Maranatha

Life Eternal Begins Now, October 21

This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 1 John 5:11. Mar 302.1

The resurrection of Jesus was a sample of the final resurrection of all who sleep in Him.^{59The Spirit of Prophecy 3:219.} Mar 302.2

He [the Christian] may die; but the life of Christ is in him, and at the resurrection of the just he will rise to newness of life.^{60The Review and Herald, October 1, 1901.} Mar 302.3

“In him [Christ] was life; and the life was the light of men.” It is not physical life that is here specified, but immortality, the life which is exclusively the property of God. The Word, who was with God, and who was God, had this life. Physical life is something which each individual receives. It is not eternal or immortal; for God, the Life-giver, takes it again. Man has no control over his life. But the life of Christ was unborrowed. No one can take this life from Him. “I lay it down of myself,” He said. In Him was life, original, unborrowed, underived. This life is not inherent in man. He can possess it only through Christ.^{61The Signs of the Times, April 8, 1897.} Mar 302.4

While bearing human nature, He [Christ] was dependent upon the Omnipotent for His life. In His humanity, He laid hold of the divinity of God; and this every member of the human family has the privilege of doing.... Mar 302.5

If we repent of our transgression, and receive Christ as the Life-giver, ... we become one with Him, and our will is brought into harmony with the divine will. We become partakers of the life of Christ, which is eternal. We derive immortality from God by receiving the life of Christ, for in Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. This life is the mystical union and cooperation of the divine with the human.^{62The Signs of the Times, June 17, 1897.} Mar 302.6

Christ became one flesh with us, in order that we might become one spirit with Him. It is by virtue of this union that we are to come forth from the grave—not merely as a manifestation of the power of Christ, but because, through faith, His life has become ours. Those who see Christ in His true character, and receive Him into the heart, have everlasting life. It is through the Spirit that Christ dwells in us; and the Spirit of God, received into the heart by faith, is the beginning of the life eternal.^{63The Desire of Ages, 388.} Mar 302.7