Before I start talking about how Jesus fixes the heart of humans, I want say something about ‘eternal life.’ We usually think about heaven, and what happens to us after we die, when we hear the words “eternal life.” We get baptized, go to church, try to lead a moral life, and hope (or have faith) that when we die we won’t go to Hell (if we believe in it) and that we will go to Heaven (wherever and whatever that is). Dr. Willard calls this consumer christianity, or better yet, “bar-code” christianity. You know those bar-codes on products in our stores – you step up to the counter, the machine reads the bar-code, and you purchase your product. He says bar-code christianithy is people thinking they have a Christian bar-code, that when they reach the pearly gates, a machine will read their bar-code, and they will get in if they have right one.

Well, if that is not what eternal life is (what happens to us when we die), then what is it? Well, first of all, think about the word life. Usually when we talk about someone having a ‘good life’, or a ‘bad life’ we are talking about their experiences in this world. We evaluate what happens to them, the good and bad, the spectacular and the ordinary, and we evaluate their life. In other words, their life is about how they are living now -here and now before they die. I think that when Jesus said he was coming to help us with life, he was talking about how we live now. We even say to people, “Get a life.” By that we mean taht way they are living is working to good, and they need to learn to live in a different way.

When we put the word ‘eternal’ on this life as a modifyer, we have to figure out what kind of life this could be. The only thing eternal that we know of, for sure, is God. We are finite and limited, but God is eternal and unlimited. So the life that Jesus wants to give to us now is an eternal life, a life from God, that we will experience in our present living. Of course, if we go to be with God when we die (the traditional view of the church), our eternal kind of life, which we have already been living will continue on after we die – for eternity. But we don’t wait until then to start living this eternal kind of life, the Scriptures talk about us possessing it now. (whatever it may be).

Let me give you a poor example. Years ago, my former wife and I decided to learn to square dance. This was a pretty daring move for a ‘former fundamentalist’ kid who had heard all his life that dancing was sinful – yeah, even square dancing (remember what I said about externalism in the former post). So, we went for lessons. But we found out that there was more to square dancing then just learning the steps. There was a whole square dancing kind of life. First of all we had to buy some clothes. And boots for me, I couldn’t go square dancing in wingtips. And I had to have proper shirt, with pearl buttons, button down flaps, and eventually it had to be color coordinated with my wife’s dress. And then there were the petticoats. The women had to have mountains of petticoats. You can’t do-se-do your partner in a pencil skirt. Of course, then there were dances and contests, and more intricate steps, and learning to follow callers. Yee Haw! I ended up as a square dancer living the square dance life. Yee Haw!

Well, God eventually saved me from square dancing. Ha! I went on to waltzes, and fox trots, and tangos, and such. And all of the former acoutrements of my square dance life went somewhere; I am not even sure where. I still have the boots, but that’s it.

This is not the best analogy, but I think it will begin to give a picture of what it is like to have eternal life. Getting ‘eternal life’ will change everything about your old life, because your new way of living will be centered on something new and different – following Jesus. Eternal life  isn’t a commodity that you possess, and then you think about being Jesus’ apprentice as something extra. No eternal life is something you begin to experience now, and live now, and grow into now. You begin to do things differently, learn new ways, may even dress differently, and hang out with different people.If you wait till you die to start living it, it may be too late, who knows.

If you are going to start living Jesus’ eternal life, then you are going to have to acquire the dress, and mannerisms, and all of the rest of the stuff that goes on with living a “life.” That’s what apprenticeship to Jesus is all about -living his kind of life – from God – in your life – Right Now..

But once again, Jesus is going to have to fix our hearts for that to happen.

More later.