“Is There Really Such a

Thing As Eternal Life?”

1 Corinthians 15:19 (NLT) … if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

John 3:36 (NLT) … anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1960, p.

119

1. God has placed within us a hope for immortality!

Romans 8:22-23 (NLT) For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. [23] And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory,

for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

2. The believer’s hope of eternal life with Christ is realized at the moment of death.

2 Corinthians 5:8 (TLB) … we are not afraid but are quite content to die, for then we will be at home with the Lord.

Luke 23:42-43 (HCSB) Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” [43] And He said to him, “ I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise.”

3. Every Christian has the promise of a resurrected, glorified body!

2 Corinthians 5:1-2 (NLT) For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.

[2] We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.

7 Facts About Our Resurrected Bodies

1. It will be a recognizable body.

2. It will be a body like the one Jesus has.

1 John 3:2b (HCSB) … We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.

3. It will be a body that will permit eating.

4. It will be a body in which the Spirit predominates.

5. It will be a body unlimited by time, gravity, or space.

Luke 24:41-43 (NLT) Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder. Then he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he ate it as they watched. (John 21:12-13)

1 Cor 15:44b, 49 (NLT) ... For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. … 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.

John 20:19 (NLT) That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.

John 20:26 (NLT) Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said.

6. It will be an eternal body.

7. It will be a glorious body.

2 Corinthians 5:1 (NCV) We know that our body—the tent we live in here on earth—will be destroyed. But when that happens, God will have a house for us. It will not be a house made by human hands; instead, it will be a home in heaven that will last forever.

Romans 8:18 (NASB) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

1 Corinthians 15:42-43a (NLT) It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. …