Nobody consulted you and asked you if you wanted to be born.
They just “had” you.
Then, a generation later, you had your kids. You didn’t consult them beforehand, either.
So, when we are born, we have life. And, one of these days, each and every one of us are going to die. Therefore, life is basically the dash between two dates. We see it on tombstones across the globe. Another definition for life is this: Life is a sexually transmitted disease that is 100% fatal!
The bottom line is that life is the period of time that you get to solve the problem of being born spiritually dead.
We are born physically alive. But because we are born in Adam’s sin, we are born spiritually dead. So, the thing that you don’t want is for physical death to catch you spiritually dead. You want to solve that problem while you can. And you can solve that problem while you are physically alive, but you cannot solve the problem when you are physically dead.
Eternity hangs in the balance.
Now, there are some people – very noteworthy, educated folks like theologian John Stott – who have put together a very convincing argument for something called “Annihilationism”. What they present is that eternal punishment is contrary to God’s nature of being eternal love, and that rather than having to spend eternity in conscious awareness in hell, since fire has the property of consuming that which it encounters, people cease to exist as an entity and are annihilated.
But, I’m afraid Annihilationism is pie in the sky because it doesn’t hold to Scripture. I wish it were true. It seems to be a better alternative than eternal torment, but I’m not God, so I can’t make the rules… and neither can Mr. Stott.
The Bible supports the concept called hell. And, the Bible states that if physical death catches you spiritually dead, then you spend eternal awareness in the absolute absence of God.
Now, that’s minimal. I don’t know about the fire part, or the whaling and gnashing of teeth, but minimally, you will spend eternity in a timelessness where there is the absolute absence of God.
But, if while you are physically alive, you solve the problem of spiritual death, and are “born again”, then you spend eternity with God.
You see, you were born physically – that’s the first birth; “born again” – that’s the second birth, which is spiritual birth. So, when you see the term “born again”, you can better understand it now. And the Bible says that this spiritual birth has to happen before we die physically.
If it does, then we spend eternity in the presence of the living and loving God.
Have you ever stood in the wind? When you feel the wind blow across your face, you don’t know where it comes from, nor where it is going. We know, scientifically, that it may have been derived from a high pressure zone overhead and gravitated toward a neighboring low pressure zone, but its original location and final destination are unknown. But, you do know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, where it is when it blows across your face.
That’s the way it is when you are born again.
It’s tough to describe, but you’ll know that you know that you know when you know. But when you don’t know, then there’s no way of knowing.
This is what the Bible is talking about in John 3:8 –
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”