Gal 5:16-17 (NIV) So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you WANT.

When Jesus says something about eternity and eternal rewards, we can feel our human spirit get excited about it. Then the sinful nature takes us off in a totally different direction. In other words, we “do not do what [we] want.” We want to invest our time, effort, and money in eternal issues. Our body wants to devote its time, effort, and money in temporal issues. The solution is found in the upper part of the Scripture where it tells us to “live by the Spirit.” He is the One Who is training us on how to yield to Jesus.

Just like the main components of keeping the body alive are to take in air, water, and food, our human spirit is kept alive though exposure to God and the things of God. Even though we can’t cease to exist, we can still die spiritually from a lack of this exposure to God. We have two spiritual terms that we have to always keep straight in our mind.

Eternal life isn’t saying we will cease to exist if we don’t get it. The two choices are eternal life and eternal death. We are ALL going to live forever, SOMEWHERE. Eternal life is existing eternally in a close relationship with God. Eternal death is existing eternally in total SEPARATION from God. So, read this next Scripture with these two definitions in mind.

Rom 6:23 (NIV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Here we see death and eternal life. Death is always in reference to separation. When our body dies, it is separated from our spirit. When a person’s spirit dies, it doesn’t cease to exist; it is separated from God. So, when we talk about LIVING by the Spirit, we are talking about doing what it takes to not be separated from God’s Holy Spirit. So, Romans 6:23 is saying, the wages of sin is [eternal] death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus is trying to help us and all our friends experience eternal life. And, the way He is doing that is to lift our eyes up to see treasures that will change our value system. He is helping us to have the eternal perspective that values things that last forever.