I Believe in the Life Everlasting (John 17:3)

Eternal life is a major biblical theme. It has also been an intense human search – the number of religions points to that attempt. Why do people engage in this search? Some may reply and say that one’s upbringing will cause this search. No doubt that will make a contribution. The Bible gives another answer, which is that God has put eternity into the heart of humans (Eccles. 3:11), and because he has done so they will think about it. But thinking about eternity is not the same as having the life everlasting. 

Since in the human heart there is this awareness accompanied by an inability to find out what it is all about, we need someone authoritative to tell us what it is. The best person to speak about would be the One who possesses it, and that would be God. Obviously, God could speak about it in many ways, but the primary way by which he chose to speak about it was to become a man. So in Bethlehem, about two thousand years ago, one was born who was both God and man.

 

Of course, people before then had thought about revealed truth and realised that there was a link between the promised Messiah and endless life. Job, whom we quoted with regard to the resurrection, recognised this connection. Abraham too looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. They are only samples of many who believed in the coming promised Deliverer. One day, he came, and a brighter day dawned as far as the understanding of eternal life is concerned.

 

Jesus spoke about eternal life in his teaching. For example, he said that he gave unto his sheep eternal life and that they would never perish, a reference to another form of eternal existence. He also described himself as the Resurrection and the Life, that he would enable those who trust in him to live forever. And he also defined what eternal life is when he said that it was to know God and himself (John 17:3). He did not only say that faith in him was the way to eternal life, but he stated that knowing him and God the Father was the meaning of eternal life. 

 

Taking that last reference, we can deduce that eternal life is connected to the doctrine of adoption because that is what is meant in the Bible as knowing God the Father. We can also see that eternal life is connected to contact with Jesus in some way or ways. 

 

Adoption

In Romans 8, Paul says that believers are waiting for the adoption which he says means the resurrection of our bodies. Although believers become members of God’s family when they trust in Jesus for the first time and receive numerous blessings connected to that state, there is obviously an aspect of it that is not fully experienced until they reach their resurrected state. No doubt there are several blessings connected to that time, but I will mention four.

 

First, the time of receiving this aspect of our redemption is the second coming of Jesus. When that day comes, believers will be given their inheritance. They are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus and in Romans 8 Paul connects the inheritance with the deliverance of the groaning creation. The inheritance is the new heavens and new earth. While we do not know what it will look like, we know that the inheritance is the location where eternal life will be experienced. 

 

Second, the role of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of adoption will be enlarged. At present, we know him in the manner Paul describes in Ephesians 1 when he says that the Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. The apostle means that the Spirit is the down payment and guarantee that believers will receive the inheritance. If the new heavens and new earth is the location of enjoying eternal life, then the Holy Spirit will be the communicator of that life (this is illustrated in Revelation 22 with its description of the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb throughout the heavenly city and saturating the inhabitants with his life).

 

Third, the doctrine of adoption is a reminder that the heavenly experience is a family experience. The eternity to come is not about a large number of individuals living in isolation with God. Rather they spend eternity with the people of God. So while all of them will be fully dependent on the Holy Spirit, they will be dependent together. However eternal life will be expressed, it will be expressed with and to the people of God. Psalm 133 will have its ultimate fulfilment in the eternal world.

 

Fourth, we are told by the author of Hebrews that there will be a great family occasion when Jesus will say to the Father, ‘Behold, I and the children whom you gave me.’  The Father gave them to him in the past eternity and here they are about to spend the future eternity in the Father’s presence. The presence of the Father is not geographical in the sense that it only happens within a particular spot. Rather, we will always be conscious of just being there. And that is part of the life everlasting.

 

With Jesus

There are numerous verses in the Bible that say that in the eternal state believers will be with Jesus. For example, in John 14 Jesus speaks of the heavenly experience as living in the Father’s house with many rooms. He then says about that reality: ‘And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also’ (John 14:3). Paul describes the return of Jesus when he writes to the Thessalonians and mentions some events that will occur. After they have taken place, he says that believers will ‘always be with the Lord’ (1 Thess. 4:17).

