I went to Israel about 10 years ago. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (shown above), which houses the traditional place of Jesus’ crucifixion and His burial tomb, I overheard a priest say to his tour group, “I don’t know what eternal life is, but I would like to think that it has something to do with being remembered.” This admission and glaring error shocked me. I want you to know very clearly what is meant by “eternal life”.
First, we must make a distinction between “eternal existence” and “eternal life”. God made a few creatures to have eternal existence. To my knowledge from the Bible these include: Seraphim/Cherubim (same thing different names), Angels/Demons (same thing but the latter is in rebellion against God), and human beings. You won’t cease to exist. Your body will die but you will find yourself in another body in another place (not Earth). This has been true of you since conception, and there is no way to opt out.
Because of our rebellion against God and the sin that is enshrined in our DNA, our eternal existence would naturally be first in Sheol (use the search box above to look for articles on Sheol), and then after Judgment Day in Gehenna, which we commonly refer to as Hell. Nobody should call such an existence “life”, and the Bible doesn’t.
Jesus’ life, forsakeness, death and resurrection are for the purpose of taking us from such a fate and giving to us instead “eternal life”. If the first temptation is thinking that life equals existence, the second is to think that eternal life begins at our physical death. Look at the following Bible passages:
47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
John 6:47 (ESV)
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 3:36 (ESV)
And to the question of “what is eternal life?”, we have this:
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
John 17:3 (ESV)
It certainly sounds like eternal life is something that we have already, if we have belief. Belief is not simply believing that Jesus is real. Like a person could believe in ghosts. It is believing the story of Jesus to be historical and factual and it is trusting in the promise connected to Jesus of forgiveness of sins. These are what I call “first-level” proofs that you are connected to Jesus and have eternal life. They are not exactly the cause of eternal life. The cause of our receiving eternal life is all that Jesus did and the existence of a bond that Jesus forms between us and Himself. This “bond” or “connection” is not cognitive like belief is, it is not emotional, for lack of better words it is mystical. Theologians call it the “mystical union”. Read more about this here:https://givingchrist.com/2024/10/01/understanding-jesus-prayer-for-unity-in-john-17/
Once that connection is made and as long as that connection is viable, we have eternal life. Having this connection is “knowing” the only true God. Being united with Christ has evidence but you don’t feel it like you might feel a part of your body. The existence of eternal life in you will be much more obvious when your physical body dies. Heaven is the place you would go first if you have eternal life. The experience we will have there will be glorious. If you want to know more about Heaven, use the search bar in my blog above. I have written numerous articles on that.
You can’t quite say eternal life is life in Heaven. That is part of eternal life. It is life now connected with Jesus, life in Heaven, and life in the New Earth post Judgment Day. It is a package. A great package that we did not deserve, but is offered freely to us.
How sad it is to not know eternal life. I hope the priest in my opening story found out. I hope you do as well.
afterdeathsite 