Ever since man could ponder he has always dreamed what it would be like to have eternal life. We all know that our physical life when measured against the concept of eternity is but a statistical blip in time. The deep questions such as where did I come from, what is my purpose in life, and what happens to me when I die, are questions that man has thought about down through time. And without satisfactory answers to these questions mankind will always remain restless. In this devotion I would like to explore with you why the Bible is the only book that has the answers to these important questions.
Science, sadly has no answers because it can’t answer the question of origins except to postulate that we are the evolutionary product of the chance collision of molecules and have evolved from amoeba to man. Thus, to the scientist meaning is just a by-product of chance. And as far as what happens when we die science says we go back to decaying bones and molecules and eventually dust. Eternal life is not even on the scientist’s radar.
Religion, on the other hand, is man’s attempt to posit that there is a God and that he created us. But in reality religion is man’s attempt to create a God in order to try to find satisfactory answers to life’s deep questions. Religion is in reality man-made and man’s concept of God is whatever his imagination can think of. Thus, religion is not based on reality but imagination and in the last analysis it isn’t based on fact but fiction. You see unless God chooses to reveal himself to us we can never know who he is since God lies outside of our earthly realm. Mankind thus, invents God and then attaches concepts of eternal life to the package.
Science says there is no God and religion invents a God to satisfy the longing that all of us have for eternal things. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) says it so well: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…” We all covet eternal life but sadly science and religion can at best allow us to imagine and dream – but without any certainty.
But thankfully God is real and He has chosen to reveal Himself to us through His sacred book – the Bible. Christianity is not just a religion based on the Bible but it is a relationship with the God of the Bible – Jesus Christ. The great French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal said over 350 years ago that every man is born with a spiritual vacuum that only Jesus Christ can fill. I believe that any reasonable open-minded religious seeker would do well to investigate the Christian religion first since it is the only world religion that is testable, offers free salvation, has the best worldview fit of any religion, has the most unique and influential book ever written and the most compelling person who has ever walked on the face of the earth – Jesus Christ.
Not only that but the Bible shares the entrance requirements needed to obtain eternal life. The Bible tells us that we need to repent of our sins and accept Jesus Christ into our lives as Lord and Savior in order to fulfill God’s requirements to gain eternal life. Eternal life, the most sought after commodity in the universe, can’t be achieved by doing good works, as other religions state, but only through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago. It is a gift that is available to all of us through faith in Christ.
I am so excited because I know with certainty that when I accepted Jesus into my life, death is not the end for me, but just another portal to another dimension – eternal life with Jesus. So, no matter how difficult or unfair this life may be, no matter how much suffering I may have to experience, it will all be worth it to know that in the end eternal life awaits. In closing the apostle Paul summed it up well when he shared: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18). And that glory is to spend eternity with the God of the universe – Jesus Christ – in eternal peace, joy, and bliss!
The devotion states, “Without satisfactory answers to these questions mankind will always remain restless.”
I believe this restlessness is because of man’s sin, which has brought the wrath of God on his head. Romans 1 teaches that man has the “satisfactory answers” but he suppresses them in unrighteousness. He doesn’t lack answers, his is a moral problem.
According to the Word, what evidence does man need to learn about God? Nothing! It’s been given.
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
The devotion also states that “unless God chooses to reveal himself to us we can never know who he is.” According to the Romans passage, every man knows who he is because God has revealed himself to us. We could even say that there is no such thing as an atheist. All men know God but suppress that knowledge and if they persist in that rebellion, becoming fools, eventually God will “give them up.” That would make anybody restless.
Hi David:
You make a good point about we all know that God exists. I guess what I was trying to say was that we do know He exists from Romans but without the Bible we only have natural revelation to tell us this but we need the Bible (special revelation) to know that He is Jesus and that we can have a relationship with Him.