Do This and You Will Live!

About 20 years ago, I read a book by the famous inventor and scientist Ray Kurzweil, “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.” It’s a very thick book, but the gist is that by around 2025-2030, science will reach a breakthrough to eternal life. Specifically, merging biology and GNR (genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics) will make it possible for us to cure every disease and replace or renew every part of our body.

Death becomes optional by then. It might sound hard to believe, but few people dared to discount his forecast because he had creditability, and his prediction was based on data. He predicted the coming of the Internet decades before it happened. So, it’s hard to dismiss him. He has been frequently invited by reputable institutions such as Havard, Standford, and MIT to give his presentations.

I am mentioning this because we are now in 2022. Based on Kurzweil’s prediction, we are about three years away from eternal life, eight years at the most. That means if you hang in there for another eight years, you will live forever. I wonder how many people still believe him after the pandemic.

There’s one problem. Kurzweil is an atheist. So, he also predicted that religions would become obsolete by then because he believes religions are invented by humans only because we fear death. If death is no longer an issue, religions are no longer needed. That’s terrible news for me because it means I would not have a job!

I love science because I believe science is a form of stewardship of God’s creation. I hope Kurzweil is right that we will attain eternal life through science. If that day did come, I had nothing to lose. However, if Jesus is right that eternal life comes only through Christ, then Kurzweil has everything to lose.

I remember Chairman Mao of China said that we don’t need religions because science will give us eternal life. Unfortunately, he died long before science could give him what he wanted.

Kurzweil and Mao failed to understand that religion is not about the quantity of life but the quality of life. Who wants to live forever in this messy and fallen world? Only a quality life is worth living for eternity. The eternal life Jesus offered us is more about the quality of life than the quantity of life because eternity is the realm of God, or the kingdom of God. He said,

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10).

Again, by “abundantly,” Jesus is not talking about material abundance but the quality of life. Another translation says, “live life to the fullest” (CEB). Jesus made it very easy for us to raise our quality of life through two simple commandments known as the Great Commandments—love God and love people, nothing more and nothing less.

He said, “Do this and you will live!” By “live,” he is talking about eternal living because he was answering a question about eternal life. So, today, let’s explore this crucial teaching of “Do this and you will live” because we all want to live abundantly and fully now and for eternity.

Today, we are dealing with a very familiar passage, but we must pay full attention to it because if we miss this, we miss everything. Jesus didn’t say, “know this and you will live,” but “do this and you will live.” So today we will talk about what to do. Let’s begin!