This Eternal Day

This Eternal Day
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 by Susan Lyttek

In spite of what many philosophies today preach, eternity exists. It exists for every human being ever conceived. The innocent (those who perish before they can choose right from wrong) and the repentant will receive eternal life. The guilty and the unrepentant receive eternal death.

It all started with a choice. Once upon a time in a garden, there was a ‘this day’ when God said “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you[f] shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) And a few ‘this day’s later, Eve chose poorly because she wanted. She coveted (later that would be against the 10th Commandment) both the fruit that looked good and the knowledge and position of God.

But also the serpent twisted, as he’s been known to do, what God said.

There’s this little matter of verb tense.

When God gives his command, he issues an ongoing future. Basically, his command’s consequences mean “dying, you shall surely die.” I think we can all agree that physically we begin dying as soon as we begin living. It’s part of the process now. But in the Garden, Eve (and Adam) had no decay. They had no hint of death. Most of the biological systems we understand now could not have existed in such a world. In this world, in this day, we are continually dying and advancing toward death. It’s exactly what the command of God foretold.

But the serpent was both honest in what it said and completely deceptive. Because it said, “You will not die,” meaning that you won’t keel over as soon as you take a bite. And Adam and Eve didn’t. They would each live for hundreds of years.

Eternity for humankind began when God breathed his Spirit into the two of them on day six of creation week. It required that touch of the divine to access eternity. And from the beginning, they were meant to have eternal life. But choosing against God set death in motion.

This is why it is fitting that in the book of Revelation, Jesus declares death is conquered. When the demons and those who support them are thrown into the second death, all who remain will have death purged from them. Nothing about them, physical, spiritual or emotional will ever die again.

In this eternal day, as every day truly is for the Christian, we straddle the current reality that includes the pain and suffering of death in all its iterations and the eternal reality of our neverending life. Both are true for the believer. Both are choices for this day.

Everything we choose nudges us closer to death or life. Everything.

This day is our first taste of eternity.

It’s not that choosing the mini-deaths will take away the eternal life promised us through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Nothing can do that. What those poor choices do is take away the joy of that eternity in the moment. For that step the wrong way, we taste despair instead of hope.

Physically, as I mentioned earlier, we begin dying at conception. Every day parts of us die only to be replaced. As we age past maturity, the pieces that die get replaced increasingly by less effective or less vibrant equivalents. It’s part of why we physically grow old.

But God’s plan spiritually is for us to grow into our eternity. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (1 Corinthians 4:16-17) If we choose life more than death and teach ourselves to favor the things of life, the things of God, our spirit will become increasingly vibrant.

This day is the only day of eternity we can experience. It is the only day we can actively choose the things of God rather than the things of this world.

I don’t know about you, but I want to choose well. I want to nurture and grow a healthy spirit that’s ready for the other side of eternity.

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