Eternal Life by Maxie Dunnam

Christians talk about HEAVEN as the place where they will live for eternity. ETERNAL LIFE is the life that is a gift of God which comes to those who accept Christ as God’s gift of salvation. Paul uses the phrase eternal life to describe the goal of the process of salvation. We normally think of eternal life as what happens at death, but eternal life begins in this life when we link ourselves in faith to Christ “This is eternal life,” Jesus prayed, “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (Jn: 17:3 NIV)

Jesus left no question about it. “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matt 25:45-46 NIV)

In our thinking and conversation, we mistakenly use immortality for eternal life. There is nothing distinctively Christian about belief in immortality. Many religions – and many people with little or no religion – believe in the survival of the soul, the Greek philosophy that regards immortality as an inherent attribute of the human spirit. This is not what eternal life is about. 

As Christians, we either have to talk about Christian immortality, or restrict ourselves to the term eternal life. Eternal life is not the natural wish for survival, or that somehow there is something about us that lives on after we die. Eternal life is the gift of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ and made real by his resurrection. It is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise, “Because I live you will live also.”

In Jesus, God completed his mighty work of incarnation and redemption. In Jesus, we can have eternal life.

“No mere man has ever seen, heard or even imagined what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord” (1 Cor 2:9 LB).  Keep that in mind as you move into the future. We are not victims – either of circumstances or of death. The promise of the resurrection and the hope for eternal life makes us victors. Our relationship to God on earth will determine our relationship to Him in eternity.

This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Because He lives, we will live also.