Immortality

https://odb.org/MY/2022/12/13/the-meaning-of-life

Humankind has always been fascinated with immortality as depicted in popular culture with the search for everlasting youth. People have for centuries looked for the elixir of youth, also known as the elixir of life. It’s a potion with magical powers that was supposed to grant the drinker eternal youth and eternal life and cure all diseases.

If you have seen the movie Highlander or the recent Netflix movie, Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron or even the Norwegian Netflix series on Thor called Ragnarok, you will see the depiction of immortals living among mortals throughout centuries. Except in the case of Ragnarok, which had a group of gods in Norse mythology masquerading as a family living among mortal humans, the main problem faced by the immortals is outliving their loved ones over and over again. They remained the same when people around them grew old and died. That is why death in our present fallen world plays a role in putting things to finality. There is closure to life with death.

Jesus speaks of eternal waters. He is the source of living waters. In other words, the elixir of youth is found in Him. Not just a potion but rivers of it. The origin of the fountain of life is, of course, the tree of life in Eden, which God banished access by humankind after the fall but with the victory (nikos in Greek) of Jesus over death on the Cross, we will have access to the tree of life again at the end of time. You can read this in Revelation 22:1, where John described seeing the arrival of the water of the river of life with the tree of life at either side of it.

The eternal life that Jesus offers is given to all who accept Him as Lord, not confined to an elixir for a select few. It is a life lived with loved ones in the Lord in the new heaven and earth with God dwelling among us. As His people, we will enjoy His presence and glory continually for all eternity. We will be immortals in our glorified bodies but will not outlive our loved ones who are in the Lord. There will be everlasting fellowship amongst the brethren. It is our hope of glory. So, as Paul exhorted in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Stand firm, always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know your labour in the Lord is not in vain!”. In an instant at the sound of the last trumpet, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, death has been swallowed up in victory!