“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

   - John 17.3

Wherefore we beseech Thee that we may know the thing we love, since we pray for nothing other than Thyself to be given to us; for Thou art our all, our life, our light, our salvation, our food, our drink, our God.

   - Columbanus, Sermon XIII, Irish, 7th century

There’s a fair amount of confusion among the followers of Christ these days as to the nature of eternal life.

Some consider that eternal life means going to heaven when they die. Others would say it’s that glorious sense of having the burden of guilt lifted off their backs, together with the knowledge they are forgiven.

Others would say, I suppose, that eternal life is the freedom to be themselves in Jesus, and to know they are loved without conditions or constraints.

All these are aspects of eternal life, but in themselves they mean almost nothing. For there is no eternal life apart from the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ.

What’s in view here is a relationship – deeply personal and intimate, continuous, mysterious, immersed in wonder, suffused with grace, and leading to a life of glorifying God in even the smallest details. Eternal life is dwelling in the very presence of God through Jesus Christ the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing other is eternal life but the fullness of God, meeting all our needs, satisfying our every desire, filling us with the joy of His presence, drawing us into participation in His glory, transforming us soul and body, living His life out through us to the praise of the glory of His grace, preparing a place where we will dwell with Him forever, and filling our lives with meaning and mission in the here and now.

You cannot have eternal life except you know God; and if you know God and Jesus Christ, you will know eternal life increasingly, in all its glorious fullness and wonder.

Don’t minimize or diminish the idea of eternal life. Yes, be glad to be forgiven. And do, indeed, rejoice that you are going to heaven. These are wonderful blessings and byproducts.

But the reality – the here-and-now and ever-hereafter reality – of eternal life is that you know God, Whom to know is to fear – oh, yes, fear – but to love and serve and enjoy every moment of your life.

Psalm 91.14-16 (Lauda Anima: “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”)
Save us, Lord! We love You only; set us up secure on high!
You we know, on You we call in trouble: Hear us when we cry!
Show us Your salvation, let long life forever satisfy!