What's better than infinite lives?
You missed the jump,
…and your little red plumber boy fell into an endless abyss.
You are racing toward the last chicane after tweaking your suspension and aero for the Nth time, but still you missed the braking line and crashed into the barrier.
You are the last person on your team who made it to the final circle of a battle royale, and you choked, literally.
You reached the final raid boss battle on your 34th try. It’s 3 in the morning, and someone yelled Leroy Jenkinssss…
Your patience is wearing thin, but you hit the restart button one more time.
We are used to redos, restarts, and infinite lives, and they are part of why we love games. We can hone our skills and fix our mistakes without the burden of real-life consequences. We get to play freely without the worries of death, and we get to be in control of our story, refining it to the way we want it.
We love having infinite lives in our games,
…but in real life, having to repeat our mistakes and errors is the last thing we want. We don’t want a repetitive life. What we desire is one satisfying life. A life that is fulfilling, meaningful, and good—a life that is whole. The Bible has a term for such a life: eternal life.
When we hear the word eternal, we might think it’s just about duration. But let’s be honest, who wants to live forever if it means a life full of hurt, regrets, and mistakes? Who wants to live forever if we have to live with other people’s failures, abuse, and consequences? Aiming to just live forever is not a good reason to live for, and that’s certainly not what eternal life means.
When Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)
Jesus is telling his listeners, “If you follow me—if you put your faith in me—I will give you eternal life. And you can have this life now and forever.”
And this life he is promising us is like a spring of water bursting forth.
It’s a life that is fresh, not stale.
It is an abundant life—overflowing and life-giving—from the inside out.
It will satisfy and sustain us for eternity.
Could you imagine having such a life today?
For many of us, we can’t believe such a life is possible. There is too much bad news happening in our lives and in our world to believe such good news is possible. But that’s exactly why Jesus came to us—why God sent His one and only Son to make this good news possible! God knows we can’t fix our brokenness—our sinful nature—that’s bent on repeating our story of hurting ourselves and others. And not only that, because of our sin, what we deserve is eternal punishment: an eternity away from the source of all goodness: the one true God.
So then, what is this good news exactly?
The Good News is that God is good, and He sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to our world to show us how much God loves people, even when we don’t deserve it, even when people rejected him, and eventually nailed him on the cross. Jesus did nothing to deserve it, yet, he accepted the punishment on behalf of all of us; on behalf of our wrongdoings and sins. And because he took the punishment, and because God is just, we are redeemed. We have access to eternal life.
Jesus is the good news, and he is the gift that God gave to all of us. The question is, will you receive this gift from God?
Are you tired of trying to find your own way to a fulfilling life? Are you worn down by repeated mistakes and failures?
Stop living in repeats! Start your one eternal life with Jesus today.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
-John 5:13