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John 10:1-10

 

[Jesus said:] "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (ESV)

Immortal Life 

Monday in Easter 4

16 May 2011

Truly blessed life must be eternal. Then we can have the full experience of God in both intent; by seeing Christ face to face, and in extent; without ever being parted from that vision. The true love affair that God has with us humans means that He wants never to be parted from us, just as the lover does not want to be apart from the beloved in the first bloom of affection. Unlike the human lovers God's love does not wax and wane, but is always full and complete as expressed by Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection. This is God's passionate desire.

We might easily doubt that God wants us to have a perfect and unending life with Him in body and soul. Certainly human philosophy has, through careful reasoning using the gifts of God, determined that the soul is in some way immortal. But the bodily resurrection and immortality of the body, now that is another thing. Generally, human philosophy has scoffed at the idea of the resurrection of the flesh and immortality of the body. The pagan philosophers of the Areopagus scoffed at Paul when he attempted to talk to them about the resurrection of the flesh (Acts 17:32).

Yet the faith of the Christian church is certainly that the flesh shall be raised and that at that resurrection the body will enjoy its full compass finding its joy in God the Savior. Such a thing can not be assured by human reasoning, but only by God's Word. It is there God's passionate desire to save us in both body and soul for eternal life is disclosed to us in the simple and sublime words, "The Word became flesh." That God the Word should take on our mortal flesh makes certain to us that we who are flesh, though mortal now, will be immortalized at the resurrection.

 

St. Augustine

 

"In no way can life be truly blessed unless it is eternal. Whether human nature can receive this, which yet it confesses to be desirable, is no small question. But if faith is present, which is in those to whom Jesus has given power to become the sons of God, then there is no question.

"Assuredly, of those who endeavor to discover it from human reasonings, scarcely a few, and they endued with great abilities, and abounding in leisure, and learned with the most subtle learning, have been able to attain to the investigation of the immortality of the soul alone. And even for the soul they have not found a blessed life that is stable, that is, true; since they have said that it returns to the miseries of this life even after blessedness. And they among them who are ashamed of this opinion have thought that the purified soul is to be placed in eternal happiness without a body.

"But faith promises, not by human reasoning, but by divine authority, that the whole man, who certainly consists of soul and body, shall be immortal, and on this account truly blessed. And so, when it had been said in the Gospel, that Jesus has given 'power to become the sons of God to those who received Him;' and what it is to have received Him had been shortly explained by saying, 'To them that believe on His name;' and it was further added in what way they are to become sons of God, namely, 'which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' And lest that infirmity of men which we all see and bear should despair of attaining so great an excellence, it is added in the same place, 'And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us' (Jn 1:12-14) that, on the contrary, men might be convinced of that which seemed incredible. For if He who is by nature the Son of God was made the Son of man by mercy for the sake of the sons of men, for this is what is meant by 'The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us' men,-how much more credible is it that the sons of men by nature should be made the sons of God by the grace of God, and should dwell in God, in whom alone and from whom alone the blessed can be made partakers of that immortality? That we might be convinced of this, the Son of God was made a partaker of our mortality." 

 

Augustine, On the Trinity, 13.9

 

Prayer 

Lord Christ, You have become mortal by taking on mortal flesh. Grant to us a quiet and confident hope in the life of the world to come in which we shall enjoy Your presence forever in body and soul. Amen.

For the family of Margie Dennis, whom the Lord took to His side that He would send His holy angels to watch over those who mourn her passing giving them courage and a good hope

For all pastors in small and struggling parishes that they would be encouraged by the example of the saintly preachers of all generations and see that they possess heaven itself for Christ's sake

For Anastasia Murray, in thanksgiving to God for the gift of learning, on the event of her graduation from Hillsdale College 

Art: GR�NEWALD, Matthias Isenheim Altarpiece (1515)

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