Notice 3 things:
1) ‘Eternal Life’ means an intimate relationship. “This is eternal life: that they know You”. The word ‘know’ is a word of intimacy with the Father; and intimacy with Jesus, who accurately represents Him. So, intimacy with God, intimacy in our spirit, means an impartation of His life to us, that changes us. You don't get changed by information; you don't even get changed by reading the word of God; it's a pathway to encountering the true word of God.
John 5:39 - “You search in the Bible, and you think in these you have life; but they speak of Me, and you won't come to Me”.
Eternal life is an impartation that comes into our lives; that transforms us, by a relationship with Jesus Christ, and a relationship with God, the Father. You see this even in the garden, where Adam was given a choice: he could eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil; or he could eat from the Tree of Life. In Revelation, it tells us that Tree of Life was Jesus. I suspect that the Tree of Life was not an attractive-looking plant; but the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil was a fascinating-looking tree. He had to choose between eating of one tree or the other. If he ate the Tree of Life, then the life of God would be imparted to him, and he would grow, and mature, and come into his full inheritance; but as you know, he chose something else.
Notice then, 3 things:
1) Intimacy – “this is eternal life: that they know You”. As we develop intimacy with God, our lives are transformed and changed. We are preparing ourselves for a much greater level of intimacy, when we see Him as He is.
2) Assignment.
John 17:4 – “I have glorified You on earth. I have finished the work You gave Me to do”.
A son means: to be a builder of a father's house; to extend the father's kingdom. Every son has an assignment to do, that is to bring honour to God, our Father. In our assignment, whatever it is, whether it's as a housewife, a mother, serving in some small capacity, whatever dimension our area of territory is - that is where we develop our faithfulness as a son It's where we develop the character of serving; where we grow in our ability to love people, in the face of disappointments. Whatever our assignment is now, it is a temporary assignment, that prepares us for a much greater Eternal Assignment.
Each of us, in our assignment, is called to…
1) Bring honour to our father. That the way we do it, represents His character and nature - we're not exploiting people, or hurting people.
2) Develop Faithfulness. We can be relied upon; there's consistency; integrity in what we do.
3) Fruitfulness. We produce something - this is an important part of our role as a son.
4) Transformation. He said: “I have manifested Your name to the men You've given Me out of the world”. To ‘manifest Your name’ means: to actively represent what the Father is like; to show His nature - His kindness, His love, His compassion, His longsuffering, His joy… all those things. To accurately represent what the Father is like, we need to embrace a lifelong journey of being transformed - and that's where inner healing comes; it's where deliverance comes; it's where we grow our heart qualities, kingdom heart qualities. All those interlock with one another. Each one helps support the other, and so it's not surprising that the three categories of reward are all interlocked the same way as our design is.
Main Message
We'll look at now Reward #6 - Praise & Honour. One aspect of Eternal Reward is Eternal Glory; there's many aspects of it, one of them is Praise & Honour, from God Himself. We're created for honour.
Psalm 104:1 – “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great, You are clothed with honour and majesty”.
God is clothed with honour & majesty.
Psalm 93:1 – “The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty”.
That's kingly honour, kingly glory. The Lord is clothed. He has girded Himself with strength. We are made in the image of God. We are made to carry glory. When Adam & Eve were designed, when they were first created, they carried a dimension of glory. The presence of God surrounded them. They were majestic people in the earth. There was no one in God's creation like that. We're created to represent God, and God is full of majesty and honour. We're created to carry the honour; to carry the glory of God; to carry His life, His nature, His immense power and majesty. We're meant to carry that and represent Him in the earth. Of course, through the fall, the glory has left; and this created the situation we find ourselves in now - naked, ashamed clothed with dishonour, and struggling to try and find honour for ourselves.