I wonder if you have noticed the veritable explosion of health gurus, nutrition experts, and medical doctors on YouTube who are all analyzing ways that human beings can live longer? A health craze is certainly afoot, and while diet, nutrition, and exercise have some value for life in this world (1 Timothy 4:8), the transhumanist undercurrent of much “health talk” we hear today is truly disturbing. For example, a recent video surfaced where three world leaders discussed the possibility of immortality because of advances in technology.
Of course, the mythic idea of a Fountain of Youth has been around for thousands of years. But there is a growing fascination today with the concept of living forever. Bryan Johnson, a popular YouTuber and self-professed “bio-optimization engineer” has resurrected the idea of human immortality with his company Project Blueprint and popular slogan, “Don’t Die.” He often asks the question, “Are we the first generation that won’t die?” Immortality, it seems, has become an obsession. A recent article on Business Insider was entitled, “The tech billionaires trying to hack aging to extend their lives.”
How should the Christian respond to such things? On the one hand, Christians can certainly appreciate advances in modern technology that might extend life. And taking proactive steps towards longevity—steps like getting better sleep, eating healthier, and exercising—are not problematic in themselves, though our motivation for such things matters (1 Corinthians 10:31). Nevertheless, Christians must strongly disavow and denounce the brazen arrogance present in the aforementioned discussions about immortality. These cultural movements, as all merely human movements, are beset by vainglory. And God will cut down human pride and show it for what it is—folly. Whether Bryan Johnson will die at 120+ or will die tomorrow, God will see to it that his arrogant quest at living forever is put to an end.
The transience of human life is one of the Bible’s great themes. “You do not know what will happen tomorrow,” James writes, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (4:14). The certainty of death is rooted in the curse of Genesis 3, and the Bible frequently reflects on that terrible moment, asking God to “teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Moses expressly states that the lot of all men is God-ordained dissolution. Psalm 90:3, “You turn man to destruction, and say, ‘Return, O children of men.’” Whether we like it or not, God’s pronouncement over us is that we will return to the dust (Genesis 3:19).
To believe otherwise is to live in a Babel-like world of foolish presumption. The sons of Korah tell us that no man “can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him—for the redemption of their souls is costly, and it shall cease forever—that he should continue to live eternally, and not see the Pit” (Psalm 49:7-9). Eternal life is outside our grasping fingers, though we were created for it, and even have eternity put on our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
While people might believe that “their houses will last forever, their dwelling places to all generations…” And while people might “call their lands after their own names,” it is nevertheless true that “man, though in honor, does not remain; he is like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:11-12). Indeed, “Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them” (Psalm 49:14). Thus God lays low the pride of man in the midst of his arrogant pursuits of the control of his destiny. The Bible shows us that empires making eternal claims are leveled and swept into history's dustbin (c.f. Babylon in Isaiah 14 and Rome in Revelation 18). It shows us that men infected by the disease of conceit are brought low in subservience to the God of heaven (Daniel 4).
Yet according to Scripture, there is a way of living forever that is not at odds with God's intentions to humble humanity's pride. The God who created Adam and gave him the promise of immortal life in the covenant of works has established a new covenant through the obedience, death, and resurrection of the Last Adam who said, “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” (John 11:25-26).
The way to everlasting life cannot be found out by arrogant human achievement. But it can be received by God’s provision, so that “as sin reigned in death, even so grace [will] reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21). This is God’s gospel way that, as Paul mentions in 2 Timothy 1:10, “has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
Ironically, therefore, what Bryan Johnson and the transhumanists of today are desperately seeking—God provides in the gospel for free to all who will believe. Christ will raise up his people and “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). No amount of sleep, eating, or exercise will help us achieve immortality in this present evil age. But what we could not (and cannot) do for ourselves God has promised to do “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:52-53).
Since our inheritance in heaven is imperishable, unspoiled, and unfading (1 Peter 1:4), we should not stake our hopes on extending our lives here, but rather fix our hope fully on the grace being brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13). Biohackers will biohack and then die, but believers will live in God's new creation forever. While humanity's quest for a Fountain of Youth is a fool’s errand, God has promised that his people will certainly drink from another fountain. “I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts” (Revelation 21:6).
Those are the waters for which Christians should pant! Are you thirsty?
Abounding Grace Radio