In 1895, German engineer Wilhelm Roentgen discovered invisible rays that could penetrate material objects that human eyes couldn’t. Though taken for granted today, X-rays created quite the hoot back then — the kind of thing more likely found in a circus than in a medical institution.
However, X-rays soon made their way into every hospital. Early on, someone had a full body X-ray at a sanitarium in Switzerland. When he saw the photo, that of his entire skeleton, he exclaimed: “I have just seen what I will look like when I die!”
Notice the patient didn’t say, “I have just seen what I will look like if I die!” He knew, as we all know, that sooner or later we are going to die; we are going to be nothing but our skeletons, if even that much. And despite all the advances of modern medicine, despite all the miracles of science, there’s not a thing we can do about it, either. Sure, we’ve been able to expand human life spans a number of years, and that’s fine. But what is an extra 10 or 20 years in the face of eternity?
In contrast, over and over in the Bible, especially the New Testament, we are given the promise of eternal life. “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54). “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
After all, considering what happened at the cross, our Creator Himself taking upon Himself the punishment for our sins, anything short of eternal life would almost make His self-sacrifice, His self-abnegation, and His death for us seem a waste. And we know it’s not that!
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