Words of Eternal Life

This week, we’re sharing a transcription from A Word in Season by Jeremy Walker.

The Apostle John records a season in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ when he began to say things that some of those following him considered hard. He was insisting upon himself as the one in whom everlasting life was found. Now that everlasting life is not just life that goes on forever. It's the life of heaven. It's the life of eternity. It's the life of someone who knows God and enjoys God, not just in this world but also in the world which is to come. The Lord Jesus was insisting that only He had that life in Him that that life was granted to those whom the Father was bringing to Him. “I have said to you that no one can come to Me,” He said, “unless he has been granted to find my Father.” 

From that time, John tells us, there were many who went back who had previously been following the Lord Jesus Christ. And He turned to his disciples and he asked them, “Will you go away? Are you going to leave Me now, as well?” And Peter, who so often made himself the spokesman for the group, said these words to the Lord Jesus found in John 6:68-69: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life also we have come to believe and to know that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” 

You may already know some people who have died because of the current pandemic that is sweeping the globe and most of the countries that are in it. If you don't know people who have died from this virus, then I'm sure that you know others who are dying or who have died from other afflictions or accidents. In this fallen world, death is a constant. It's a constant companion, it’s a constant threat, and it's a sudden end for all of us unless the Lord Jesus Christ returns first. And in times like these when pressure builds and everybody seems to have a different opinion, there are so many voices that are vying for our attention, calling for us to listen and follow them. So many claims for authority, so many people who say, ‘We know the way.’ Many of them are competing claims. What will we do if we are true Christians? Will we now go off to some of these other options? What will be our hope and comfort, not just in life, but in death--facing it for ourselves and, indeed, offering hope to others in the face of death? To whom will we go? To whom else can we turn? Who else offers us what the Lord Jesus Christ offers us, life that cannot be taken away from us, life will last through death itself? To whom else will we go?

Now, you may not be a Christian. You may hear these competing voices calling to you saying in effect, ‘Follow me. I know the way. I can get you through this.’ There is no one else who can get you through this. There's no one else who can offer everlasting life. There is no one else whom God has appointed to be the One in this life is found and from whom this life proceeds but the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Himself the Bread of Life. He is the One in whom all hope is found. To whom else would you go? Who else offers forgiveness of sins? Who else offers you peace with God? Who else offers you the sure hope of life with God when we die, resurrection to glory, and eternal peace and joy in a new heavens and a new earth? 

Have you come to believe as Peter did that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God? And have you trusted in Him accordingly? This and this only is the way of life. There is no other One who has in him what Christ has. And there is no one else to whom you can turn to obtain these mercies and these blessings that will outlast death itself and carry you in joy into all eternity.

Watch this episode of A Word in Season here.

Jeremy Walker is the pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley, West Sussex, UK where he lives with his wife Alissa and his two sons, Caleb and William, and a daughter, Cerys.