Eternal Life -- What is It?

Joh 17:1-3  After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time 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 may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.  NIV

When most people hear the phrase "eternal life" they think either of living forever without physically dying or perhaps the life people may have in heaven.

These three verses from the 17th chapter of the gospel of John tell us a couple of things that Jesus said about eternal life. In my previous post I wrote how the first chapter of this gospel states that Jesus is God come in the flesh.

In these 3 verses Jesus tells that the Father has given Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those who had been given Him. So according to this passage, if anyone is going to have eternal life he or she can only get it from Jesus.

To me the following verse is even more amazing. Verse 3 tells us what eternal life is. It doesn't say that eternal life is living a physical life that never ends. It doesn't even say that eternal life is going to heaven to spend eternity. It says that eternal life is knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ, who was sent by the one true God.

Let's consider for a moment how Jesus Christ was sent. In the previous post Jesus was shown to be the One known as the Word who was always with God, and was God, and who made all things that were made. This One known as the Word became a flesh, a real human being, who was born and grew up, and, at at the appointed time, was put to death as the Lamb of God, sacrificed for our sins. His sacrifice on the cross provided the way for the one true God who is altogether holy to thoroughly forgive and cleanse us of sins because Jesus paid the penalty for them.

Only what Jesus did redeems us from our sins. Only what the Father sent the Son to do is sufficient for us to be forgiven and granted a relationship with Him that will last forever.

We can only have eternal life when we know God the Father and also God the Son, Jesus Christ. Without a knowing relationship with Jesus Christ, we don't get the life that only the Son can give. If you want eternal life you need to know Jesus.

Once you know Him as Lord and as Savior you should seek to know Him more. We should seek to know all that it means for Him to be our Lord and Savior. We should learn more how to please Him. To do that we need to know what He makes known to us in Scripture.

The Bible is unlike any other book. If you know what is in every other book but, but don't know what is in the Bible you could spend eternity wishing you had taken the time to lean what God wants us to know about Himself and how to have the eternal life that can come with knowing Him.