What is Eternal Life?

Because of sin, no person has the innate ability to relate to God as father. Sin is any deliberate disobedience to God’s directions for moral behavior. The ultimate and only solution was pro-vided 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 in heaven. Any person who places her or his faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord obtains eternal life.

1. The Story of Our Eternal Rescue Plan

Our story begins with our ancestors, Adam and Eve, whom God placed in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:15). The state of the earth at that time is hard for us to imagine—perfect in all respects and free of any deterioration or disorder (Gen. 1:31). God told Adam that he could eat the fruit of any tree in the garden except from the tree that produced the ability to know the difference between good and evil. He warned that if Adam and Eve would eat from that tree, it would become certain that they would die (Gen. 2:17, CJB). Satan tempted and deceived Eve and she ate the fruit of the tree. Adam also ate, although he knew better (1 Tim. 2:14). Adam and Eve’s disobedience brought about their eventual physical death and a curse on the entire world. 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 to Him by faith into a relationship and counted them as righteous as long as they maintained their faith in Him (Heb. 11); on the other hand, those who reject God’s invitation remain eternally separated from Him by their own choice and go to hell for eternal punishment after death (Heb. 8:27, Matt. 25:41, Rev. 20:15).

Through Moses, God gave the nation of Israel the Ten Commandments and a system of animal sacrifices to maintain right standing with Him. This was called the Old Covenant; however, God had a far better plan through Jesus Christ that would provide a superior way of relating to His people (Heb. 8:6). This new plan is called the New Covenant.

1.1 Jesus Christ Comes to Earth

The new plan had been conceived by God already before the world existed (1 Pet. 1:19-20). It was the expression of God’s great love for humanity (John 3:16). God’s plan was to have Jesus Christ, in the form of God the Son, yet completely human, take the place of all humanity and suffer the consequences of sin (John 1:14, 2 Cor. 5:21). Because there was only one payment for the sins of humanity throughout all time, there is only one way to come to God, which is through Jesus Christ (John 14:6, 1 Tim. 2:5). God’s rescue plan saves those who come to Him in faith from the hopeless state in which they are born and as such, it is God’s plan of salvation.

Because death came into the earth through Adam and, consequently, the natural tendency to sin, Adam’s bloodline was contaminated, which made it necessary for Jesus to be conceived differently from the rest of humanity. So, Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit by means of sperm that originated from heaven so that He would be uncontaminated by the sin of humanity (Luke 1:35). By offering His own perfect life as a natural-born human being, shedding His own blood, and dying on the cross, He satisfied God’s requirement for justice as a complete payment for all of the sins of humanity. Paul explains that

… our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. (Heb. 10:12-14 NLT)

Paul is saying that those who accept Jesus are “forever made perfect” from heaven’s perspective but “being made holy” progressively from earth’s perspective.

1.2 A Payment That Took Place in Heaven

Few people realize that while the sacrifice of Jesus Christ took place on earth, its ratification took place in heaven. This is because the New Covenant was consummated when Jesus carried His own blood to heaven after His resurrection and placed it on the heavenly mercy seat, and not at the point of His death, or even at His resurrection. This fact is the key distinction between Jesus’ sacrifice and those made by the High Priest in the Old Covenant. Paul describes the significance of this heavenly transaction:

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. (Heb. 9:11-12 NLT)

While the High Priest offered his sacrifice on earth, which he had to repeat every year, Jesus offered His sacrifice in heaven once for all time, making it eternal. This vital fact must be kept in mind in order to understand the permanence of our salvation.

1.3 An Offer Almost Too Good to Believe

Because the sacrifice of Jesus fully satisfied God, it served as a full payment for all of our sins—past, present, and future—even before we come to Him. That is an astounding statement! For this reason, God the Father says that He no longer remembers our sins (Heb. 8:12, 10:17, Jer. 31:34) and that He has removed them as far away as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). In fact, God has completed all that He will ever do to remove the separation between Himself and humanity from the time of Adam and Eve. John explains that Jesus “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2 TPT). The staggering reality of God’s offer of forgiveness to all humanity can, however, only be realized by individual faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31, Eph. 2:8).

