SCRIPTURE: 2 Timothy 1
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. [2 Timothy 1:9-10]
The message of good news goes back to God’s original plan, before the beginning of time – to create a kingdom paradise for humanity where they would enjoy eternal fellowship and joy with God.
When sinful rebellion ruined that plan, God’s good news purpose did not end, but the means to that purpose changed.
Jesus is the key to restoring God’s kingdom gift (grace).
Since God’s original image-bearers (Adam and Eve) forfeited that ‘good news’ kingdom paradise, God sent His Son to become human to overcome the curse of sin and death and restore His creation kingdom and His beloved children.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. [John 3:16]
The good news is more than just forgiveness or the hope of heaven after we die, it is the good news of the restoration of God’s kingdom purpose, the defeat of sin, death and hell and the rebuilding of God’s creation paradise.
Eternal life is more than living forever – it is experiencing life with God in His world today and forever, just as He originally planned.
If we accept Jesus as God’s ‘new Adam’ come to fix what the first Adam broke, and if we join with Him by His Spirit in living the kingdom life (how God originally created us to live), then we have entered the eternal life!
We are in His creation paradise NOW, though it still bears the scars and the misery of sin’s curse.
But by His Spirit, we live godly lives, and we reverse the curse of sin.
We are ‘new creations’ in Christ [2 Corinthians 5:16-17], and His Spirit produces the fruit of that new life in us [Galatians 5:22-23].

Eternal life (life and immortality) has already come, and we can enjoy the foretaste of it now already, by the Spirit that lives in us.
But it is not experienced unless we ‘fan it into flame’.
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. [2 Timothy 1:6-7]
We have the potential of God in us (potential = power = Holy Spirit), but unless we live by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit, it’s potential will not be released, and the good news will not be experienced by us.
Phygelus and Hermogenes seem to have missed out on it… how about me?
Am I releasing God’s potential in me, fanning into flame the gift of eternal life that is in me by the Spirit?

PRAYER:
Lord, the life I am living right now seems so weak, so shallow. You have given me a great gift, great power, a great experience of love and joy and peace… help me to fan it into flame, and to experience this good news!