We are continuing our meditations on the subject of eternity, and thinking specifically on God’s desire to have us live eternally with Him. Jesus said:
2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going." 5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:2-6).
Jesus said that He would come back and take believers to be with Him. Do you believe Him? Have you found the way to His house? The road to eternity with God is not a direction; it is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He has paid the penalty for your sin and invites you to receive Him into your life and to receive the gift of eternal life (Ephesians 2:8-9). You can have the inner confidence that you are home only when you come to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember the one commandment of Mary, the mother of Jesus? Yes, Mary gave the world one commandment written in the Bible. Speaking to the servants at the wedding in Cana in Galilee, she said, "Do whatever He [Jesus] tells you" (John 2:5). There is great wisdom in those words, and we do well to heed them and make His house our direction.
Jesus went on to say, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him" (John 14:21). We show Christ how much we love Him by obeying His commands. A love relationship is the main thing—to fall in love with the God of the Universe. When you understand all that Christ has done for you, you cannot help falling in love with Him. Sometimes, we don't see the obvious that is written in the Bible, i.e., that of a God of love seeking to reconcile fallen humanity to Himself. From beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation, we see God calling a people for Himself from all the nations—a people who come to know God – not just know about Him, but know Him intimately. No matter what country you live in or no matter what you have done, Christ has made a way for you to know God in a close, intimate, love relationship.
The God of the Universe has been separated from His people by their sin (Isaiah 59:2). He calls across the time span of many thousands of years longing to be with His people and bring them home to the New Jerusalem where He may dwell with them. What's His call? "Adam, where are you?" (Genesis 3:9). Due to listening and obeying the voice of the enemy, Satan, Adam and Eve were hiding from the Lord God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8). So many people today are still hiding from God, but He calls to them, longing that they will respond and abandon their self-righteousness, which is as filthy rags, and come to receive His provision for sin, i.e., the gift of the robe of righteousness in Christ. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far you are apart from Him, He wants to draw you to Himself if you will open your heart to Him. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44. Emphasis mine). Just the fact that you are reading these words is evidence that the Father is drawing you. Keith Thomas
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Taken from the series Insights into Eternity found in the All Studies box. Click on the study The Wedding of the Lamb.
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