Daniel 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Describe the familiar picture of St. and his mother . It depicts two beings aspiring in heart and soul after eternal life, and thinking for a moment that they have hold upon it. These two human beings — outward bound, as they say; bent on a voyage, preparing to cross the sea, to reach an earthly home, and, meanwhile, preparing for another voyage, across that other sea, whose further shore no living human being has ever seen — how does this illustrate our own position on the road to eternal life? We all are preparing to cross the sea. All who have realised the voyage that is to be, begin to ask themselves what there is on the other side. Treat these two points of Scripture. 1. There is eternal life. There is no distinction between the two words, eternal and everlasting; the original word that each of them translates is exactly the same. The text in Daniel is the first in the Bible in which the words "everlasting life" occur. There are only three other passages in the Old Testament where the same meaning, if not quite the same words, is to be found. (Psalms 133:16; and Psalms 133:21) That is all, so far as I can find, that the Old Testament contains about everlasting life. In the New Testament, everlasting life is everywhere. It is the whole purport of the Gospel to make it possible for human beings to reach "life eternal." That was the good news for them. 2. What is eternal life? "To know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Christ is the life eternal, the spring and source of it to others, the essence and substance of it in Himself. How is it obtained? "He that believeth on the Son hath life eternal." The gift is spoken of in the present tense. As soon as the water that Christ gives reaches a human heart, in it the spring of living water bursts forth and flows. Eternal lifo begins here. It consists in the union of the soul through Christ with God. A life in union with God — the selfish will submitted to His will — loving the things that He loves — hating the things that He hates — this wrought by faith in Christ, and the spirit that He has sent — this is what I imagine to be eternal life according to the Scripture idea. (Canon Rawstorne, M.A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. |
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