 

Since they are going to be with Jesus, it is logical to wonder what he and they will be doing together. 

 

Missing conversation topics

We can start by thinking about the conversation they will not have. The interaction will not involve confession of sin, which is a huge change from the way that they have communion with him in this life. Virtually everything we say to Jesus in this life is a confession of sin in some way. But that will not happen in the life everlasting. 

 

Nor will there be any prayers for protection from the temptations of the devil. Who knows how many temptations come their way each day and they usually ask for divine help when that happens? But the devil will never tempt them again, his existence will never bother them again. He causes no disruption in their experience of the life everlasting.

 

Nor will they have times of puzzlement over aspects of divine providence. In this life, they often wonder why some things are allowed by heaven. Although there will be many surprises in the world to come, there will not be any fear. The horizon will always be full of pleasures which they could not begin to appreciate in this life even if such came their way for a brief time.

 

Shepherding

The apostle John recorded a wonderful vision of the life everlasting in Revelation 7. Among other features of its wonder he says this about living there with Jesus: ‘For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes’ (Rev. 7:17). What are we told here about the life everlasting?

 

One detail is that the shepherding is part of the kingship of Jesus because he will perform this role from the ‘midst of the throne’. Second, all of the sheep will follow him, so it will be a shared activity. Third, it is described in a manner that suggests that it is a constant activity, which must mean that there is an endless supply of blessings in the location to which he takes the sheep. Fourth, the place to where they go is the ‘springs of living water’, which is a description of God. What better guide could we have than the One who is both God and man, who understands both the Deity and the sheep! By the shepherding of Jesus, through the endless ages, we will discover and rejoice in the infinite extraordinariness of God. Who can say what that will be, apart from saying that it is the life everlasting?

 

Overcoming

Another set of verses that describe aspects of the life everlasting is composed of the promises that Jesus made to the overcomers mentioned in the letters to the seven churches of Asia. Some of them describe ongoing experiences. We can mention them briefly.

 

To the overcomers in Ephesus Jesus promised: ‘To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God’ (Rev. 1:7). Jesus is the tree of life in the heavenly garden who produces constant fruit that will be sweet to the taste of the perfected people of God.

 

To the overcomers in Smyrna Jesus promised: ‘The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death’ (Rev. 2:11). In a sense the meaning is obvious. The inhabitants of heaven will not know the awfulness of a lost eternity.

 

To the overcomers in Pergamum Jesus said: ‘To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it’ (Rev. 2:17). The basic meaning here is individual secrecy, which suggests that each believer will receive personal attention from Jesus in the eternal world, attention that will be unique for each of the billions who will be there.

 

To the overcomers in Thyatira Jesus said: ‘The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star’ (Rev. 2:26-28). Jesus refers to two features here: first, believers will share the position of judging with Jesus. Paul refers to the saints judging the world, which is place of high honour. Second, they will be given the morning star, which is a reference to Jesus, the bright morning star. The morning star in the sky indicates that day is coming – in the eternal world he will indicate that day is continuing.

 

To the overcomers in Sardis Jesus said: ‘The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels’ (Rev. 3:5). This points to purity (white robes) and permanence (always in the city register). Jesus also mentions his pleasure at confessing that they are his before the heavenly court.

 

To the overcomers in Sardis: ‘The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name’ (Rev. 3:12). Here Jesus says that they will have endless stability in and access to the city of God because they will always be the possession of the Father and the Son.

 

To the overcomers in Laodicea Jesus says: ‘The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne’ (Rev. 3:21). Although we don’t deserve the reward that Jesus received for his victory, he will share it with his people as he and they reign over the new world.

 

So the life everlasting is the experiential knowledge of the Father and the Son through their involvement in the lives of their people forever. We say a lot when we say, ‘I believe in the life everlasting.’ Thinking about it is comforting and consoling because it is certain.