“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. As in, “If you were to die tonight, do you know for certain that you have eternal life, that you would go to heaven when you die?”

Others would say eternal life is that glorious sense of having the burden of guilt lifted off their backs, together with the knowledge they are forgiven, and, of course, that they’re going to heaven when they die.

Still 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. “Jesus accepts me just as I am.”

All these are or may be aspects of eternal life, but in themselves they mean almost nothing.

For in its essence, eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ. Apart from the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, there is no eternal life.

You might feel totally guilt-free and certain that you’re going to heaven when you die. But if you do not know God and Jesus Christ, you’re deceiving yourself.

What’s in view in the matter of eternal life is a relationship – deeply personal and intimate, continuous, mysterious, immersed in glory, and bearing fruit in a life of glorifying God in even the smallest details of everyday existence.

Eternal life is dwelling each day and every moment in the very presence of God through Jesus Christ the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Nothing other is eternal life but Jesus Christ, 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.

Psalm 16.5, 6, 11 (All to Christ: “Jesus Paid It All”)
My portion and my cup are You, my Savior dear;
You help and hold me up and ever keep me near.
Help me know life’s way! Pleasures fill Your hand;
Fill my life with joy each day! Before Your face I stand.

Thank You, Lord, for the gift of eternal life. Help me to live it to the full!