The Bible talks plainly about eternal life, which is, simply put, living forever with God as His saved people. This means that only those who have a saving relationship with God; meaning one that is active and fruitful, are identified as people who will receive eternal life.
Humanity, of course, has taken the concept of eternal life and added its dose of limited understanding to bring it down to a level where they can understand it in their terms and not in Gods. They have watered eternal life down to a point where either the concept is so ridiculous that they do not believe it, or they adjust what is required to get there so that they can live their life as they want to. Kind of the “have your cake and eat it too” mentality. I have seen this and I am sure you have as well.
Maybe you don’t believe in Eternal Life yourself…
I will be honest with you, Eternal life, without faith, is hard to understand. The idea of living forever is something we only see in the movies. Our collective reality is we are surrounded by death and even though living forever sounds amazing, it is hard to think that could happen. When your loved one passes, they are physically gone and until you die yourself and find out where they went by then it is too late.
Guys, I want to give you some help with this topic so we can better understand…but I have to warn you…this topic does require faith in what you cannot see. Remember, the author of Hebrews said it this way,
Now Faith is being sure of what we hope for and CERTAIN of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
First of all, eternal life is more than some endless existence floating around somewhere. I am sure you have seen the cartoon of the guy floating around on a cloud playing the harp…that is NOT eternal life.
Eternal life will be a special quality of life that we as believers receive when we partake of the essential life of God through Christ His Son…all this means is you have an ongoing active relationship with Christ. And that eternal life I am speaking about is a present reality while you live on Earth. Jesus said it very plainly this way,
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27-28
As I said, the present possession of eternal life requires a living faith…meaning at your very core, you believe. I must make clear that Eternal life is not just secured and maintained merely by repenting and having faith from a long time ago. But rather it involves the present living connection with Christ…Because there is NO eternal life apart from Him.
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:12
Finally, there is our FUTURE Hope…
We have a hope that lives in us because of our salvation in Him. The bottom line for you and me is that our Eternal life is directly connected with the future coming of Christ for all of His faithful believers. We have been given hope, through many scriptures that He will return and fulfill His promises.
..which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:10
How can I sum this up for you? I specifically kept this post separated from the topic of Heaven as that is the “where” and I am referring to the “what”. Eternal life can begin on Earth with a saving salvation in Christ Jesus. That is living by the Spirit daily and something that you participate in like going to the gym. Yes, it is like exercising your spiritual muscle.
That daily and faithful relationship produces eternal fruit for you. But the easiest way to understand is to use the same verse we all learned as children:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only son so that whosoever believes in Him would not die, but have eternal life. John 3:16
I know this was short, but hopefully, this helped you grasp eternal life a little bit easier. Your walk in faith takes effort and time but the relationship you develop with Christ is the beginning of eternal life and will be the most rewarding thing you have ever experienced…that I can assure you.
Until next time, guys-
