Jesus showed us how to live "with eternal life," not "how to have eternal life." John 10: 10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly"

We are born, then we die; our purpose is to live abundantly as Christ would have us. The Gospel of Jesus is lived out hopefully through the lives of his followers.

Belief in an afterlife provides an accountability for Christians. They perceive that good works here on Earth will give us rewards in Heaven. As much as I'd like to believe this, I'm not sure how to view the afterlife in view of being a disciple of Jesus.

As Jesse will acknowledge, my favorite answer to questions like this is... "Yes, to all of them." LOL!

Truthfully it is most often not an either/or answer. Yes, Jesus was born to die for without the Cross we could not have the resurrection ... yet, Jesus also showed us how to live as He lived.

In a sense we are to die and jump into eternity, for with out dying to one's self we cannot know how to truly life.

Security comes from our faith in Jesus and as we face the uncertainties, we become more secure in the certainties we find in Jesus.

I tend toward seeing God being able to much more than what we in our limited abilities can see or even often begin to comprehend.

Be blessed!
iggy

Hi Bruce,

Thank you for raising some great questions! Each one of these questions could be a discussion topic in its own right :-)

* Was Jesus born to die, or to show others how to live?

I agree with Iggy on this one. I think the answer is "both/and." I believe we make a critical error if our focus on the cross of Christ leads us to forget or ignore his life and teachings. I often joke that many Christians act as if Jesus simply "wasted his breath" during the three years of his ministry.

On the other hand, the gospel is not complete with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In many ways, the coss is simply the confirmation of Jesus' life and teaching. It is at the cross that we see God's love and forgiveness perfectly displayed for all to see. When you read the story of the passion in light of Jesus' ethical teachings, you will see that it was at this critical moment that everything He taught and stood for was put to the test. It was at this crucial juncture in human history that God proved, once and for all, that His love would overcome even the darkest depths of man's depravity. As fallen man drove the nails into his hands, the Lord prayed "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

All of this is to say that, in my opinion, the life and death of Jesus are inseperable parts of a whole. The Cross is really the climax of the whole Christian story, and without it, we have a shallow faith with no tangible demonstration of God's love and no assurance of future forgiveness.

* Are we born in order to die and jump into eternity, or to live as Jesus did?

My take on this question is similar to my take on your first question. I think we make a critical mistake when we present Christianity as being primarily about "getting into Heaven." As Jesse has already pointed out, Jesus said: "I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

I believe that today is the first day of eternity. We should not defer Christ's work in us only to the future, because he has begun to work in us already. His work in us begins at the personal level, as we are transformed by the Holy Spirit, and reaches through us to change our lives, our communities, and our world.

* Does belief in an afterlife make us secure, or does following Jesus shake loose our certainties?

This is a really interesting question! Do you mind if I try to answer it in reverse? I believe that following Jesus does indeed shake loose our certainties and presuppositions about life and the world around us. As we walk with Christ, we are constantly challenged to see the world through God's eyes, and that requires that we re-evaluate ourselves and our understanding of the world.

But here's the other side of the coin. As we walk through these challenges and struggles, our assurance of life in Christ gives us the security we need to overcome the uncertainties of life. Life is unpredictable and unstable, but life in Christ is a reality that is unchanging. That truth can give us the courage we need to face whatever uncertainties we may encounter.