Jesus, Our Coveralls

How to books are very popular, e.g.

• Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook (Paperback) , 
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity 
• How to Win Friends and Influence People (Paperback)

The list goes on and on. We're dealing with a question 1000x more important than any of the above. We ask, How can the Image of God be restored within us? Jesus, the very Image of the immortal God and Father of us all, is doing this for and in us. We continue our study of that how, borrowing from our venerable father in the faith, Athanasius of Alexandria .

We've learned in previous blogs that only Jesus, the Image of the Father, can re-create the likeness of the Image in us men. He alone can give us mortals immortality. The more we study what He did and continues to do, the more that Image is restored. Paul writes, 

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. - 2 Cor 3:17-18 ESV

And again, 

"The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. - 1 Cor 15:45 ESV

The freedom we have in Christ is freedom from the fear of being punished for our sins by eternal death. In Christ we are adopted into the Father's family. The Spirit of Christ in our hearts constantly bears witness to that truth. In our joy we are empowered to cry out in our hearts, "I am a child of my heavenly Papa, my Father! (Isa. 61:1; Rom. 8:2, 15-16; Gal. 4:6). The Spirit of Christ is power within us. He gives us power to love as He loves. He enables us to bring even this sin-filled body under control. He is at work to restore the image of God within us. 

The Spirit of Christ within us is life itself. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, points this out as He says to us and to all, 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. - Jhn 10:10 ESV

Since we are alive in Christ we are unafraid of death. We despise it, because it cannot threaten or harm us any longer. It has no strength. Death is our enemy completely conquered by the rightful monarch. Death is now bound hand and foot, locked safely up in God's federal prison. TV cameras are constantly scanning everything death does. We sneer at it and mock it. "Hey Death, where is your victory now? Hello Mr. Grave, where is your sting now? Hah!" 

To illustrate, consider that some people must work in conditions where their clothing might catch on fire. To protect themselves they wear fire resistant coveralls, as pictured above. Both the outward and the inward lining of such clothing is flame resistant. With such coveralls on the worker's fear of being burned alive is largely gone. 

In the same way, clothed with Christ, we walk confidently about in this world, unafraid of what the so-called god of it may do to us. Satan cannot harm us. The power to condemn us to death is gone. For millions death remains strong and terrible. But Christ by His coming, by His death and the resurrection of His body, has destroyed it. He is our coverall. We walk about unafraid. Death and the devil cannot harm us. 

Yesterday I read a book that tries to analyze why Christianity is losing influence among so many here in America. The author's point is that we no longer proclaim the depth and power of our faith. We have settled for things like the prosperity gospel or the social gospel. This is bad religion. No wonder that unbelievers mock and despise us.

It is high time that we returned to the only religion that is not religion at all, but the Word of God. Consider this Word, take it again into your heart and share it wherever you can. We are in Christ. He is our very clothing and when we take off the clothing that is this body we will be clothed forever with Him who is our life. Here's how the Apostle puts it. 

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. - 2Cr 5:1-7 ESV

Ponder this fact. Live in Christ who is your coverall. Do that and you will be changed—today and forever!  

The Fear Of Death

Here in the United States we're in the midst of a presidential election as I write. Last week the candidates of the two major parties met in a nationally televised debate. Reportedly over 60 million people watched as they matched wits and offered solutions to the major issues and problems we Americans face. We the voters must decide now which candidate and which political party has the wisdom to lead us into a safe and prosperous future. One of the Biblical proverbs puts it this way:

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. ... The words of a man's mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook. - Pro 18:2, 4 ESV

Jesus claimed to have wisdom, not only the wisdom to rescue his nation, but the kind of wisdom that would bless men of all nations. On the final day of the fall-time Feast of Booths he stood in the temple and proclaimed,

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. - Jhn 7:37-39 ESV

In the past couple years the farmers and ranchers of west Texas learned much about being thirsty. A long drought dried up the pastures. Many had to sell their cattle just to stay in business. They had no grass to feed them and could no longer afford to buy hay. We are all like that grass. Without water we quickly dry up and die. A few years, a few fleeting moments and we are cut off. We grow old and wither like cut flowers.

Yesterday I spoke with a friend after Sunday worship. We talked tentatively about getting together for a more extended conversation over breakfast. "I'm finding it more and more difficult to get up for those early breakfasts," he said. "I'd just as soon stay in bed until after nine and maybe roll out for a ten or ten thirty meal."

