What is Eternal Life?

Because of sin, no person has the innate ability to relate to God as father. The ultimate and only solution was provided by Jesus through His death on the cross whereby He paid for the sins of all humanity and enabled anyone to obtain eternal life—everlasting life with God. Any person who places her or his faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord obtains eternal life.

Read the detailed article on which this post is based.

Physical and spiritual death came upon the entire world through the disobedience of our ancestors, Adam and Eve, to God’s simple command in the Garden of Eden. Thereafter, every person born into the world was deficient—without a relationship with God. Before Jesus came into the earth, God received any person who would come into a relationship with Him by faith and counted them as righteous if they maintained their faith in Him. Those who reject God’s invitation remain eternally separated from Him by their own choice and go to hell for eternal punishment after death.
God, however, had a plan conceived already before the world existed that would provide a superior way of relating to humanity. It was to have Jesus Christ, in the form of God the Son, completely God and completely human, take the place of all humanity and suffer the consequences of sin. By offering His own perfect life as a natural-born human being, dying on the cross and shedding His blood, He satisfied God’s requirement for justice as a complete payment for all the sins of humanity.

While the sacrifice of Jesus Christ took place on earth, its ratification took place in heaven. After His resurrection, Jesus carried His own blood to heaven and placed it on the heavenly mercy seat, which fully satisfied God as a full payment for all our sins—past, present, and future—before we even come to Him. The staggering reality of God’s offer of forgiveness to all humanity can, however, only be realized by individual faith in the finished work and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When people genuinely place their faith in Jesus Christ for eternal life, the Holy Spirit recreates their spirits, and they are, in the words of Jesus, “born again.”

Being born again is a spiritual experience taking place in the heart. It is possible for people to have an experience that is primarily intellectual, devoid of the Holy Spirit, that they misconstrue as salvation, which it is not. To be born again genuinely, a person must come to God with a penitent heart, as opposed to giving mere intellectual assent to the concept. Saying a salvation prayer as a ticket to heaven, for example, does not result in eternal salvation. Only God can judge the hearts of people as to whether they have come to Him in genuine repentance.

Paul instructed the people in the Corinthian church to examine themselves to see whether they were, indeed, in the faith. Paul’s concern revolved around the fact that many in the Corinthian church had not given up the sinful practices from before they were born again. Self-examination has the pitfall of becoming self-condemnation, but “… there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (1 John 3:20 NLT). For this reason, we should pray like David: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24 ASV).

If we fail to understand and accept the true nature of the eternal life that God offers us and we allow the realization of sin in our lives to condemn us, we can easily lose the confidence that we are, indeed, saved. The Bible, however, is clear on the fact that we can “know that we have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

As we have seen, obtaining God’s life is not automatic even though every person has been qualified for it by Jesus Christ. Just as Adam and Eve’s disobedience was a deliberate choice, so every person’s obtaining God’s eternal life must be a deliberate choice. Jesus Christ made eternal life abundantly plain when he said to the Jewish religious leader, Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). Being “born again” is the most amazing and important experience that any person can possibly have. This occurs when a person places her or his trust completely in Jesus Christ as the giver of eternal life and Lord of everything. This act requires faith—true belief, not just intellectual agreement—and a deliberate choice by means of a verbal declaration, which is, in fact, a prayer of acceptance. The words of this prayer are not an incantation, and they are not a set recipe. They should, however, communicate a heartfelt acceptance of eternal life as provided through Jesus Christ. Below is a model declaration prayer for accepting Jesus Christ.
Say this prayer to God the Father out loud to receive your salvation now:

Dear God, I believe that Jesus Christ took my sin upon Himself on the cross, that You raised Him from the dead, and that His blood paid for all my sins. I accept the forgiveness of all my sins and the eternal life that You have offered me. Jesus is now my Savior and Lord. Thank-you for accepting me as your child. Amen.