“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:1-3)
When we read the New Testament, we frequently come across the promise that those who trust in Jesus will be given "eternal life." For many, this does not elicit excitement because we read it as meaning eternal existence. "Yippee, I get to exist forever," our inner thoughts may say. Depending on how happy or depressed we may be on any given day, annihilation (ceasing to exist) may or may not sound half bad and a better alternative to unending existence.
But the promise to us for "eternal life" in Christ is not merely unending existence. In fact, every human and angelic being will exist forever, including those separated from God in hell, as Jesus refers to hell as "eternal fire" (Matthew 18:8) and "eternal punishment" (Matthew 24:46).
So it is not existence, or "being alive" in the sense of being a fully conscious creature, that is the particular blessing of "eternal life." Perhaps a better understanding comes from a common English phrase of enjoyment: "This is the life!"
When someone says, "This is the life," they are saying that the quality, enjoyment and fulfillment of their current situation are what they wish living could always be, or what it should always be. While this is often used for simple, earthly pleasures, it can help us understand a bit better the promise of "eternal life."
Eternal life in Christ will not only be of unending length but of a quality and happiness that will truly be "the life." Unmixed joy. Unshaken peace. Total satisfaction. Complete fulfillment. Love without mixture and without the slightest fear. And so much more.
Yes, what we are looking forward to in Christ is eternal life, which is really life. So let us be excited about all the good things God the Father has in store for us in Christ Jesus! Eternal happiness makes the little troubles we experience in this brief, momentary earthly life seem like nothing at all.
We have so much to look forward to in Christ Jesus. And when we've been there with Him a thousand years, we'll have no less days to enjoy than when we first began.1
FOOTNOTES
John Newton, “Amazing Grace,” 1779.
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George Müller
