This article shows the difference between time and eternity.

Source: The Banner of Truth, 2002. 2 pages.

Time and Eternity

One of the distinguishing marks of the Christian is that he or she has been gripped by the notion of eternity. We live here as creatures of time, but are destined for another, permanent state. The worldly person does not want to think about that, but the Christian has faced this momentous fact. What, then, are some of the differences between time and eternity?

First, life here is mixed; it is sometimes joyful, sometimes sorrowful. But in eternity it is unalloyed, either all pain or all happiness. As William Blake put it:

Man was made for Joy and Woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the World we safely go,
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.

Here we know the joys of life, whether it is the sublime joy of the Spirit as he brings a sinner to salvation in Christ, or the mundane joys of life. Or we know the pain of suffering. This may be the horror of losing one we have loved deeply, or only some passing pain. But in eternity men will only know the tor­ment which goes on day and night forever and ever (Rev. 20:10); or the endless joy wherein sin, pain and death have passed away forever (Rev. 21:4).

Secondly, time is brief, eternity is forever. God is from everlasting to everlasting (Psa. 90:2), while we can only hope for seventy or eighty years here (Psa. 90:10). We are like grass or the flower of the field – here today and gone tomorrow (Psa. 103:15-16). To change the image, we are like a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away (James 4:14). In the light of that, the Christian is one who has numbered his days in order to gain a heart of wisdom (Psa. 90:12). To cite Isaac Watts:

Time, like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all its sons away:
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

The Apostle Paul says that even the sufferings of the Christian in this life are 'but for a moment' (2 Cor. 4:17). Whatever our joys here, or whatever our sufferings, both alike will soon vanish, and we shall be ushered into eternity. That word forever ought to govern our thinking and our actions each day.

Thirdly, life here is limited, but in eternity there is fullness. For the Christian, this perspective is given by Paul:

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.1 Cor. 13:12

We experience the limitations of our physical body: 'Our outward man is perishing' (2 Cor. 4:16). In our spiritual lives, we have fallen short and are not perfected (Phil. 3:12-13). There is so much we do not know, and so many things we cannot do. Our achieve­ments, no matter how exalted, are really quite petty. Here we know the limitations of our earthly existence.

Nobody has put this perspective better than Thomas Scott, John Newton's successor at Olney: 'Time how short! eternity how long! life how precarious and vanishing! death how certain! the pursuits and employments of this present life how vain, unsatisfying, trifling, and vexatious! God's favour and eternal life how unspeakably precious! His wrath, the never-quenched fire, the never-dying worm, how dreadful!'

Add new comment

(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.