Secrets of the Kingdom: Offers Life to Everyone

Two constants of human life are birth and death.  Every human experiences them.  Birth is a time of joy.  We celebrate our birthdays each year to commemorate the years we've lived since then.  Death is a time of sorrow and loss.  It's the great consumer of human life.

Isaiah 25:6-9 says one day God will change all that.  He will take away the shroud that covers all nation.  He'll swallow up death forever.  

In John 12:20-25, Jesus said the time had come for him to be glorified.  He said that unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  Then he said those who try to save their lives will lose them, but those who hate their lives in this world will keep them for eternal life.  

He was referring to his own death and resurrection, and to the life that would come to us through them. 

The apostle Paul used a similar image in 1 Corinthians 15:35-36, 42-44.  He said that our bodies are like that wheat kernel, buried in the ground.  We're sown perishable, but we'll be raised imperishable.  We're sown in our natural bodies, we'll be raised in spiritual bodies.

At Easter, we remember the Jesus who gave up his life for us.  He died, and his body was buried in the ground.  But he rose, and through that resurrection bears the fruit of life everywhere through those who put their faith in him.

We also remember that though we will die, we have eternal life through faith in him.  We'll live with him in his eternal kingdom.

For this reason, we can live each day from the perspective of the eternal, knowing as 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, we can give ourselves fully to the Lord's work, knowing our labor in the Lord is not in vain.