Eternal Life

Here’s a simple definition: Eternal life is being adopted into God’s forever family. Thinking of it this way conveys a number of things that are true about eternal life.

1. Eternal life is liberating. Eternal life means God forgives you, He accepts you, and He brings you into His family. You’re liberated from the penalty of your sin (John 5:24).
2. Eternal life is also relational. When you receive the gift of eternal life by faith, you enter into a new life in relationship to God. By His grace and love, you’re adopted into His family. And as a child, you have the privilege of getting to know your heavenly Father. You have the opportunity to enjoy a personal relationship with your Lord (John 1:12).
3. Eternal life is also secure. It can’t be lost. Once God adopts you, you will always be a part of His family. You may struggle with obeying your heavenly Father, and He may discipline you as His child, but God will never disown you. So, once you have eternal life, you can’t lose it. It’s secure (John 10:27-29).
4. Eternal life is also dynamic. It’s not only something that is received as a gift at the moment you believe, it is also an ongoing life that you live as a child in the family of God. Once you’re adopted in God’s forever family, the Father expects you grow up and experience eternal life in all its fullness through things like prayer, obedience, Bible intake, worship, and fellowship with other members of God’s forever family. Eternal life is a dynamic growth process entered into by faith (John 10:10; 17:3).

Eternal life is also present. It’s not just about getting to heaven in the future, although it certainly includes that. It is a life in God’s forever family that is possessed now by the believer. So the Christian life is eternal life. If you are a believer, you are living the eternal life right now (John 6:47), and the life you live now has a vital bearing on the heavenly rewards you will receive in the life to come.