What Is Life?

“Stand firm, and you will win life.” – Luke 21:19

            Stand firm, not with confidence in ourselves, but with our confidence in the one who created us.  When I was reading this passage in context, I began to think of Jesus’ trail.  He did not fight when He was taken, because He knew His time had come and that He was in the will of His Father.  He went willingly to the slaughter, but He was not a meek kitten, instead He was bold.  He testified to the truth and was silent when no words were needed. Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, so the Spirit spoke through Him. He stood firm in what He knew He was called for and won over death.

We need to have this same boldness and confidence throughout our lives.  Jesus tells the disciples what to expect in the end times, so that we won’t walk into it blindly, but that we too will know when our time has come, like Jesus did.  In verse fourteen it says, “But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourself.”  Instead, He asks us to depend on His unfailing word that no one can deny. Jesus tells us to stand firm in Him and what He promises to do through us, if we allow Him.  He warns us that people in our lives will betray us, even family members, because we live for Him. And yet, He tells us to stand firm, be patient, and we will win life.

We will win life, but what life will we win?  In verse sixteen it says, “they will put some of you to death.”  So then how could Jesus promise that if we stand firm in Him we will win life, if He tells us that some of us will be put to death?  He says, “not a hair of your head will perish,” yet we might be put to death.  But, Jesus isn’t promising life on earth, if He was, then what would be our motivation to live for Him?  Christ conquered death, through death.  He was not scared of His physical death, He knew that through it He would gain the ability to give us the promise of this verse in Luke 21:19.  He had to die, be separated from the Father, and take on the wrath of God in order to let us live for eternity with Him.  Stand firm and you will win life everlasting, you will win a life with the Father free of sin.

Life, here on earth, has never been easy for me or my family.  We have this joke, “if we start to see clear skies and sun, then we know there is a big storm fast approaching.”  But, through these storms I’ve always had hope, hope that I could stand firm on a rock that no storm could shift.  I have been betrayed, “put on trial,” and many people have walked up to me, simply to inform me that they hated me. Yet, overall I have always been given peace.  For so long I took this peace for granted, I took my hope in my eternal life with Christ for granted.  I was free of condemnation from this word, and I didn’t need to worry about how others judged my life.  Yet, the more I grow, the more I see how many people don’t have peace in their lives.  They live with constant doubt, never being satisfied and always wanting more.  I don’t envy those who have all you could imaging this world could offer, and yet they don’t have the only thing that can give you true satisfaction and that is Christ. “Stand firm and you will win life,” I praise the Lord that He isn’t promising an earthly life.