John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 5:24 I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
Eternal life is what we look toward, hope for, and will receive. We just have to hold on, grit our teeth, and hope for that final day when Jesus comes in the clouds to take us from this wrecked place to go to heaven and be forever disconnected with the life we now live. One day eternal life will be a reality, one day in the future when Jesus comes and destroys all and we are able to play eschatological Halo with all those despicable sinners. But until then…
This is not the Gospel, but this strain of thought will consistently run through the minds and hearts of Christians if we do not understand what Jesus means when he uses the term “eternal life.”
The pith of Jesus’ teachings is eternal life. It is what he came to enact, provide, do, and live. He came to give eternal life (Jn 10:28), and it flows from him as water (Jn 4:14). The phrase “eternal life” occurs 43 times in the New Testament (ESV) with many of the utterances from Jesus himself, most often connecting eternal life with salvation. Indeed, it is appropriate to equate salvation with eternal life. If we believe in Jesus we have eternal life. My question is this: What is so good about eternal life?
The idea of eternal life contains the notion of unending days, like an endless string of pearls with each pearl representing another day. It goes on forever and ever with no end. One after another, pearl after pearl, until (it would seem to me) that monotony becomes the order of the day. An endless string of pearls would seem to simply get old. This is looking at eternal life quantitatively (numbers). I do think Jesus intends for us to understand eternal life quantitatively but only as a second order. Jesus wants us to understand eternal life primarily qualitatively (good, bad, better, best, etc.).
We should look at eternal life first as qualitative life, as if the fullness of God’s life dwells within us. It does dwell within us for the Holy Spirit comes to live within each believer at salvation. The eternal life we are given is a new and better life, truly good news to humanity. Eternal life should first be seen not as an endless string of pearls, but as freshly squeezed orange juice.
If you are a Christian, Jesus changes you into something alive, for if you are saved by Jesus you are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17) and have crossed over from being dead to being truly alive (Jn 5:24). You now have life; you did not know real life before.
Think of this analogy. Before Jesus all I knew and experienced was drinking water from a sewer. Every day when I was thirsty I would go to the sewer and scoop up the liquid found within and drink that to satisfy my thirst. And, of course, it would make me sick but I knew no differently. I assumed that all drink tastes like that and would make me sick. But when I believed in Jesus he adopted me and took me into his house, and now He gives me real drink, a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. That first taste is the eternal life that Jesus is talking about. It would obviously be a radical pleasure. The next day (the next pearl on the string) Jesus gives me fresh iced water, pure and clean. Another radical experience. The next day he gives me apple juice, the next hot tea with honey, the next ginger ale, then next mango juice, then sweet tea, then cranberry juice, then cola, milk, hot chocolate, lemonade…
This is the eternal life Jesus came to give. Qualitative, then quantitative. And does not the endless string of pearls look so much more inviting?
Eternal life is a future reality, but it is also an immediate one. Jesus came to give life NOW, as well as in the future. It is both/and. Remember, Christianity is a religion of paradoxes.
Luke 18:29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
So, when we read of Jesus bringing eternal life, think first qualitatively, then quantitatively. And remember that eternal life is wherever Jesus is, for the only reason Heaven is not Hell is because Jesus is there. If you have Jesus, you have eternal life. If you do not, you relegate yourself to drink out of the same sewer day after day, and one day even that sewer will run dry and you will be left thirsty forever.
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1 comment:
Josh,
I love your analogy of the different refreshing drinks that the Lord offers us now and eternally.
I think that the main appeal of eternal life is that we will continually be in the presence of God, be able to see and experience Him fully, know HIm as we are fully known and to worship HIm purely, completely and eternally. I think that being in the divine, loving presence of the Godhead and all the implications that implies will be just way beyond our wildest imagination. We will experience a sense of completeness, a connection to the realization that this is what we were created for. We will truly be whole and able to experience the epitome of wholeness and unity with the rest of the Church. We will exist in a perfect environment of pure joy, love, and praise.
Whatever we can imagine it to be, it will be so much more.
One thing I know for sure, it won't be boring. God wouldn't have sent His Son to give His precious life's blood so we could be eternally bored. The Christian life is such an adventure here on earth. The true Christian life in heaven without the trappings of humanity and evil has to be incredible.
What's more...we'll finally be HOME.
Sherryl Stone
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