Eternal life given in accordance with nature

 

Our ancestors would say that it’s natural that people should realize the will of Heaven and follow it, and that everything will go well when they do it in accordance with nature. Following nature means obeying the will of Heaven. God’s will be contained in all things He made, so following the principle of all things is the way to obey the will of Heaven.

Rev 4:9-11 『“. . . our Lord and God, . . . you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”』
When God made all things, He created them by His will. No matter how much the world changes, it is impossible for a man to bear a child. Every male has his own duty as a man, and every female has her own duty as a woman, in accordance with the principle of God’s creation of mankind as male and female. So, it is natural that both of them should do their own duty. Ultimately, following the law or principle of nature means following God’s will for His creation.
God’s providence over creation is the will of God, and it is natural to follow it. Let’s find out what God has promised His people who follow His will.

1 Jn 2:25 『And this is what he promised us?even eternal life.』

Through all things on this earth, which are a copy and shadow, God shows us their realities?the things in heaven. The Old Testament and the New Testament mean the old covenant and the new covenant, respectively. So, it is not too much to say that all the books of the Old and New Testaments exist to testify about what God has promised?“eternal life.”
How is eternal life, which God has promised us, given to us? God already showed us the answer in His providence in creating all things. When we study the history of God’s work of creation in six days, recorded in the book of Genesis, we can see that God created man on the sixth and last day of the creation; God made the man Adam first, and then made Eve, saying, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” By creating Eve God finished all His work of creation.

The most important reason why God created woman as a “helper for man” was because the fundamental role of giving birth, which men could not do, was given to women. All living things on the earth were born through their mothers. In other words, they are given life through their mothers. This principle of life shows the law of the invisible, heavenly world.

“The wedding of the Lamb has come”
The fact that we have our fathers on this earth implies that we have our Father in heaven. We also have our brothers and sisters on this earth, which shows that we have our brothers and sisters in heaven, too. Likewise, the fact that we have our mothers who gave us physical life on this earth shows us that we have our spiritual Mother who gave us eternal life which God promised us.

As we see through an earthly family, a new home is formed when a couple marries, and children are born through the couple?the main characters in the family. It is the same with the heavenly family. Jesus told us the parable of the heavenly wedding banquet as follows:

Mt 22:1-14 『Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a
wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. . . . Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are invited, but few are chosen.”』

In the above parable, the king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son represents God, and the son, the bridegroom, stands for Jesus. Inviting people to the wedding banquet means gathering those who will be saved and go into the heavenly wedding banquet of eternal life. So, the Bible says that blessed are those who are invited to the wedding banquet.

Rev 19:9 『Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” . . . 』
In the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew, however, the bride?the heroine of the wedding?is missing. This shows us that the time did not yet come for the heavenly wedding banquet to be held. Then, when is the prophecy about the wedding of the Lamb to be fulfilled?

Rev 19:6-8 『. . . “ . . . Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)』
The wedding of the Lamb has an appointed time. In the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew, the bride didn’t appear. However, in Revelation, John said that the bride of the Lamb made herself ready. Revelation is a book of prophecy that Apostle John wrote around A.D. 96 when he saw in a vision what would take place in the future. Therefore, the event that Revelation 19:7 speaks about?“The wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready”?is to take place at Jesus’ second coming.