The only time that the principle of sowing and reaping, cause and effect, is affected is during our lifetime on the earth. If we turn away from the world, calling on the name of the Lord, we will be forgiven our past sins. We have another chance to sow good seed so that we may look forward to a desirable harvest. But, as any sinner will tell you, even though we have turned away from the world and have begun, through the Lord Jesus Christ, to sow good seed that we may have a better resurrection, we still may experience some of the consequences of what we did prior to starting off new with Christ.

God is not mocked. What we sow we reap!

Now let's take a look at passages of Scripture that have to do with sowing and reaping, with cause and effect, rather than with rewards.

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—NIV)

This verse is often preached as, "Believe in Jesus Christ and you will not go to Hell but to Heaven." Am I correct? Is this what is preached?

This interpretation is traditional and mythological. There is a Hell and there is a Heaven. But Jesus referred to neither in this instance. Maybe we better stick with the Word of God. What do you think?

The term perish is used in the New Testament to refer to something coming to an end or being destroyed in some manner. Since the Lord contrasts "perish" with having "eternal life," we would say that perishing is associated with not living.

We know eternal life is much more than eternal existence. Eternal life is life lived in the Presence and Person of God, especially in a body that has been raised and filled with the Life of God. Eternal life is love, joy, and endless peace in the Presence of God.

If this is true, then to perish is not to receive eternal life in the Presence and Person of God; not to live endlessly in love, joy, and peace. Since it was immortality in the body that was lost in the Garden of Eden, we might add that John 3:16 has to do especially with what we experience when we are raised from the dead in the Day of Christ.

The following passage associates perishing or not perishing with the coming of the Lord.

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." (I Corinthians 15:54—NIV)

Some day our body will be raised by the power that animates all creatures of God, both righteous and wicked; the power that created the heavens and the earth. A human body can be resurrected by this Divine power and still not be made truly alive by being filled with the Spirit of God. The body can be in existence but not filled with the Life of God.

There is only one Tree of Life, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. If we do not believe in Him then we cannot gain immortality in the body.

To be continued.