Key Verse: "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."
- 1 John 5:11 KJV
Eternal Life is God’s kind of life. It is eternal because He is eternal. Nothing will ever separate the believer in Christ from the One who loves us. He gave us His free gift of eternal life the very moment we were born spiritually, and it can never be lost (John 3:15-16, 36; 6:47; 10:28). It is a life without end, and no one can ever take it from you. There are no final boundaries to eternal life.
We enter into that life transforming vital union with Him when we responded to His love and believed on Him (1 John 5:11).
The beauty of this new life in Christ is that Christ has so joined Himself to us that we are to go on receiving this life He gives in increasing abundance throughout eternity. The Scriptures tell us that God has promised to enlarge our spiritual capacities until the full life of the infinite Christ is reproduced in us. We are gradually being conformed to His image and likeness.
The life God gives us the moment we believe in Christ is the same life that we will be living with Him in eternity. God has already imparted to the believer in Christ the life of the age to come. Eternal life is already a present blessing available to everyone who submits to Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). The new life is life “in the Spirit,” or “in Christ.” Jesus used metaphors to describe this new life He gives (Jn. 4:14; 6:35-40; 11:25-26; 15:5, etc).
Eternal life or spiritual life is a state of regeneration and fellowship with God (Jn. 3:15-16, 36; 5:24; 6:47). The relationship is eternal, not temporal.
Jesus defined it when he said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (Jn. 17:3). It is knowing God and having fellowship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Eternal life is knowing the only true God personally through His Son. It is having a personal intimate continuous relationship with Him through faith in Christ. We do not earn eternal life; it is a free gift received when we admit we are sinners, repent and believer in Christ alone.
The opposite of this life in Christ is to be “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). To be in the need of eternal life is to be in the state of being unsaved, lost, and condemned. However, those who have eternal life are saved and they have eternal assurance of this salvation (John 3:15-16, 18, 36; 5:24; 10:9, 28-30; 1 Jn. 5:12-13).
When do you take possession of eternal life? Eternal life, even for the elect of God, is a gift which becomes yours when you exercise faith in Christ (Eph. 2:1, 5). It is identified with the new birth or regeneration. When we believe in Christ as our Savior we receive this new life in Christ.
Therefore, eternal life is the work of the Holy Spirit at the moment of faith in Christ (Jn. 3:3-7; Titus 3:5). It is to be identified with the life which is in Christ (Jn. 5:21; 2 Cor. 5:17; 1 Jn. 5:12).
Eternal life is imparted to us as a new birth (Jn. 1:13; 3:3). It is also described as a spiritual resurrection (Col. 3:1; Rom. 6:13; Jn. 5:25). “Old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). Our new life has a new nature. The very nature of eternal life and the new birth forbid the reversal of the spiritual birth. You cannot become unborn spiritually because God performs it. Once accomplished it continues for eternity. You cannot cease to be His child.
We receive a new supernatural life when we become children of God by means of the new birth. The origination of the eternal life comes into the believer at the moment of faith in Christ. In that moment there is an instantaneous change form a state of spiritual death to a state of eternal spiritual life.
The apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:5, God has “made us alive together with Christ.” The reception of eternal life is all together a supernatural act of God in response to the faith of the individual.
How do you live this eternal life today? You live it in the power of the Giver of life. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20). That life in Christ is available to you in all its purity and strength if you will feed upon Him.
Eternal life is given only to those who respond to His love and grace. Have you believed on Him? Will you receive His free gift of life right now?
Because we were all dead in trespasses and sins, God sent Jesus Christ to give us new life. Jesus bore the penalty of our sins on the tree. Your gift has already been paid in full. This is why all you need to do is receive it by faith in Christ.
