What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain... So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable... It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body - 1 Cor 15:36,37,42,44
In the parable of the two minas (Luke 19), the master gives each of his servants a mina (an amount of money worth about 3 months labor) and tells them to conduct business with it until he returns. Upon his return, he finds that two servants made significant profit, while a third servant buried the money and made no profit.
He commends the two servants who invested successfully, granting them authority over several cities in his kingdom, while he condemns the servant who didn't even make an attempt to grow his master's money.
Like the minas in the parable, this earthly life is a gift given to us by God, and He expects us to make a return on his investment.
There are three general paths people take with regard to the gift God has given us.
The first path is to use it solely for our pleasure. My body my choice. This is my life and I'll spend it doing what I want to do.
The second path is to treat life as something that must be protected at all costs. Never take any risks. Wear two masks just in case, even alone in your own car, and avoid public places whenever possible. The most successful life is the longest life.
The third path is to recognize this life as a gift from God to be used in the way He desires. He did not give us this life to be used solely for our own personal hedonistic pleasures. He did not give us this life just so we could safely deliver it back to him 90 years later. He gave this life to us in hope that we will do something glorious with it.
While we cannot and do not earn salvation (it is a free gift earned by the efforts of Christ) the way we live now most certainly does impact the life we will spend eternity.
The Bible is clear that we will be judged according to our deeds (Rom 2:6, 2 Cor 5:10, Matt 16:27, Gal 6:7-8, Rev 22:12 + many more). We must not let the true doctrine of salvation by grace distract us from the reality that we are going to be judged by our lives in this world.
To use a worldly example, it is like earning and investing as much money as possible during your able bodied years before the magic age of 65 when you will cease earning money and live off of your investments.
No matter how old you are, this life is your opportunity to invest into your eternity. And once you get there, you will have lost this golden investing opportunity.
Just as a seed planted bears practically no resemblance to what it will eventually produce - and yet what is produced is based on the seed - the glory of our heavenly existence will be profoundly different than our earthly lives - and yet will be based off of how we lived them.
This earthly existence is our prime time investing opportunity. Let us lift up our eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust destroys
and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Matt 6:19-20
That was very well written, and a very accurate description of what we must do according to the Bible