to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; [romans 2:7]
the key to eternal life! seek for glory and honor and immortality by patiently doing good. taken out of the context of the bible’s overarching message of our need for a Savior, this verse could lead to tragic self-righteousness, legalism, or despair. we might seek our own glory and honor and immortality, thinking we have in ourselves what it takes to be good enough for eternal life. we might think that doing good works could earn us a place in heaven to be ranked among others whose good works outweigh the bad. or we might reflect over the years of our lives and think there is no way we’ve done enough good and no way we have gained enough glory and honor and immortality to secure for ourselves a ticket into heaven, leading us to give up and sink into the mire of worldly passions, with no hope of eternal life.
but by God’s gracious gift of his word, we can put this beautiful truth into the correct place in our hearts and minds, and through the gift of the Holy Spirit, understand how it fits into the narrative of scripture and how to live it out in our lives in a way that honors the Lord and fills our souls with worship. so what does scripture say that can help us?
- well-doing is not a part of our sinful nature.
the fool says in his heart,
“there is no God.”
they are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.
the Lord looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
all have turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one. [psalm 14:1-3]
this gives us a universal truth. man cannot seek God on his own. man cannot be good on his own. so we know that no amount of good works on our own add up to anything that would earn us a place in heaven for all of eternity. any “good works” done on our own are like filthy rags! [isaiah 64:6] so on our own merit, in our own power, we cannot be patient in well-doing. we cannot seek true glory and honor and immortality, because on our own, we will only seek those things in ourselves, and according to this passage in psalms, we clearly do not possess these good things. we cannot stand in the presence of a holy God with our sin.
- we need a Savior, and God has sent us his Son.
all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). [matthew 1:22]
he has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. [2 timothy 1:9-10]
we do not have what it takes to obtain eternal life. but God’s Son, Jesus Christ does! Jesus Christ is the only way to have a right standing before the Holy Father. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life! [john 14:6] only through Jesus can we stand before our Holy God, blameless in his presence as Jesus is.
- through faith in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become God’s beloved children.
that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. [ephesians 3:16-19]
once we are empowered by the Holy Spirit by God’s grace, our first act of well-doing is faith. to believe on Jesus as the Son of God. and to trust that by his sinless life, his sin-covering death, and his sin-conquering resurrection from the dead, we can have forgiveness and mercy. we cling to Jesus for eternal life!
as God’s children, now filled with the Holy Spirit, now clinging to Christ for salvation, we have eternal life. it is our promised inheritance and cannot be removed. thank you, Lord! we are also promised that this good work that God began in us the moment we became his children, he will grow and grow in us, and finally bring it to completion in the day Jesus returns. through the power of the Spirit, our well-doing is no longer like filthy rags, but is the pleasing aroma of Christ. our seeking eternal life looks completely different as he has given us the mind of Christ…
- instead of seeking our own glory, we seek the joyous satisfaction in God’s glory. we begin to understand the pleasures of being in his glorious presence.
- instead of seeking our own honor, we seek to do what is honorable in God’s eyes. to walk in His Spirit. to walk in the light of his ways. we seek to honor his name.
- instead of seeking immortality and to live long in our worldly ways, we seek things that are eternal, storing up treasure in heaven that will never fade away. we seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
so the key to obtaining eternal life is to seek the Eternal One who is life! by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit, we will cling to Christ as our Savior in faith, and we will submit to Christ as our Lord in obedience, patiently trusting that he will teach us to seek glory and honor and immortality in him. we trust that he will finish the work he began, and bring us home to himself in the end, to live in the grace of Christ forever with him. amen!
~arwen eastman