We take it on faith that, because of the salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ, we have eternal life. My idea about eternal life had to do with living forever, avoiding the condemnation of sin leading to death. And that is certainly one aspect of redemption. As the apostle John points out, “…the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). However, eternal life was available to humans before sin entered the world. The Tree of Life stood at the center of the Garden. So, the fruit of that tree, which was eternal life, must have had some greater significance.
Jesus prayed, in the opening verses of John 17, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Jesus makes it clear that there is more to eternal life than merely living forever.
For one thing, eternal life has to do with belonging. Jesus dispensed eternal life into all who had been given to him by the Father. Jesus had become the Tree of Life for us. Why did God see fit to mark us out to receive eternal life from the Son? I don’t have an answer to that question. It seems, however, that we had this connection before we were even aware of it.
God not only knew us, He also made Himself known to us in the person of Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus says that our knowing the Father and the Son in an intimate, experiential way is eternal life. It is divine life flowing through us like the life of the vine flowing through its branches. It is the product of being, and remaining, joined to the source of that life. That life does not exist for its own sake but for a purpose. The branches of the vine quite naturally bear fruit corresponding to the life that is in the vine. We who have eternal life display the characteristics of Jesus Christ among Christians and in the world.
Ultimately, eternal life is engaged with God’s eternal purpose. Consider two events from the earthly life of Jesus. Event One: his parents lost track of him after the feast of Passover, when he was twelve years old. After three days of searching, they found him in the temple. When his mother asked him to explain his behavior, he replied, “Didn’t you know that I would be about my Father’s affairs [or, involved in my Father’s work]?” (Luke 2:41-52). Event Two: early in his ministry Jesus cleansed the temple of merchants and moneychangers. This event reminded his disciples of the saying from Psalm 69, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2:17).
Eternal life isn’t only for the future. As the Father’s life was evident through Jesus’s dedication to the Father’s purpose, so his life can be made visible through our devotion to that same purpose. That’s how we can experience the reality of eternal life in the present. T. Austin-Sparks noted that “to be in the full, comprehensive will of God with purpose, it is necessary for us to have no purpose of our own,” defining Christianity as “being caught up in the eternal going of the eternal God in Christ by the Holy Spirit” [The Will of God in Relation to His People, part 3: “Seeing the Lord”]. Likewise, if zeal for His purpose has consumed us, we are incapable of zeal for anything else. Eternal life is the life we have in Jesus Christ. It will be apparent in us more and more as we are transformed.
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