"Hey, brother," I replied, "you're getting old."

"Yes," he muttered with a frown on his face, "but at least I'm still getting. I'm not done yet."

This little exchange reminds me of the longing in the hearts of us all. Getting old means that we are getting closer to death. And the very thought troubles us. Getting old implies that our bodies are falling apart. Heart and lung diseases, arthritis and who knows what other problems move in upon us. Some begin to lose their mental capacities. Short term memory slips away. We can't even remember that our son or daughter came by for a visit yesterday. Like grass, we're drying up and dying.

And even if we're young, we run from the thought of old age. There's even a fancy word for the fear of death called thanatophobia. The irrational fear of dead things is called necrophobia. We run from death. We long for life. We'll spend anything and everything we have to cling to it. Just watch all the things put up at this time of the year for the season of Halloween. Kids will soon come begging for candy dressed as skeletons, witches or vampires. Even they will try to mock death as it pursues us all from birth to old age.  

Are you in the same place in your soul? Does your heart thirst for life? Death is alien to our very being. Life is beautiful, but something deep and dreadful is wrong. It isn't supposed to be that way. And we know it, even though we struggle to put it into words. Solomon put it this way, 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Eccl. 3:11 NIV

Jesus spoke to that thirst. It is, in fact, a thirst for God. We long to be united with Him. He is the source of our life. In Him we live and move and have our being. Jesus came that we might again have that life within us, that life that is like a stream of water, constantly bubbling up, filling us with our Creator's presence, power and peace. Once Jesus spoke of that water to a woman of Samaria who came to draw water from her village's common well. He said,

"Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." - Jhn 4:13-14 ESV

Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit, the source of true life, life that never ends because it comes from the one source of all life. I wrote about the Holy Spirit and Baptism in a series of blogs in June of this year. But there is much more to be said about the work of the Holy Spirit, especially as we consider Jesus' promise to the believer,

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" - Jhn 7:38 ESV

More on this next time as we take another look at the abundant life of the Holy Spirit.

Secrets Of The Secret Kingdom

In my previous post I wrote about the secret kingdom known only to believers in Christ. Today I want to point out how things work in that kingdom of God.

The crowd that followed Jesus across the Sea of Tiberias did not know about this secret kingdom. Their focus was upon themselves and their needs for food and healing. To obtain these they, like all outside Jesus' secret kingdom, believed they had to do something to obtain God's good will. So they wanted to know how to do the works of God. Jesus answered them,

"This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.  

So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" 

Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 

They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." 

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. - Jhn 6:29-35 ESV

Believing doesn't sound like a work, does it? Believing seems to be passive, whereas working is active, something one does. How indeed can believing be the work of God? Aha! That is indeed the very thing the crowd missed and still misses to this very day. Faith, believing in Jesus, the bread of life, is indeed the work of God. It is not the work we do for God. It is His work, God working in us. The Apostle Paul puts it this way,

But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) or "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ... For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ... So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. - Rom 10:6-10, 12-13, 17 ESV

Read the whole chapter very carefully. Throughout it Paul emphasizes that faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. The Gospels make the same point. The Word was with God and the Word became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:1; 1:14). Whoever believes in Jesus, the Word, and in the words he speaks has eternal life. He is righteous and forgiven in God's eyes. Jesus' disciples abide in his word (John 8:31). That word is seed planted in their hearts. It takes root and grows, producing a life of faith, love and obedience to God (Luke 8:11-15). Jesus' disciples cling to this word he has planted in their hearts and put their trust in it. This faith is the work of God, God's gift to his children.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Eph 2:4-10 ESV

Word, Seed, Bread of life—these images all speak of Jesus through whom we daily receive forgiveness for our sins and through whom we are richly filled with abundant life of Christ (John 10:10). If you know about these things then you both know about Jesus' secret kingdom and you know some of the secrets of the kingdom. You know that Jesus, the Word made flesh, does everything in his kingdom through his Word. Through his Word he creates and sustains faith. Through his Word he fills the hearts of his disciples with love for one another. Through his Word he moves them to love, forgive, feed, clothe and care for those in need even as he does. As John writes in his epistle,

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1Jo 4:19-21 ESV

That's how things work in the secret kingdom of God. It is not how they work in all other kingdoms. We'll finally have to take up that topic next time as we look into the kingdoms of this world, how they work and how God uses them to maintain outward peace and order.
 

