The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1918-07-05

What Is eterna
life? Jesus himself gave an answer
in his great microscopy prayer, sand
this is life eternal, that they might
know thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent ~
With the ordinary student Of the
Bible, the idea of eternal life is life
Of endless duration, the word eternal
being made synonymous with sever
lasting" But eternal life Is not alto
gether a question of duration but of
quality. The proper conception of
eternal life embraces both quality and
quantity. Terms of inherent value and
time measurement must be in mind.
The man who possesses eternal life
then has something that is far raised
above anything that the earth has to
offer. 1t is life that may be realized
this side of death and has its thou
sands Of illustrators in all the world
and among all classes of persons with
out respect to age, race, pecuniary
condition, education or social stand
ing. y Ssra y '-"~-
Now the question arises. presuming
the man does not possess this eternal
life. How is he to get it? The rich
young ruler thought it was by doing
something to inherit it, or rather merit
{. Probably the vast majority of
people have that idea. 1t is thought
nan must do something to win eternal
life, as a kind of trophy Of his efforts,
)r make himself worthy recipient of
t. Unfortunately, the nobility of man
Is often appealed to. as If man had
something of merit to offer God. Pres
cisely the opposite is the situation.
Man must come to the place where he
will see his utter helplessness and ac-
cept salvation as a gift.
Man is not in a position to have
eternal life offered to him, and to ac-,
cept 1t or reject 1t, as in any true
sense an equal Of the offerer. He Is
not in position to deal with God.
His standing before God is one Of
hopeless need. He stands before God
as one guilty. unworthy and hell-de-
serving. The only thing that he can
do is to look upon God as offering to-
him salvation out of his mercy.
The comparison of eternal life with
what the best man could do to merit
Ii would be ridiculous. Some concur
sion might be readily arrived at with
respect to what eternal life means in
this life, but as before stated, the
value Of eternal life beyond is far
more than man can calculate. 49,.
Besides this, there is already an
adequate equivalent to eternal life
presented to man in the infinite mer-
its Of Jesus Christ himself, the Son of
God, the infinite one, who lived
most marvellous life and died most
wonderful death. 1t would seem to
be something almost amounting to d.
rect insult to God to make any sug-
gestion that man could merit eternal
life, when It Is clearly proclaimed in
the Word that Jesus Christ has al
ready merited 1t, and stands Offering
1t to us. As the text says, Jesus
Christ gives this life, and this because
he purchased 1t with a surrender Of
his own precious life.
The Word of God emphatically and
categorically teaches us that eternal
life is a gift. Support to our text is
given In that remarkable saying in
Isaiah 55:1: "Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come We to the waters; yea,
come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price" Certainly
John 3:18, "God so loved the world
that he sgave his only begotten Son
that whatsoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting
life" is In place, as also the words of
Paul, "The gift of God Is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord" The
text itself says, 81 give unto them
eternal life." And another considera-
ton Is that those who give evidence
Of possessing eternal life, are those
who concede that what they have has
been the gift of God.
This great fact of the Gospel may
seem to humiliate man, but nothing is
needed more. We are living in an
age when men glory in their shame.
They demand notice on the ground of
merit, and nothing is needed more
than something to make man feel his
absolute dependence upon God; in
deed, feel that he Is deserving only
Of Gods wrath and the visitation Of
his Judgment. Whether men think 1t
or not, they are daily recipients Of
Gods gifts. The atmosphere they
breathe the sunshine, the continuation
Of life. the health they possess, are
all the gifts Of God. for which man
- - - hing IN refrarn. VI,