Life

ETERNAL LIFE

Bill Boyd  

        Man was made for eternal life. This life was his in the beginning, but when man chose sin, the life he had in Eden was taken from him and spiritually, he was dead (Gen. 2-3). The life that was lost in the garden is restored in Christ. “In him was life” John said (John 1:4), and Jesus said “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). 

        There is a sense in which eternal life is spoken of as a future reward for “the righteous” (Matt. 25:46) that they will receive “in the world to come” (Mark 10:30), and therefore “he that soweth of the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6:8). In this sense the righteous have eternal life in promise. Jesus died that “they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Heb. 9:15). 

“This is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life” (1 John 2:25). Therefore we have eternal life in hope. Paul wrote to Titus “in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2) and told him that being justified by grace we are made “heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7). 

        But there is more to eternal life than eternal existence. Having been made spiritual beings in the image of God we will all exist eternally, but for some, this will be “eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:46).

 The eternal life Christ brings to us is not just eternal in duration, but it is also eternal in its qualities. The eternal qualities of eternal life are the qualities of the spiritual life we now have in Christ. That is why some passages speak of eternal life as a present possession. “God hath given to us eternal life,” John wrote, “and this life is in his Son” (John 5:11). “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). Jesus himself said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). 

        God hath blessed us with “All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). These spiritual blessings include the fellowship we have with God (1 John 1:3), the love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts (Rom. 5:5), the joy unspeakable and full of glory that comes by love and faith (1 Peter 1:8), the peace of God which passeth understanding (Phil. 4:7), the love of the brethren (1 John 3:14), and all the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). These blessings are eternal in nature and they constitute the eternal qualities of our spiritual life in Christ. 

        Someday we will physically die and leave all our temporal earthly blessings behind, but the eternal spiritual blessings we have in Christ will remain ours in eternity. This is what Jesus was speaking of when he said to Martha, “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:26); and, this is what Paul was writing about when he wrote in 1 Timothy 4:8, “Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

                wmhbody@aol.com
                647 Finger Bluff Rd.
                Morrison, TN 37357