As we're about to wind up our look into Galatians, eternity is something I've been wrestling with since we began looking into the celtic peoples that became the Galatians. The Gaelic Celts who left a trail of death and destruction as they moved into what would later become known as Galatia, were feared for their fearlessness in battle. Their culture was based upon dying with honor upon a battlefield and securing a place of honor in the afterlife. As we've read through Paul's letter to the Galatians it is apparent that he didn't need to convince them of life after death. They understood Eternity. Paul's persuasion was more focused on the path to enter eternity, which stands in stark contrast to our present day.
Christianity is almost solely focused on and is concerned with our lives after this fleshly tent is laid to rest. The promises of God, the work of the cross, and the entire reason for the resurrection was to procure our place in eternity. It seems to me that there isn't much belief in eternity in today's culture. A matter of fact, most people I talk to who don't believe in Christianity, don't believe in God, and ultimately don't believe in eternity. The moral beauty of Christianity is not its greatest drawing card, and even less so without a belief in eternity. Those who believe that this life is all there is are more prone to be atheistic, or agnostic at best. Without eternity, Christianity is a fruitless experiment.
Someone asked me just this week if there was a book of the bible I would recommend to an atheist to convince them of Christ. The answer is, NO. Without a belief in Eternity, or should I say eternal life, there would be no reason I could give for someone to believe in Christ. It'd be easy to blame a disregard for eternity on the worldly culture of our present day, but the worldly culture of today is a symptom of unbelief. A belief in the afterlife is established in childhood. I grew up in a home, and a church where life after death was used as cudgel to make me be good, and establish morals within me. Fear of God, and His judgment were pounded into me, and became part of my emotional life in this present day. It didn't represent Christ, and instead put me in the place of failure every day. It took a long time for me to discover eternity outside of judgment. It took a long time to understand that those who will be judged at the end of the age, didn't believe in eternity. If any part of the letter to the Galatians identifies the fact that it was definitely written to them, it would be the absence of having to convince them of eternity.
If we are to give our children the very best gift we can give them, I believe we need to convince them of eternity. If we are to make that gift wondrous, and able to withstand the pressures of this present age, we need to make eternal love real to them. Without love, who would want to live forever?
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