By Arthur J Licursi

The issue ever at hand for mankind is ‘life;’ first it is temporal human life, but later we realize we need the everlasting life. That is the resurrected spirit-life of Jesus Christ that one must have received, in order to become immortal and to resurrect after the physical death that all men ultimately face.

John 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him [Jesus Christ] should not perish, but have [His] eternal life [Grk. zōē, the spirit life of God].

All life that is known in God’s natural created realm has an end, a terminus. Today the death rate remains the same, one per person. Protoplasm, the interior matter of a living cells, is only temporary. It differs from lifeless matter only in that it has that indefinable quality that we may call the ‘temporary ‘life.’ All life that science knows of is temporary. No one can discover in the laboratory how life began. And just how it ends, has not been found. Only the Bible explains there clearly.

Science hasn’t been able to find any sort of life that is of Christ’s age-abiding quality. Yet the Bible tells us no one but the Creator God could generate and sustain the ‘age-abiding life,’ the life that is real life.

Now we consider what is lost in death… in order to appreciate life. Man is no exception to the “law of death.” All physical humans included, return to dust, even as the animals and the plants. Adam was created of “the dust of the ground.” In fact, both man and beast, go to the same place at death, they go to dust.  Ecclesiastes 12:7 tells us, upon physical death of the human life … “Then shall the dust [of the body] return to the earth as it was: and The Spirit Shall Return Unto God Who Gave It.”

Every human is born with “the breath [Grk. pneuma, spirit]” of God, temporarily (cf. Genesis 1:27). Unless and until one has received Christ’s very own ‘age-abiding’ “spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2) in the course of their lifetime on earth… their temporary life will ultimately “perish.” All temporary life will one day end. If one has received Christ’s ‘age-abiding life’ by faith in Christ as Savior, they then possess His life as their new life, they will live forever.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

God, at the cost of the human physical life of His incarnated Son at the Cross, has made available to all mankind the ‘age-abiding life’ which any man can lay hold on by simply and genuinely… believing.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, [so] that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have [Jesus Christ’s own] everlasting life.

The ‘age-abiding life’ is the only genuine life that can abide [stand] during all the ages unto eternity.

This age-abiding quality is of The Divine Life of the Godhead. Anyone of faith in Jesus Christ has already partaken of His ‘age-abiding life’ the moment they first believed. This then also guarantees their Resurrection upon the death of their human life, unto to the spiritual ‘age-abiding life,’ forever. No other life than Christ’s own life in man can Resurrect. Only God as Jesus Christ could say; “I AM The Resurrection and The Life.”

John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, Though He Were Dead, Yet Shall He Live:

The ‘age-abiding life’ is only available to us when we are in union with Christ’s life” (cf. 1Cor 6:17). This is the testimony of God’s written Word, the Bible. It is equally true that apart from Christ, there ultimately is only eternal death. Otherwise, His word would not be true. But we believe what He has said is “The Truth.”

Let me explain the term “age-abiding life” in the next three paragraphs. Read carefully.

The Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible (EBR) has translated the terms “everlasting” or “eternal life” by the more correct term, the ‘Age-Abiding Life’ of Christ Himself. The meaning brought out by this term reveals it better than the adjectives, eternal or everlasting. Those words are not used in The Hebrew Old Testament or The Greek New Testament. The idea in the original text mistranslated “everlasting” or “eternal life” refers not so much to the length of life, but rather it is indicative of the nature or quality of the life in Christ. In fact, an ‘aion’ is not an eternity but a limited segment, cycle, or span of time within eternity. It may be a definite segment, such as the biblical aion called “The Millennium” (1,000 years in length) in which Christ will initially reign on earth. It may also refer to an indefinite but otherwise defined length of time. An ‘aion’ has a beginning and an end, which is not true of our idea of eternity, which we generally see as ever-after.

The ages or aions are but small parenthetical segments of time within the whole of eternity. These segments may be called dispensations that are defined by God’s progressively changing relationship with mankind throughout time. If you would make a little scratch on the rim of a great wheel with a diameter as big as the diameter of the universe, that little scratch would indicate in scale the time of an age or aion.

The Bible’s often references time based upon Genesis 1:2 as its reference point to time as “before” or “since the overthrow” of Lucifer’s earth havoc. God’s “overthrow (Greek, the katabole)” of Lucifer’s earthly havoc, noted in Genesis 1:2, marks the beginning the biblically recorded ‘age-times’ that we call the ‘dispensational ages.’ We today are currently living in a time called “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2), which is one aion or age within “the ages” or “aions” of time. These biblical ages will end when there comes the final ‘overthrow’ of Lucifer himself and his time of evil activity when he is “cast into the lake of fire prepared for the Devil and his angels” (cf. Matt. 25:4) There then will come “a new heaven and a new earth” with its ‘paradise.’

The ‘age-abiding life’ life within the believers not only results in their Resurrection but also in their immortality. To date, nobody but Christ has been Resurrected (cf., John 3:13). Christ alone is Immortal. He is the “Firstborn from the dead.” (Colossians 1:18). All who are in union with Christ and His “age-abiding life’ are already spiritually immortal. We should know that we have overcome death… “in Christ.”

Dear Reader; Please permit me address you personally.

If you have never received the ‘age-abiding life’ of Jesus Christ to be your new life, … then you can do it now by simply ‘believing’ in mind and heart. Immediately then, you will be cleansed of your sin and “regenerated” in heart. You will begin a new life-journey of faith to come to full understanding of God’s eternal plan and purpose for you, your family, and mankind.

1John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

God’s words of the Bible “are spirit and life.” Unlike the dictates of man’s religion, they are plain and simple when you take the words literally. There’s is no need of religious activities, rituals or rites to receive His life. You can be regenerated simply by faith alone in Christ alone, as your all. His age-abiding life cannot be earned by any religious activity, ritual or activity… it stands on His grace and His Gift of faith alone.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the [free] gift of God: ⁹ Not of [religious] works, lest any man should boast.

<> Portions adapted from believer.com