Before Church: From Life Span to Survival Rate

Sunday, August 25, 2019

“For this is the will of the Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:40

Life.  It is what drives us, that survival instinct that makes us fight to live.  This verse comes from the famous “I am the bread of life” speech the Lord Jesus gives, and we hear, over and over, that He is the source of life, He is the new manna come down from Heaven, and in Him is eternal life. If Christ is our life, if we look on Him and believe in Him for our sustenance, then we will have eternal life, Jesus Christ will raise us up from death, on our last day we will be resurrected to paradise.  That’s His promise.

My expectations were high.  A year out from cancer surgery and radiation, and I had great expectations, but these doctors are cautious fellows.  My two biggest questions: am I cancer free?  How long before the pain goes away?  Answers: not encouraging.  Pain?  Might never go away; scar tissue and residue from the radiation targeting implant may mean lifelong pain.  And “Cancer free”? That’s a label you get after ten years of clean scans, and I’m nine years out from that.  Because after cancer, they stop talking about your life span and start talking about your survival rate.  How long has it been since you were diagnosed? How long have you survived?  And they even call us: survivors. 

Jesus promised us life eternal.  That means my doctors are wrong.  It is not that they aren’t accurate in worldly terms, but I’m going to live forever. My life span doesn’t end when this aging body dies. Jesus said, over and over, that His mission is about life; He came to bring life, abundant life; His job was to make us immortal once again.  Forever life spans!  If we believe in Him, we are raised up on our last day.  We wake up to eternity.  We close our eyes in one world and open them up in a place of no more pain, no more sin, no more sorrow, no more grief, with a brand-new body.  I’m not limited by a survival rate; I am already living in the atmosphere of eternity.  Thanks to Jesus, my life span is forever. 

When we start living as eternal, immortal believers in Jesus it shifts our perspective.  With all of eternity ahead, there is no limiting factor that this world, or the doctors, can place on us.  Our lives are in the hands of God.  We am not just surviving, because of the life of Jesus Christ in us, we are thriving!  Eternally thriving! When troubles come that seem to drain away life from us, we know that Christ is our eternal source of life, the bread of Heaven given to us who believe, a never-ending source of eternal nutrition that will sustain us not just in this life, but forever.  Our life span is forever.