1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.”
Hold tightly – in the Greek “epilabou” literally means: to take hold, seize, apprehend, grasp tightly, having a firm grip
It’s one thing for us to grab ahold of something consisting of physical matter. You can easily enough grab hold of a cup of coffee, a pen or pencil. You can grab someone’s arm, your car keys and for that matter your Bible. However, it is something quite different to grab hold of a biblical doctrine or truth. To fully grasp intellectually with our mind and our heart and soul, requires much more than just a simple task of reaching out for something and clenching our hands upon it.
For us to hold tightly, to seize, to take hold of the eternal life to which God has called us, is no simple task. It requires tremendous discipline! Seizing the eternal life means for us to live life now, with the end in mind. We are not citizens here, we’re merely sojourners traveling towards our eternal destination and life with God. As we fully apprehend our calling in Christ, taking hold of the eternal life becomes a daily part of our walk whereby we joyfully invest time in studying His word, gathering together with other believers and encouraging one another to not let go of the eternal life to which we’ve been called.
There is another part to growing in our relationship with Christ, which so often is neglected by many of professed believers. This aspect of the Christian life is that of allowing oneself to be fully seized by Christ.
This is the life of committed surrender, whereby the believer relinquishes their rights and self-will to the will of the Father. It is a life marked by total sacrifice of living each day, not as it be our own, but in recognition that we were purchased at a great price. The surrendered life thus becomes a life, which releases its grip of the things of this world. It relinquishes the desire to grab hold of the worldly enticements, which prevent us from taking hold of the things of Christ.
The surrendered life has nothing to do with our salvation, as our salvation is eternally secure… in the hands of Christ Jesus, marked by the nails from the cross and clenched by His covenant promise! No matter how far the genuine believer in Christ might stray, regardless of life’s temptations or our sinful nature rising-up to cause us to stumble or fall, Christ holds our eternal life in His hands of unfailing love.
Holding tight, while letting go… We grab hold of the eternal life, while letting go of our temporal life and thereby become grasped by the surrendered life… all the while, being clenched by the hands of Christ, as an eternally saved life!