Yes, I've said it here on BibleTimeLines.com before: The Gospel is all about life and death. It's the actual account, the true story of what Jesus and His Father have done to rescue humans from misery, sorrow, pain and death. Because of what they have done we have been offered (free of charge) life that never ends. All we have to do is say, "YES, LORD, I believe!" (Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9), and then let the way you live prove that you love Him (John 14:15).
A very condensed telling of that story can be found in John 3:16 which says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This simply says that God the Father loves us as much as His Son Jesus does. For this reason the Father allowed Jesus to come to this Earth to save us. They want us to live and not die; Jesus was sent by the Father to make a way for us to live forever.
That would only be possible if Jesus could live a perfect life here among the hatred and anger and pain and whatever else we humans have to deal with. Jesus had to prove to everyone that His laws were laws of love (Matthew 22:36-40), and that these laws could be followed completely.
When Jesus came to this Earth as a baby He was immediately hunted by the Roman government so that He could be killed; but the Father intervened and the government failed. But throughout His life on Earth the opposition of His enemy the Devil continued. When Jesus was grown it was the leaders of His own church (and even His own government inside the Roman government) that tried to stop His mission and kill Him.
The Devil (God's enemy) kept trying to cause Jesus to sin, but Jesus remained in constant contact with His Father and never gave in to the temptations all around Him. Even when Jesus was arrested, beaten to within an inch of His life, mocked, and eventually nailed to a wooden cross and hung up to die, He refused to give in to any temptation that would dishonor His Father. (Hebrews 4:15)
Jesus did all of this because He loves us. He was willing to take our punishment upon Himself so that we can have the opportunity to live forever. He took the evil that we deserved so that we can live the good life that He deserved. (Isaiah 53:5)
Now we don't NEED to die the second death spoken of in Revelation 20:6 because we have a choice. We can accept the death of Jesus for us, or we can die our own death. The choice is ours. (John 3:16)
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
But let's go back to the beginning. The Bible tells us that the one who eventually became the Devil, Satan, and the enemy of God, had been created by God as a perfect and a totally free being (Ezekiel 28:12). After his creation Lucifer had been given the highest position in God's heavenly government, but he became proud and corrupt in his thinking because of how good he looked. This led to him wanting all the praise and honor God was getting, and more. He wanted to be even greater than God Himself. (Ezekiel 28:13-19)
Lucifer began to accuse God of being unfair and unloving, and eventually one third of the angels of Heaven chose Lucifer over God as their leader (Revelation 22:4). God's enemy, Lucifer, became known as Satan, the Devil, the evil one, the dragon, the father of lies, and the Serpent (Revelation 20:2; John 8:44).
While all of this was going on in Heaven, God created the Earth through Jesus. He created it perfect and free. He created life in such a way that as long as His instructions were followed, life would never end. He gave humans the Tree of Life for that reason.
Then Lucifer, disguised as a serpent, came to this Earth and tricked the first humans. First, he deceived Eve and then Adam followed her into believing him (Lucifer) instead of believing God (Genesis 11-7 ;2 Corinthians 11:3). Lucifer then, because Adam sinned, claimed the Earth as his own property.
When open revolt happened in Heaven the Devil, and all of those who followed him, fought against God, but they lost the war and were thrown out of Heaven (Revelation 22:4). Because Satan had gotten dominion over the Earth, God forced him and his followers here (Jude 1:6; Revelation 12:4).
The Bible calls Lucifer's actions "iniquity" (Ezekiel 28:15) or "sin" and defines sin as the breaking of God's Law (1 John 3:4). This was the beginning of sin. Sin started in Heaven. (By the way, this is one example that proves that the Law of God existed before Mt. Sinai. Sin is not sin unless God's Law is broken.) Sin spread almost everywhere, and for the safety of the entire Universe sin has been quarantined to this Earth.
Satan can now demonstrate to everyone just how he would run the entire Universe if given a chance. From our current perspective we can see that the problem with his way of doing things is that it actually tears apart and destroys everything it touches. Satan's way always ends in death (Romans 6:23), but at first that wasn't obvious.
Satan claimed that humanity and the entire earth as his, and this trapped every human. There was no hope for us because the end result (the wages) of sin is always death. We were all under a death decree (Romans 3:23).
Yet God wants us to live and not die, so Jesus was sent by the Father to make it possible for us to live forever. After Jesus had lived a perfect life and was then killed He proved that the Devil's ways were not good. When Jesus rose from the grave, He proved that He had power over death.
Now Jesus offers us access to the Tree of Life again! He offers us life that will never end. With it comes love, health, peace, joy, happiness, and more, and all without any pain, sorrow, death or destruction. (Revelation 21:1, 4) He offers us the freedom to do anything we want and go anywhere we want. We can sing, praise God, work at whatever we choose to pursue, study the secrets of the far-off corners of the universe, plant gardens, build houses, AND sit at the feet of Jesus, the One who made it all possible! This good life will NEVER end! (Isaiah 65)
On the other hand the "Fountain of Youth" is the Devil's pretend counterfeit of God's real Tree of Life. A "Fountain of Youth" would just force us to live life as we live it now, with all its anger, hatred, fighting, looting, shootings, injustice, government corruption, frustration, financial, emotional and physical loss, crying, emotional and physical pains, greed, selfishness, suffering, etc. None of it would stop. We wouldn't even be able to die. It would allow sin, and its results, to continue forever.
Which one would YOU choose? Which one WILL you choose? Life or death, the choice is yours. As for me and my house, we choose LIFE! We choose Jesus, and the Tree of Life!
"For I know the plans I have for you" — this is the LORD’s declaration — "plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
(See the Gospel Timeline for details.)
