A' bheatha shìorraidh

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10.10

Talking about life can feel like speaking at cross purposes because life means such different things to different people and in different circumstances. But when Jesus addresses the matter we are plumbing the depths and scaling the heights of life in its fullest, richest qualities. The life that Jesus offers is not just as good as it gets, it is better than we can imagine.

"The wages of sin is death," observes the apostle Paul, "but the gift of God is eternal life". This describes two significant features of life from/ in God. It is the opposite of death and we receive it as a gift. On another occasion Jesus remarked that those who enjoy his gift of life never die. The implication is that eternal life begins the moment we embrace Jesus as Lord and Saviour and it continues forever. Even our physical death is not the end but a transition into another dimension.

Eventually we taste life at its most succulent in the New Creation, in which there will be no more suffering and/ or death but God will be present in all his glorious majesty.