[Jhn 3:16 NKJV] 16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

• The invitation of the Gospel is eternal life granted on the basis of the merits of another person - Jesus Christ.
• What we have done deserves death, but because of what He has done, we can be given life. It is a gift received by believing in Him and following Him; the same plan given to all generations of men, albeit with different amounts of truth revealed.
  

[Deu 30:19-20 NKJV] 19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 "that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

[Col 3:3-4 NKJV] 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

John 17:3 (NASB95) “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

John 20:31 (NASB95) “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

[Jhn 1:4 NKJV] 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

[1Jo 5:11-12 NKJV] 11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

• The clear testimony of the scriptures is that LIFE (existence) is available only in the person of Christ. Being identified in Him means we identify Him as our personal sin-bearing-Substitute and His death at Calvary counts as our own. We can then be raised with Him and receive what only He deserves as a ‘co-heir’ because we are accounted with His righteousness. [Rom 6:8-10, Rom 8:17]

** Read Ephesians and circle or highlight all the times Paul says “In Him” or “In Christ” or “in the Beloved”.

• We are saved by identifying in Him; Hiding ourselves in the cleft of the Rock/Cornerstone, Jesus Christ. God’s radical love for humanity drove Him to Calvary to ransom humanity who are destined to perish unless they receive His infinite and perfect atonement.

But if this is true, what happens to those who are not identified in Christ? I.e. those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?

[Deu 4:24 NKJV] 24 "For the LORD your God [is] a consuming fire, a jealous God.

[Heb 12:25-29 NKJV] 25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more [shall we not escape] if we turn away from Him who [speaks] from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." 27 Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Psalms 1:4-6 (NASB95) 4 The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.

[Rev 20:11, 13-15 NASB95] 11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. ... 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one [of them] according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

• The scriptures make this distinction clear that there are only 2 camps: Those written in the Book of Life, and those who are not.
• A major thing to note: The fires of hell are not in the absence of God, but in the presence of God.
• ALL will acknowledge that Christ is Lord, but only those who have received His grace and salvation will remain alive forever. The wicked (those who rejected His atonement) are destroyed. They perish.
• The destination of those ‘in sin’ is death. Those ‘in Christ’ are destined for life.
  

[Eph 2:4-6 NKJV] 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus

[Phl 2:9-10 NKJV] 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,”

[Isa 45:22-23 NKJV] 22 "Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 23 I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath.

[Jhn 5:28-29 NKJV] 28 "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 "and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

• Jesus spoke of 2 resurrections: 1) to life, 2) to destruction; the second death, from which there is no life available ever again.
• Humanity’s nature is mortal. ‘Death’ does not mean ‘eternal life in everlasting fire’. It means death. Non-life, no breath, no awareness, no consciousness, no thoughts, no existence.
  

[Psa 90:2-3 NLT] 2 Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God. 3 You turn people back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, you mortals!"

[Psa 104:29 NKJV] 29 You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

[Ecc 3:20 NKJV] 20 All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

[Ecc 12:7 NKJV] 7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

[Psa 115:17 NKJV] 17 The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor any who go down into silence.

[Ecc 9:5 NKJV] 5 For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten.

[Isa 26:14 NKJV] 14 [They are] dead, they will not live; [They are] deceased, they will not rise. Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And made all their memory to perish.

[Job 10:9 NKJV] 9 Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again?

[Job 21:26 NKJV] 26 They lie down alike in the dust, And worms cover them.

[Psa 13:3 KJV] 3 Consider [and] hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the [sleep of] death;

[Psa 22:15, 29 NKJV] 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. ... 29 All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep himself alive

• We are dust and to dust we shall return (Gen 3:19)... UNLESS we receive the infinite righteousness of Christ. Wonder of wonders that such a gift would be given to such sinful anarchists!

So what does scripture mean when it speaks of ‘everlasting/eternal fire’?

[2Pe 2:6 NKJV] 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned [them] to destruction, making [them] an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;

[Jde 1:7 NKJV] 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

• If Sodom and Gomorah were examples of God’s judgment executed by ‘eternal fire’... why are they not still burning?
• Scripture speaks of the RESULT as eternal/everlasting, not the process. Remember Deuteronomy 4:24 - God is the consuming fire. Sin cannot exist.
• Our desire is to dwell with the Consuming Fire (YHWH), but how can we mortal sinners do so? Only by being hidden in our Savior.
  

[Isa 33:14 NKJV] 14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"

[Rev 2:11 NKJV] 11 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death." '

• What’s the only way to ‘overcome’ according to the Bible?

[1Jo 2:14 NKJV] 14 I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him [who is] from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.

[1Jo 5:4 NKJV] 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.

[Jhn 17:3 NKJV] 3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

[Rom 6:23 NKJV] 23 For the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When does this gift become realized?

[1Th 4:15-18 NKJV] 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive [and] remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

[Jhn 5:24 NASB95] 24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

• Christ makes clear that there is no neutral ground - All are destined for one of these two outcomes.
• All are also privy to sufficient information and conviction to choose Him to receive the resurrection of life. Remember, all will eventually bow the knee and declare Him Lord, the question is when we will do so - before or after the names in His Book of Life are finalized?
• Not all will accept this invitation, many will reject Him and thereby be allotted with the ‘wicked’ suffering the wrath of God without atonement and thus destroyed.
• This destruction is not a place of eternal burning, but an eternal death - an everlasting result.
• People who reject Christ’s grace do not want to spend eternity with Him and thus it is God’s mercy to grant them that desire in death (‘sleep’ as the scripture refers to it). No thought, no worry, no stress, no mode of existence.
• But God’s desire is that all would turn to Him and be saved and enjoy eternal life with their Creator.
  

[Eze 33:11 NKJV] 11 "Say to them: '[As] I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! ...'

[Jhn 6:39-40 NKJV] 39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

[Jhn 11:24-26 NKJV] 24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 "And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"