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Continuing our evaluation of John 3:16, look at – “should not perish, but have everlasting life.” First, we must truly understand what it means to perish in the spiritual context. Most understand if something is perishable that it is something that decays, it expires, it is no longer usable or edible. The spiritual context is deeper: Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance explains it is utter damnation, destruction, ruin, or loss (physical, spiritual, or eternal) – damnation, destruction.

Simply put- our souls are forever separated from God. We are forever tortured, tormented, fearful and without any peace. Those zombies we see in movies have nothing on the impact that eternal damnation will have on a person’s soul which is forever lost. There are no words to truly describe the magnitude of that separation. When a person dies, they are immediately in the presence of God, but if we are not Christ followers we will not be living in heaven. Our soul will be living in hell.

Having everlasting life is totally different! It does not mean that our bodies will continue to live. What it means is that our souls will live in heaven and be with God forever. The Word says, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” That is true for all Christ followers. Our bodies are just a cage (for example) or a place where our soul is housed. Our souls live within our bodies on earth. Once we die our soul is released. Our body is no longer able to function as our soul’s host. As a Christ follower, our problems in life will end, our sickness will end, and our sorrow will end. We will be perfectly happy and perfectly at peace and perfectly made whole and complete.

Our question: where do we want to spend eternity? God desires for all of us to be with him for all eternity. So much so that He gave His one and only son as a living sacrifice for you, for me and for all of humanity. It is up to each of us to choose. He wants us! He loves us!

As a Christ follower, we should be able to explain our faith. God has equipped us with the Holy Spirit to help us as we speak to others and live so that others may see Him within us. May we proclaim the gospel message daily. May we ask the right questions to get others to see that our bodies will not live forever, but the part that makes us who we are — will continue even after our last breath.

Yvette Perrin can be reached at theword2yvette@gmail.com.