Is there a fountain of youth?

Back in the 16th century there was a Spanish explorer by the name of Juan Ponce de Leon. Juan was the governor of Puerto Rico. He heard people speak of a place where one could drink from a spring that would make you eternally young. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine being eternally young and never aging? Juan Ponce De Leon tried to find this place and in so doing actually stumbled on Florida. The discovery of Florida was not planned; it came about because an explorer was looking for something else. I have visited a place in Florida (check out my pictures of St. Augustine, Florida) where some people like to say he found the fountain of youth.

I have actually taken a drink from that legendary spring. If you look at me you will see...
that it didn’t do what Juan Ponce de Leon thought it would. I have gray hair and it is spreading. The aging process is still going on in my body. I have taken a drink from the legendary fountain of youth but I am still aging. Juan Ponce de Leon died some years after his search. He never found that fountain that could give eternal life. He was killed by an arrow shot from the bow of an America Indian. He died, like any other mortal would.

Well what does that Bible say about this subject? Does the Bible say that we can find the fountain of youth? Is there any hope for us?

The Bible first makes it clear that all man will die. That’s right; we will all die one day a physical death. The reason we will all die is because we are all “Sinners”. Sin is best defined as missing the mark. In other words we are missing out on what God wants for our lives. Man was created to live forever in a relationship with God but man chose to turn his back on God and miss what God offers us. The penalty for sin is death, not just physical death but spiritual death, or an eternity without God. This is the Bad news. But there is good news.

The Bible says that God has made us an offer we can’t refuse. He offers us something greater than Juan Ponce de Leon ever dreamed. Instead of living forever here on an imperfect earth by drinking from some fountain, He offers us “Eternal Life” a life that is together with Him. He offers not just life but a relationship. He offers us an eternal relationship with the creator of all things, Himself.

How is this possible? Well, the answer to this question is found in the person of Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ said just before resurrecting Lazarus from the dead, (Jn 11:25) “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” Jesus is God in the flesh of man. He lived a perfect life here on earth, something that no other person has ever done. It was because of this perfect life that he told His father in Heaven that He would die in the place of man. In other words he died so that we could now live. He died on a cross paying the penalty for us. The penalty that we owed God, He paid, so that we can now have an eternal relationship with God.

Eternal life is a gift that Jesus paid for with His life and now He offers it to us. All we need to do is receive it. We do that by doing what He said in the verses above, “He who believes in me though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”