When I was younger the big focus on Christianity seemed to be on eternal life. First, it was getting it – getting your boarding pass for the next level of living. After you’ve got that down, you have to make that eternal life even sweeter by ‘storing up treasures in heaven,’ to make life comfortable once you’ve died and moved on. Scripture seems to suggest this: in various verses Jesus advises people to “receive” (Mt 19:29) or “inherit” (Lk 10:25) it, people “endure” to it (Jn 6:27), and people “shall have” (Jn 3:16, 6:40) it in the future. Jude 1:21 admonishes believers to “wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life,” showing that in the future we will receive this idea.
Really, if you think that eternal life after death is important, it seems like a valuable lesson in perspective. Life as we see it right now fades away quickly, and since eternal life is, well, eternal, it seems like a good investment of time to make that stage in life as good as it can be. I learned a lot living that way, but I’ve been thinking recently that there might be more to this existence than waiting around here, making sure my bags are packed for that next stage.
Eternal life is taken as a synonym for future, unending life. It begins upon a person’s conversion, and from there it goes on forever. But, I think the implications of “eternal life” go beyond simply the far-and-away.
Webster (actually, only dictionary.com) says the primary definition of “eternal” is:
“without beginning or end; lasting forever; always existing (opposed to temporal).”
(one note – I don’t know Greek, so I can’t refer to what the text actually says, so I’m using English definitions with possibly misleading connotations. Perhaps, if I ever become more educated, I might be able to come back and address this. Perhaps not.)
Anyway, it seems like I’ve always had the “without end” part down, but I’ve never stopped and considered that I’ve been leaving out half of the story. Since eternity is also “without beginning,” the eternal life that we gain when we become sons and daughters of God applies to the whole spectrum of time.
Scriptures also hint that the “eternal life” the Bible talks about goes beyond this future-only interpretation:
- John 17:3 – “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent,” suggesting that much of the character of eternal life is knowing God – something we can begin to do in earnest right here, right now.
- John 6:54 – “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day,” saying we have life now, and that we will also be raised again as well.
- 1 John 3:15 – “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him [emphasis mine].” So, eternal life is present as a kind of reality within us (now), and it in some way also affects how we relate to and interact with other people.
So, eternal life means that our future have incredible significance, but so does our present, here and now. And, I’m thinking now that eternal reality also has some root in our past, as well. It involves and transforms the entirety of our beings: our past stories & histories, painful and hard as they may be; the current problems and realities we face; and future hopes and longings that will make so many wrongs we face ultimately good again.
In the future I’ll write a bit about each dimension, and why thinking with this “eternal” perspective might have some significance towards understanding ourselves & our past, the present here & now (what we may supposed to be doing now), and our glorious future.
Posted by ericlange 
