should we pray unceasingly? (Eph. 6:18) Although there has been many answers to this question, the major reason is “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God the Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” (1 Thes. 3:13) When we worship him, we are being transformed into his image. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18). We come into his presence, beholding him as in a mirror, so we could be transformed from something human, made of the flesh, to something divine, made of the Spirit. Our presence before God transforms our minds (Rom. 12:2) where the biggest problem exists. Our conscience makes us see the speck in each others eye, and not the log in our own (Mat. 7:3). Somehow, we cannot see ourselves and how poor we are. In fact, when we see the negatives in others, it is usually negatives in ourselves, so we notice it in others. This is common in all of us. So we need to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom. 12:2) As our minds are transformed from the human way of thinking to the divine way of thinking, we begin to express him. We begin to express the divine nature so we are like Jesus, ‘proving’ the will of God in our expression. We begin to have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:16) When we have the mind of Christ, we will love God and bring ourselves into his presence for him to transform us to be more and more like him. As we love him, our love will grow for him. Then we will love everyone with his love, an ‘agape’ love, a selfless, sacrificial,. and unconditional love that bring us into unity with the same mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 1:10) We would be able to live out in reality, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (John 12:47) and commit ourselves to him and his great commission “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Mat. 28:19-20) That is why we are urged “to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Rom. 12:1) Worshipping God is a repetitive spiritual exercise which transforms us to be like him. So worshipping God is not only for him, but mainly for us.

When we give ourselves to God, realizing we can do nothing, very strangely, that is when we can do so much.

Nicodemus, as a ruler of the Jews and a man of the Pharisees, thought he lived a righteous life. He was an upstanding person likely much respected by the people around him. Whether he has a secret life contrary to his public image, the Bible does not say. But Jesus told him what he needed was to be born again. He needed to be born of God. “That wish is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6). That which is born of a man is human, and that which is born of God is divine. It is a difference in natures, transferring us from our human nature to God’s divine nature. After Adam’s fall, we had no participation in the divine life. But the Son of Man descended from heaven (John 3:13), dying for us, dealing with our sins, restoring us so we can receive the divine life again. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14). Moses lifted a brass serpent on a cross and whoever looked at it was saved from the bite of venomous snakes. The divine God came to us in the form of a sinful man but without sin, as foreshadowed by Moses, in the form of a brass serpent but without its poison. He died for us on the cross, for our sins that had separated God and man, and resurrected and ascended to heaven, being lifted up, so whoever believes in him, or looks to the brass serpent, will have eternal life. This eternal life is God’s life, the divine life which lives eternally, not our human lives. When we have the divine life in us, that life will manifest the divine nature through us. So no matter how righteous we are, as a man, we are bound to slip. In fact, most of us cannot follow our own conscience. That is why we need God’s divine life. That is why we need to be born again. That is why we are the sons of God. This is the gift that God has given us.