The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), but Jesus has come that we may have life, and have it to the full or more abundantly. (John 10:10).
This doesn’t only apply to the life after this one, but also to the here and now.
Death isn’t something that comes only once. In the course of your life now and then a part of you already dies. When a dream shatters, a little hope dies, when your life is turned upside down because of a major event, a little trust dies, when you are fooled, a little innocence dies and with the death a loved one, a part of you dies as well. As a twenty-year-old you won’t be able to be as uninhibited as a small child any more, let alone when you are 60+. Too much is damaged by then.
Still Jesus says that “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Marc 10:15) That is a problem, because at a certain time, you just are not a child any more. It seems men remain children quite long, but still you will find something of cynicism, bitterness, harshness, fear or insecurity at one time.
Fortunately God never asks something from us He didn’t provide for first. So the question is not how can we do it, but how can we receive it.
When you become like a child, does that give a life to the full?
Just watch children who can’t even count to ten. To them the world is one big source of entertainment and life is one big adventure. Everything is new and danger doesn’t really exist yet. They don’t have to worry about what to eat or drink, where they will sleep of what to wear. Responsibility is unknown, just as things like the future, economy, politics or religion. I would like to call that life in abundance. This free and happy you will never be again. And this is the life promised to us.
Would it really be possible in the here and now, to abandon a life you die a little every day, for a life of trust, hope and love? From a life of demolition to a life of healing, renewal and growth? From loneliness to attachment, from fear to love?
“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.(…) I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’.””(John 3:3-7)
How do you become a child again? By being born again. The birth of Gods Spirit in you, which gives you entrance to the entirely new dimension that is called the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. The only thing you have to do as the receiving party is to open up your spirit to Gods Spirit by believing He exists or taking on the challenge by letting Him prove to you He exists.
God will do the rest.
In one person it will result in a slow process of growth and discovery, in the other person in leads to a kind of ‘Paul experience’, a radical change of insight and thinking. Both result in an attachment to God from where you learn to live. Bit by bit you learn to know God and yourself. The more you learn to know God, the more you learn to trust Him, the more you learn to hope, believe and love, the more wounds heal, the more brokenness gets cured. In short, you are a new creation.
I have regularly ask myself if this is true, because I don’t always feel that new. I just worry, get problems, and still get bruised by life. I would like to be as carefree as a child, but reality is I am an adult with responsibilities in a cold world instead of paradise.
But every time I can return to that Hiding place, to that Rock to catch my breath again, to be comforted and healed and to get new strength to continue.
We still don’t have heaven on earth, but we can catch a glimpse of what it is going to be. We cannot always be a child, we we can always relay on our Father.
Eternal life starts now. But “now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known”. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
This life is stronger than death. If something dies in me it isn’t just the end, but also a new beginning. After I have mourned for my loss I will see there is space for something new. The force that raised Jesus from the dead is born in me. This source of life is a permanent part of me. It gives me the resilience of a child; I know everything will be fine because I learned how to trust.
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