Eternal Life

"Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."

-- John 17:1-5

We make much of eternal life - it is, perhaps the most enticing benefit of the Christian faith. But I wonder, sometimes, if we make much of a misunderstanding of what eternal life is. Jesus says that, “This is eternal life, that they may know You (God the Father), the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” When we think of eternal life we most often think of heaven, living forever in some form of resurrected bodies, free from pain and suffering. But that is not how Jesus describes eternal life. Eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ our savior. 

In that sense, eternal life is not something that happens at some point in the future, eternal life is something that we should have now. If I know the Father and I know the Son, then I have eternal life. Jesus does not say, “this will be eternal life,” he says, “this is eternal life.” 

If we understand this, we might also look at 1 John a little differently. In 1 John we are told that if we claim to know God, but live in darkness, than we really don’t know him. If we don’t know him, we don’t have eternal life, not now, not ever. John explains further in his letter that someone who does not obey the commands of God and the teachings of Jesus, does not know the Father or the Son. Even more specifically, someone who does not love his brother, does not know God. 

We should be careful to understand that 1 John is not laying out requirements for us to inherit eternal life, he is simply stating how the evidence of eternal life, already inherited, should look in our lives. Living in the light is evidence that you have eternal life. Obeying the commands of Christ is evidence of eternal life. Love for your brother, is evidence of eternal life. If you are banking on eternal life as a future event, than you have missed one of the most amazing points of the gospel message. If you think that you will inherit eternal life in the future without showing evidence that you have already inherited it, than you are thinking quite wrongly and you will be sorely disappointed when Christ is separating the sheep and the goats.