The Temporary vs. The Eternal
What is temporary and what is eternal? These are questions that are undoubtedly of concern to us mortal beings. We have a vested interest in self-preservation and engaging in activities here on earth that would grant us a kind of good, healthy long life. We must grapple, however, with the reality that since sin was born into the world and we have fallen short of the holy standard that God has, we desperately need a savior. We have just that in Jesus Christ.
We have come into the world clothed in the temporary and we groan for heaven and the new tent, as scripture says, that we will be clothed in when we depart from this temporary dwelling of ours. It isn’t always an easy transition of thinking for us, we are feeble, and can often revert to helpless fears of oblivion.
Our groanings, what are they? We are each unique in giftings, temperaments and longings. These qualities and characteristics of the heart, they inform our interactions, worldviews and thoughts. The apostle Paul in second Corinthians five reminds us that; while we are here in this temporary body, there is all the groaning of the eternal, for we long to be clothed with the everlasting that is only found in heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 — He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Every person has eternity set in our hearts, for despite the pleasures of this world, we long for an eternal city. We have grown old, decrepit and short on hope in the body of sin to which we were first born. It is until we are reborn, until the living hope that we have in Christ, that we truly live.
1 Peter 1:3 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,…
For this reason we don’t despair, though our outward man is in a state of utter decay, we are being renewed inside by what Christ has done for us. One question that constrains me in this age we find ourselves in is just this; have you any hope? There seem to be an infinite number of causes that people devote their lives to, but all for the temporary gains of this earth. These gains are vacuous however, our lives are but a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow.
James 4:14 — Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
The life we live on the earth, though temporary, should be pointing us to the eternity that we eagerly await. We should enjoy the relationships and good fruits of our labors here, but also have an expectation that there is something more we are living for. We will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the compensation for our deeds here on earth, so don’t live merely for our time here on earth, but live instead with eternity in mind, so that on the day of judgment you won’t be put to shame. It can be all too easy to forget what is coming in light of what we currently see. Don’t allow the fading light of today to blind you to what is to come.
We have come into the world clothed in the temporary and we groan for heaven and the new tent, as scripture says, that we will be clothed in when we depart from this temporary dwelling of ours. It isn’t always an easy transition of thinking for us, we are feeble, and can often revert to helpless fears of oblivion.
Our groanings, what are they? We are each unique in giftings, temperaments and longings. These qualities and characteristics of the heart, they inform our interactions, worldviews and thoughts. The apostle Paul in second Corinthians five reminds us that; while we are here in this temporary body, there is all the groaning of the eternal, for we long to be clothed with the everlasting that is only found in heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 — He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Every person has eternity set in our hearts, for despite the pleasures of this world, we long for an eternal city. We have grown old, decrepit and short on hope in the body of sin to which we were first born. It is until we are reborn, until the living hope that we have in Christ, that we truly live.
1 Peter 1:3 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,…
For this reason we don’t despair, though our outward man is in a state of utter decay, we are being renewed inside by what Christ has done for us. One question that constrains me in this age we find ourselves in is just this; have you any hope? There seem to be an infinite number of causes that people devote their lives to, but all for the temporary gains of this earth. These gains are vacuous however, our lives are but a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow.
James 4:14 — Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
The life we live on the earth, though temporary, should be pointing us to the eternity that we eagerly await. We should enjoy the relationships and good fruits of our labors here, but also have an expectation that there is something more we are living for. We will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the compensation for our deeds here on earth, so don’t live merely for our time here on earth, but live instead with eternity in mind, so that on the day of judgment you won’t be put to shame. It can be all too easy to forget what is coming in light of what we currently see. Don’t allow the fading light of today to blind you to what is to come.
1 Comment
Great read Pastor.