The Abundant Life

Never say that Jesus does not want us to have an abundant life. This is not at all why I object to the proclamations of the so-called prosperity preachers. Its just that they don't seem to realize what the abundant life is all about. Lets go to the words of Jesus Himself.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. - Jhn 10:10-11 ESV

What life is Jesus talking about? It appears that in the days Jesus walked about teaching and healing lots of folks were interested in something called eternal life. Take the young theologian who asked, "Rabbi, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus responded by asking the young man what was written in the Torah.

He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself" (cf. Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18).

Jesus told him he had answered correctly and added, "Do this, and you will live."

With the tables turned back upon him, the young theological expert began to feel a bit guilty. You can even hear him starting to stutter as he asks, "Uh, and who is my neighbor?"

This gave Jesus the opportunity to tell the well known story of the good Samaritan who showed mercy to a Jewish man, robbed, beaten and thrown into the ditch on the way down from Jerusalem to Jericho. The story hit home and the young teacher was forced to admit that the hated Samaritan was the one who showed mercy. So in answer to the previous question Jesus simply said, "Go and do likewise" (Luke 10:25-37).

There is a very special quality to this life that Jesus points to. For one thing it is eternal. It will not end, because it is a life completely tuned to the LORD God. The one with such life is emotionally, spiritually and intellectually bonded to the LORD. His only thought, word and desire is to submit to this God and obey Him. He is of one mind, one heart and one soul with his eternal Creator. As a result, his Creator's life fills him and he too has eternal life. Further, he loves those around him, as does the Creator. This living one is equally as concerned about the well-being of his neighbor as he is about himself. This is his life!

Know anyone like that? I certainly do not. In fact there has been but one who lived such a life. His name is Jesus! He came into this world so that we who do not in fact have life, might indeed gain it—through Him! As He said, "I come that they may have life and have it abundantly."

Jesus made an end to the judgment resting upon us all because of our failures to live the life of God. He was the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. We who embrace and accept that wondrous personal sacrifice receive, in turn, life abundant. This life of God is within us who believe. It is a never-ending gift of God's Spirit. And it never stops. It is like an endless, bubbling, flowing stream, ever and always pouring into us. In our hearts we always hear our Father telling us that we are forgiven, redeemed and rescued from judgment. As a result this life overflows from us with praise and thanksgiving to God and love, care and concern for others. This is the life that Jesus alone brings. And we who live and believe in Him will never die, even though these earthly bodies must be put aside so that we may be clothed again with eternal bodies like His.

As Jesus explained to the two grieving sisters,

"I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" - Jhn 11:25-26 ESV

This is the abundant life. It has to do with a life filled with love for God and for our neighbors. It has nothing to do with how many possessions, land, bank accounts, fancy houses and cars, jewels and fine wines you have. It is the fool who makes this the aim of his life. Jesus speaks pointedly about such foolishness.

And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." - Luk 12:15 ESV

Let Joel Osteen and all like him learn these lessons and let those among us who are drawn to their empty words run as do sheep who recognize wolves, thieves and robbers who come only to steal, kill, devour and destroy (John 10:7-15).

Jim Died A Most Prosperous Man

I am very proud to tell you I live in a house that Jim built. Jim was a builder from Michigan who arrived here in Texas in the early 1970s. The house building business in Michigan was at a standstill. People were leaving the state in droves, looking elsewhere for work. But in the Houston area things were booming. So Jim ended up here. Sylvia and I contracted with Jim to build us a new house.

Jim was a very devout Christian lay member of our congregation. During the days he worked on our house a very strange disease he had already in Michigan worsened. Blood circulation to his extremities was cut off for reasons the doctors could only guess at. Little by little the tips of his fingers and toes died and had to be removed. As the disease progressed he finally lost his hands and feet, then his forearms and calves. By the time he died—a little over a year after the disease began—he had but stumps where his arms and feet had once been.

BUT! Jim never lost faith in the mercy, forgiveness and love of God! Astounding. How was that possible? I learned so much from this humble man, so very much about real faith. Jim was my Job. It was as if Job were there in the hospital bed as I visited and prayed with Jim.

"Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may. Why should I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand? Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face." - Job 13:13-15 ESV

That was Jim. He believed that he was unworthy of God's love. He was a sinner and deserved, as we confess week by week in our liturgies, "Your present and eternal punishment." That prayer of confession continues:

"For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name. Amen."  

When Jim left this life, we joyfully committed what was left of his suffering body to the hands of his Lord in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection. The congregation I served at the time later named a pre-school building in Jim's honor.

Here's where I return to my critique of the prosperity preachers.

Jim came to Texas to prosper. He believed in God and in His love. For a time he found work and gained money to care for his family. And then his illness. Why? I never heard Jim ask that question. He simply submitted and did his work until he had to be confined to a hospital bed.

It was as if God was hiding Himself—or at least so it seemed. In Martin Luther's terms, God was speaking from behind a mask. And what was he saying to Jim—as well as to all of us? Certainly that He has poured out abundance upon us, giving us all that we need in this life. We have homes, food, good weather, basically good government, protection from our enemies, friends and family. And what are we doing with all this? Honoring Him? Thanking Him? Serving Him? So often, so very often the answer is no, no, no. We forget about loving Him and serving Him with all of our being, with our hearts and minds as well as our bodies. We forget to reach out to share this abundance with the weak, needy and helpless.

So He spoke a word of warning to us through Jim's illness. He told us that this is what we each deserve—to die and to be separated from Him for eternity. BUT! Yes, but . . . He bent down low to speak to us another Word. And this is the good news, the most unexpected, wondrous news that ever there can be, the message that Jim believed and to which he clung until he drew his final breath. That Word is that the very WORD of God became flesh, incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He did what the ancient prophet Isaiah (to whom I referred in my previous post) said He would.

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. - Isa 53:3-5 ESV

From behind this wondrous mask, our hidden God has spoken His Word of forgiveness. It was all for us sinners. Because Christ died, we died. With His stripes our broken relationship with God is now restored.

Jim never became a prosperous man. He died from his sickness. His family struggled to recover from the loss. Yet we are all confident that Jim lives in the endless abundance of the Lord and God in whom he put his trust. He died in faith, faith given to him by the generosity of God, faith given to him by God's Holy Spirit at work in that Word spoken in Christ. Jim was unable to accept the bread of the Sacrament with his hand when we celebrated it in his hospital room. He no longer had hands. But he ate the bread and drank the wine and believed that in that precious gift of God he received forgiveness for all his sins. He believed that he received the very body and blood that Jesus offered up for him. And he rejoiced to know that by God's priceless grace he was God's child and would receive a renewed and eternal body on the great Day of Christ's return. He has been invited to the feast (Isaiah 25:6-8).

We thank you Jim. You are a saint, made holy by the blood of Jesus. And your works follow you.

I'll have a bit more to say about all this in my next post.

Immortal Life—More Than Merely Living

When we talk about immortality we normally speak about breathing and moving about as a physical being, strong and able to interact with others and the world around us. No one looks forward to being in a coma, sustained by machines and chemicals. As we continue this discussion of immortality, we obviously need to talk not only about living long, but about the quality of life, regardless of its length. So we come to the words of Jesus, the Good Shepherd of the sheep.

"I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:9-11)

 

A faithful shepherd always checked his sheep daily, from head to toe, as they passed into the protective walls of the sheepfold between his legs. All through the night he remained at the entrance, guarding them with his own body so they might be safe and able to rest in peace. In the morning he led them out again to good, green pasture from which he had removed noxious weeds. He also brought them to quiet pools of water where they might quench their thirst. Thus they lived their lives throughout the summer under his protection. 

When the grazing season was over he would lead them back to the family homestead, always watching for wolves and lions as they moved through the shadows of valley walls. Finally, they would return to his father's house where they remained throughout the months of the cold, rainy winter season. 

Jesus drew upon this very familiar image to describe himself and his mission. He came to claim his sheep at the cost of his own life. We who enter the sheepfold and the father's house through him will indeed ever dwell in the house of the LORD (Psalm 23:1-6). 

In this manner Jesus speaks about the abundant life. The word in Greek is perissos, a word used to describe  remarkable, superior, greater, excellent life, surpassing all that you might want or imagine. Paul wrote about this in two wonderful passages. 

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). 

