I Believe in Eternal Life

In this final clause of the Apostles' Creed we find a summary of the Christian's great hope - that this earthly life is not all that there is. But the question must be asked, "Why should anyone want to live for ever? Is life so wonderful, with its problems and its pains, its disappointments and griefs?" Certainly there are many people who would do anything to live forever and, at the same time, many who would hate the idea. As this body in which we live grows older it also tends to grow weaker. The idea of living in this frail shell constantly getting older and weaker is certainly not one which appeals to me. So why say, as I do in the first sentence of this article, that Eternal Life is the Christian's great hope?

Not Quantity but Quality

For the Christian, Eternal Life is not simply a statement of quantity - it means more than just living forever. The expression, "Eternal Life" carries with it a concept of a quality of life not known, only guessed at. Eternal Life is a very different life from the temporal existence known to us now - and yet there is a sense in which those who have received Christ, have been "born again", have already entered into that new quality of life. Not that it is possible to attain the fulness of the promise in the here and now but we do have, as the hymn writer so aptly put it, "a foretaste of glory divine." We live in the overlap between time and eternity, between the age that is now and the age that is to come.

An Eternal God

While in this life we are bound in time and in space, the God who made us is an Eternal and boundless being. He designed us to be like himself. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness'" (Gen 1:26). It is reasonable, then, to believe that God intends us for Eternity in which time and its ravages are put behind us. John tells us that Jesus is, himself, Eternal Life, and therefore has the authority to pass that life on to those who are his own.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
(1 John 1:1-2)
For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. (John 5:26)
In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:4)

Born Again

If we may receive this Eternal Life now, and we receive it from Jesus, then how is it given to us? Jesus gives us the simple, yet profound, answer in his conversation with Nicodemus. "Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.'" (John 3:3) The phrase, "Born Again Christian" has, of course, been grossly misused and can be used divisively to indicate that "if you did not become a Christian in the same way as I did you are not a real Christian". Yet Jesus made it very clear that the only kind of Christian is the Born Again Christian. It is our interpretation of that phrase that has caused problems. The New Birth, however we may receive that wonderful gift from God, is the means whereby we receive Eternal Life. This, indeed, is the reason for which Jesus was sent into the world. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

A New Creation

Paul wrote, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor. 5:17). When we are "born again" we are not simply "converted" we are given new natures - we are new creatures, part of a great New Creation. It is this new nature that is to continue into Eternity. In this life the old nature continually is at war with the new nature to try to regain control for Satan. As we are strengthened in our life with Christ we learn more and more to "crucify" the old nature, to take every thought captive to Christ. It is a sad truth, though, that we are never completely free from our old nature in this life. Yet we are a new creation, we are born again and we do already have eternal life. When the great day comes when Jesus shall return and the dead are raised imperishable, then we shall, at last, be freed from mortality, sin and death and enjoy the fulness of all that is meant by the words "Eternal Life".

(All full biblical quotations in this article are taken from the New International Version and have been inserted into the text using "QuickVerse for Windows" from Parsons Technology .)