Christ In You | Part 1

“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
John 10:28

Today’s Bible reflection is drawn from John 10:28 and unveiled the following question: What did you receive when you gave your life to Christ? 

There are many possible easy answers based on individual experience or encounters at different levels. For some it might be healing, others might say the gift of salvation, or peace over a troubled past, perhaps a newly found joy of living etc..Regardless of every personal experience, one thing we may all agree on is common and undeniable for all of believers, that it is inviting Jesus as Lord and saviour is an unforgettable event, a day of reckoning, a moment of profound change.

The Bible describes this event like a new birth “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). The Apostle Paul described it in his epistle to the Galatians as the deepest transformation that happens in the spirit of a living person and as significant as being born for the first time or death. Although the divine healing experience, the peace, the emotional thrills are only subjective and often filtered away very quickly. And for many of us the danger has been the desire to try to reclaim the lost tangible feelings, the amazing emotions felt and lived once in a charismatic way. It’s not uncommon nowadays to meet restless believers becoming vulnerable to suffer depression, doubts, anxiety, and grow unstable like a battered ship in the middle of a raging sea (life). For them the Church is needed more like a rehab centre!

So how can we then reconcile this wonderful promise of God’s word with our daily life experience made of ups and downs that seem to contradict that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new ( 2 Corinthians 5:17);  the challenges of a physical sickness, the rollercoaster of aches and pains, or for others it might be living with the unbearable feelings of being constantly carried along by the waves of circumstances. Are you hanging there?

The real question now that one must beg to ask is what is “eternal life” Jesus promised to all believers? 

We can safely say that it is not a trouble-free life or even immortality because the disciples themselves have passed. But Jesus says” I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10)

What this promise entails for us today is what we will look into next..

Further readings: 1 John 2:25; 1 John 3:16; John 15:13; 1 john 1:2