the cost of eternal life

A few years ago I was working outside on a pool and heard a noise which sounded like a pumpkin hitting the ground. Looking back across the street, I noticed an older man that had been working on a scaffold on a house had fallen off backwards and was lying on the driveway. As I rushed over and began assisting him, the lady of the house called 911 as it was apparent the man was in a bad way. A few minutes later, he became unconscious. Soon after that, he stopped breathing, his eyes rolled back in his head and I could find no pulse. He was dead. We were shouting at him to stay with us, but he was gone. I began CPR, praying aloud that God would bring him back, but with a rising panic that this man was gone. Just when I was ready to stop chest compressions and give up, he coughed, and suddenly he began to breathe again. I really believe that for a while there the guy was dead. No amount of shouting or pleading would make him respond. He could not feel me pounding on his chest. But when his life finally returned, by the time the rescue squad arrived he was able to converse with the responders.
I am reminded of that story whenever I think of the verse found in Ephesians 2:1. “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…” From birth, I believe the Bible teaches us that we inherited the sinful nature from our parents, going all the way back to Adam. And as a result, we were estranged from God, without hope, dead in our sins. Like the man laying there in that front yard, we are incapable of having a relationship with God because spiritually we are dead. Jesus said that He came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. A lot of people want to think that means that once saved we get to enjoy all the best things this world has to offer. But really it means that this dead body receives spiritual life and that is true life as it was really intended to be. We get back what was lost in the garden when Adam and Eve sinned - a spiritual relationship with the Father.
The rich young ruler in Matthew 19 realized that he was lacking something and came to Jesus asking “what good thing shall I do to obtain eternal life?” He had the right idea. But eternal life isn’t just the idea of living forever, it means becoming spiritually alive. He recognized that in spite of keeping all the commandments he still didn’t have it, and he was hoping that Jesus had the answer. In our churches today, we hear a lot about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. And the seeker friendly model that most churches employ seems to convey the idea that all you really need to do is have a desire to go to heaven and live forever. But the answer that Jesus gave to the rich young ruler is definitely not in keeping with the seeker friendly handbook. Matt. 19:23 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor , and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me.” But before you think that only applies to rich people, look at Luke 14:33, “So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”
There is a cost to eternal life, to having a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ. And the cost of that life is everything you hold dear. “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” The answer is everything.