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He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. (Romans 2:6-8, ESV)

Pastor Abel’s Sermon on this passage is called “Religious, Moral, and Lost.”

There is a man named Bryan Johnson. At 47 years-old, he has a net worth in the hundreds of millions, and a single goal: Don’t Die. He spends most of his waking hours experimenting on himself, measuring every signal, every possible physical metric, using every resource of modern technology available to push back death as long as possible--to live forever.

The verse above tells us something true: God is the one who gives eternal life. And God is the only one who gives it. Man cannot claim it for himself regardless of his riches. It goes further to explain that there are two groups of people. God will give eternal life to the first group and not to the second group.

Group #1: These people are seeking something beyond themselves, glory and honor and immortality, and they are seeking it ‘by patience in well-doing.’

Group #2: These people are seeking themselves. They do this by disobeying righteousness and instead obeying unrighteousness.

Think about the Apostle Paul. He was stoned, beaten, thrown in prison, presumed dead, and shipwrecked at sea. He was executed in Rome for his faith when he was in his late 50s most likely. He risked everything for Jesus. He said in 2 Corinthians 4:11, “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

Paul lived out “patience in well-doing.” He persisted in obeying God, even when it led to physical death because he was seeking something greater than himself. Bryan Johnson is a good example of a person from the second group. His sad goal is merely to not die, to avoid physical harm and danger, to stretch this life out as far as it can go.

Eternal life cannot be earned or bought. God is the one who gives it by his grace alone. The ones he gives this life to are people who have seen the beauty and worth of Christ by faith, and who, as a result, are seeking to please and honor him with their lives, no matter the cost.

 

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