Category Archives: eternal life

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse – Ephesians 2:1-8

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“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:1-8, ESV).

A zombie apocalypse is coming according to many current movies and televisions shows fixated on zombies. In the movies the zombie apocalypse is a fictional world where societal collapse occurs due to an overwhelming outbreak of undead, infectious human beings.

But maybe the zombie apocalypse is already here!

In these verses from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians the zombie apocalypse may not be so fictional and it may have already arrived! Ephesians 2:1-2 indicate there is already an overwhelming outbreak of the walking dead causing societal collapse: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (vs. 1-2).

According to Paul, there is walking dead everywhere. He says it is the way of this world. So, we live in a fallen world that is overwhelmingly inhabited by people who are spiritually dead!

Because the zombie apocalypse seems to have started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden!

The deliberate rejection of God’s rule in favor of human rule.described in Genesis 3 resulted in separation from God’s Spirit and access to eternal life and the consequential spiritual death of human beings: “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:22-24, ESV).

Yes, according to the Bible, the zombie apocalypse has always been here since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden! And, according to the Bible God has formulated a way for us to survive the zombie apocalypse.

The priest turned prophet, Ezekiel, prophesied during the Babylonian exile. Around 597 BC many Israelites including Ezekiel were taken to Babylon after King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem. Ezekiel prophesied among these exiles.

Ezekiel had a vision of the restoration of God’s chosen people–it was a vision of dead bones coming back to life: “Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:4-6, ESV).

But in Ezekiel’s vision God does something more to these dry bones to bring them back to life to make them more than just walking dead: “And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:14, ESV).

God restores their spiritual life. By putting His Spirit in them He makes them whole or complete like the human beings He created in Genesis 1 and 2!

God takes the walking dead and gives them eternal life. Because God is “rich in mercy” and because of His “great love” and the “immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness” toward human beings, God takes spiritually dead people and makes them alive in Christ.

The life of God’s Spirit that was lost in Eden is now restored to those who have received the gift of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ.

They are the survivors of the zombie apocalypse!

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11, ESV)

Cosmic Convergence- Hebrews 12:18-24

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“Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.”

The Hebrews writer develops a final, astounding contrast between the Old Testament law and sacrificial system and the gospel of Christ. While the messages of the two are inter-dependent (see Hebrews 11:40), certainly the greatness of the new covenant symbolized by Mt. Zion where God resides greatly exceeds and even overshadows the old covenant revelation at Mount Sinai.

The Hebrews writer declared that under the new covenant it’s like getting a glimpse of heaven! With the new covenant believers encounter God. Mediated by the blood of Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit, Christians on the Earth share in worship with innumerable angels and the great assembly of those who have come before and died in faith and are already in God’s presence.

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The Rest of the Story – Hebrews 4

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“If Joshua gave the Israelites rest, God wouldn’t have spoken about another day later on. So you see that a sabbath rest is left open for God’s people. The one who entered God’s rest also rested from his works, just as God rested from his own. Therefore, let’s make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience, because God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. No creature is hidden from it, but rather everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of the one to whom we have to give an answer” (Hebrews 4:8-13, CSB).

The Hebrews writer gives us yet another Old Testament perspective of the Christian life. As we concluded in the previous post, our salvation in Christ and hope for eternal life is a reality that we should live out each day of our lives on earth.

In Hebrews 4 the Hebrews writer tells us that there is a “Rest” for God’s people to enter into. It has always been God’s plan since the Creation and still is today for His people to join Him in the restfulness of eternal life where God Himself abides (see vs. 1-4).

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Running Out of Time – Hebrews 3:1-15

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“Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start” (Hebrews 3:12-14, CSB).

Have you ever tried to imagine what life would be like without Time? It’s hard, if not impossible to imagine because our whole existence in this world is measured by Time: how old we are, what year it is, when we are born and when we die.

Everything we are and we do in this world is defined by the dimension of Time. Tomorrow becomes Today and then Today turns in to Yesterday. We progress through our lives from one element in time–an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year–to the next.

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What’s In a Name? – Exodus 3

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Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, ‘what is His name?’ what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation. (Exodus 3:13-15, CSB)

In Exodus 3 God commissioned Moses to lead the people out of 400 years of Egyptian slavery and revealed both His nature and His name to Moses on Mount Horeb. There is some significant wordplay at work in this revelation that is not so apparent in the English translation. Knowing a little of this Hebrew wordplay can certainly strengthen our understanding of God’s purpose in our lives and our world.

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The Place Where Heaven and Earth Meet – Genesis 32:1-23

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Originally published January 26, 2012.

“Jacob went on his way, and God’s angels met him. When he saw them, Jacob said, ‘This is God’s camp.’ So he called that place Mahanaim” (Genesis 32:1-2, CSB).

While Jacob was on a journey returning to the Promised Land, he met angels at a place where he stopped to camp. Jacob called the place where he met the angels, Mahanaim, which means in Hebrew, Two Camps. This was also the place where he would have the famed wrestling match with God.

Jacob may have designated the place as Two Camps because he was acknowledging the convergence of two realities at that place—the unseen world of God as represented by the angels and his own physical and material world consisting of his family, servants, and livestock.

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Glorified: Part 2 – John 17:1-5

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Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent —Jesus Christ. I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:1-5, CSB).

The glorification of Jesus through His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection and ascension to be seated at the right hand of God forever is explained again in John 17. Jesus first framed His explanation of His glorification around the betrayal of Judas when the betrayal was exposed during the Last Supper as told in John 13.

After Jesus finished instructing His disciples at the last supper, Jesus then prayed for them. When Jesus prayed for His disciples, He didn’t mention the specifics of the events about to take place. But, He did indicate the result of what these events would produce—His and the Father’s glorification.

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Glorified: Part 1 – John 13:1-34

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When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once ” (John 13:31-32, CSB).

The three stages of Christian development and the doctrine of glorification are usually associated with the writings of Paul: “For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30, CSB; see also 1 Corinthians 15:35-53; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

In the coherent parlance of a master storyteller, Jesus introduced His disciples to the intricate theological construct of glorification in the final hours before His arrest.

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Dead Man Walking – John 11:1-44

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After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go” (John 11:43-44, CSB).

“Dead man walking” is an idiom used in U.S. prisons to announce a condemned prisoner being walked to the place of execution. The use of the phrase has expanded as a euphemism for anyone facing an impending and unavoidable loss.

But, when referring to Lazarus, dead man walking, is more of an axiom than an idiom. It’s not just a catchphrase but a fact! Lazarus was a man who literally died and was resurrected by Jesus and walked out of his tomb.

Lazarus was a bona fide dead man walking! But, he was not a man walking toward his death–he was a man walking away from his death!

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Living Up – Philippians 3:12-21

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“Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do” (Philippians 3:16-17, NIV).

In the 3rd chapter of his letter to the Philippians the Apostle Paul delineates two conflicting lifestyles. One lifestyle is characterized by having confidence in oneself and the material things of this world. Let’s call this living down.

The other lifestyle is characterized by faith in Christ and believing in His resurrection power. This lifestyle is characterized by living one’s life on this earth in preparation for the world to come. Let’s call this living up.

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