"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.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:16-21). 

This life is much more than merely living and breathing. It is more than claiming the wealth and possessions of this world. It is life measured by a one on one relationship with your Good Shepherd. It is living by believing, trusting and loving Jesus. As John wrote, "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:12-13).

This abundant life is a is a "continual process of learning, practicing, and maturing, as well as failing, recovering, adjusting, enduring, and overcoming, because, in our present state, “we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror” (1 Corinthians 13:12). One day we will see God face to face, and we will know Him completely as we will be known completely (1 Corinthians 13:12). We will no longer struggle with sin and doubt. This will be the ultimately fulfilled abundant life."

Christians are also interested in immortality or eternal life, but not merely to exist. We look forward to a life without end in the presence of our Good Shepherd, under His guidance and protection. We are thankful for any and all progress made by medical science and research. We are pledged to assist in those endeavors. This is why we support medical science and name our hospitals Good Shepherd, Good Samaritan, St. Luke, St. John, etc. However, we know that the final hope of true eternal life rests in the hands of our Shepherd. 

"But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. . .

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God"(Romans 8:10,11,18-21). 

Is Human Immortality Once Again On The Horizon?

Did men once live to be hundreds of years old? According to the Bible there were many. Why then do men live only 70 or 80 or so years today? Will modern science change that? Will we once again live to be hundreds of years old?

Christian authors Fazale Rana, Hugh Ross and Richard Deem tell us  that

"the mere assertion that humans could live more than 900 years—as Genesis 5:5 states—seems, for many people, nothing short of absurdity. The mention of long life spans in Genesis 5 hinders these people from openly exploring the Christian faith. Unable to accept 900-year human life spans, skeptics and others view the Bible as unreliable, a book of human myth rather than divine revelation."

Here's what the Genesis 5 passage says:

• Adam lived 930 years
• Seth, Adam's son lived 912 years
• Enosh, born when Seth was 105, lived 902 years
• Enosh's son, Kenan, 910 years
• Mahalalel 895 years
• Jared 962 years
• Enoch 365 years and then "God took him away"
• Methuselah, Enoch's son, lived 969 years
• His son Lamech lived 777 years
• Lamech's son Noah was 500 years old when he fathered Shem, Ham and Japheth

This means that Noah's father, Lamech, spent many decades with Adam before he died. And all these men "had other sons and daughters." How many people were there on the earth when God sent the flood? One author estimates 6 million and finds that a ridiculous number for God to destroy. He views the flood as a parable anyway. Other estimates range all the way from 300,000 to 17 billion. No one knows. I'm not pursuing that question today. I'm rather asking whether the long ages suggested by Genesis could once again come to pass. 

Journalist and bestselling sci-fi author Ben Bova wrote a 2009 novel, The Immortality Factor , as a follow-up to his earlier report on medical advances, Immortality: How Science Is Extending Your Life Span. In that book he predicted that advances in understanding why people age and die will soon lead to the ability to reverse aging. Immortality will soon be possible and the 900 yr. + lifespans of pre-flood men will become possible. He writes about the same scientific advances outlined by the Christian authors I quoted above, namely

• Reversing the effects of free radicals or reactive oxygen species
• Caloric restriction, i.e. a vegetarian diet to prevent the intake of toxins from animal flesh
• Altering the loss of telomere length
• Genome size - the Human Genome Project indicates humans have 3 billion base pairs, but only 28-120,000 genes. Non-coding DNA makes up about 97% of the human genome. There seems to be a relationship between a large genome and long life
• Cosmic radiation that plays a significant role in limiting life expectancy
• Advances in endocrinology and hormonal control.

In later blogs I'd like to link this information to what the Bible means when it speaks of death. Note for instance that when Adam and Eve disobeyed, they immediately died. The LORD told Adam,

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16-17).

 When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit they died. They were no longer in a loving, faithful and open relationship with the LORD. The full, abundant life they had known before their disobedience was gone. Thousands of years later the LORD came among us as the second Adam so that He might restore life as full, complete and eternal fellowship with our Creator (1 Cor. 15:22,45). As Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). I'll pursue the implications of that in later blogs. The point is this: the LORD may allow us to discover ways to extend human longevity. Lifespans already have lengthened in the past hundred years, but that in itself cannot even begin to bring us the life that the LORD Jesus speaks about.