This post is part of a series of communion mediations working through the Apostles’ Creed. You can read the creed here.
The Life Everlasting. As we come to the end of our meditations on the Creed, we come to what is, in one sense, the easiest part to explain. The belief in everlasting life is, after all, the whole point of Christianity. The apostle Paul 1 Corinthians 15:19 that, If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. He was not exaggerating.
If there is no hope, no life, beyond this one, then the Christian gospel is not simply foolishness—it’s a damnable lie. It’s a waste of time for those who believe, and a song of wickedness on the lips of those who preach it.
But Paul’s point in that chapter, and the very drumbeat of the Scriptures is that our hope is not simply tied to this life. There is everlasting life to come.
This is, in fact, what we were made for as human beings. God created us in His image, and fashioned us in such a way that we can and are meant to know him, to love him, and commune with him. But our father Adam ruptured that union through disobedience. And, standing there as our representative, in Adam’s fall we sinned all. Each and every one of us is now born with a sinful human nature, by nature children of wrath and enemies of God.
But, in the Lord Jesus, God was reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). If you repent of your sins and trust in the sufficient work of Jesus on your behalf, God does not count your sins against, but instead clothes you in the righteous life of the Lord Jesus Himself. And in that union, you are also promised a Resurrection like his, which leads to—you guessed it—an eternal life like his. You are, as we spoke about in 1 John, knit into the Divine Life and promised an eternity of Joy in the presence of the Lord. A life more free, full, and forever than our minds are capable of comprehending.
And friends, this is why we celebrate the Supper. We are reminding ourselves, once again, of the work of Christ in the past which effected our redemption. We look back to his death—and subsequent resurrection—and see it as the source of our forgiveness, our hope, our joy, and life. He came—and died—that we might have life, both abundant and eternal.