2. What Jesus Teaches about Our Salvation

In His teaching about eternal life, Jesus was definitive about what God the Father promised Him:

All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. (John 6:38-40 NIV)

Here, Jesus makes the astounding statement that “none of all” of those who believe in Him will be lost, eternally. Later on, Jesus makes the same point even more strongly:

My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one. (John 10:27-30 NLT)

Jesus’ explanation is as clear and definitive as it could possibly be. Jesus’ “sheep” “will never perish.” And, to answer any possible counter argument ahead of time, Jesus states that “no one can snatch [the believers] from the Father’s hand.” “No one” has no exceptions. It even includes the recipients of salvation! There are many statements in scripture that explain and confirm what Jesus said.

3. What Paul Teaches About Our Salvation

In several places, Paul reveals that at the point of salvation, God takes ownership of us, since we were purchased with a price of infinite worth, namely, the blood of Jesus:

In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory. (Eph. 1:13-14 NLT)

So, our salvation is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit, which, in itself, makes it permanent. His guarantee makes good our redemption, that is, the redemption of our bodies at the resurrection.

4. The Heavenly and Earthly Perspective

As we have seen, from the heavenly perspective, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has no time and no limit attached to it because all things in heaven are eternal. God says that His Word is settled forever in heaven (Ps. 119:89). How does this take place in practice? Paul explains that

Jesus permanently holds his priestly office, since he lives forever and will never have a successor. So he is able to save fully from now throughout eternity, everyone who comes to God through him, because he lives to pray continually for them. (Heb. 7:24-25 TPT)

Ever since then, the Holy Spirit draws all people to God. Jesus said that

He [the Holy Spirit] will come to convict the world of sin, to show the world what has God’s approval, and to convince the world that God judges it. He will convict the world of sin, because people don’t believe in me. (John 16:8-9 GWT).

In other words, the only thing that remains is for people to repent from their sin and their state of unbelief in Jesus and place their trust in him alone for their eternal salvation. When someone obtains eternal salvation, their spirits are recreated by the Holy Spirit and in the words of Jesus, they are “born again.”

5. Putting Salvation into Question

Based on the evidence presented above, it might seem that everyone who claims to be a believer in Jesus Christ after having verbalized a prayer of salvation possesses eternal life regardless of living an unrepentant life of sin. However, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that those who keep on practising grievous sins are not saved:

Now, the effects of the corrupt nature are obvious: illicit sex, perversion, promiscuity, idolatry, drug use, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, angry outbursts, selfish ambition, conflict, factions, envy, drunkenness, wild partying, and similar things. I’ve told you in the past and I’m telling you again that people who do these kinds of things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19-21 GWT)

And, just to leave no doubt,

Don’t you know that wicked people won’t inherit the kingdom of God? Stop deceiving yourselves! People who continue to commit sexual sins, who worship false gods, those who commit adultery, homosexuals, or thieves, those who are greedy or drunk, who use abusive language, or who rob people will not inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. 6:9-10 GWT)

There are many such lists in scripture. Solomon lists seven things that God hates:

There are six things the LORD hates—no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family. (Prov. 6:16-19 NLT)

It is clear in Paul’s writings that “[to] inherit the kingdom of God” is to be qualified for heaven. In the description of the final judgement for unbelievers, the Bible leaves no doubt:

But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. (Rev. 21:8 NLT)

Those who continue to practice these types of sins, despite having prayed the prayer of salvation, need to engage in sober self-examination as to whether their salvation experience was, indeed, genuine. 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, when it is not. A person must come to God with a repentant heart as opposed to merely giving intellectual assent to the concept in order to be genuinely born again. As an example, saying a salvation prayer as a ticket to heaven 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.

5.1. A Big Debate and its Resolution

There is a branch of Christianity that teaches that once a person is saved, then their salvation is guaranteed no matter what they do in life thereafter. Another branch of Christianity teaches that if a person leads a life of unconfessed sin after having professed salvation, they lose their salvation. The Bible clearly resolves this division, as we will now see.

Paul warns in his first letter to Timothy that “… the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons” (1 Tim. 4:1 NLT). Jesus also warns that many who appear to be believers are not:

Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ (Matt. 7:21-23 NLT)

Both Jesus and John make it plain that people who “depart from the faith” were never genuine believers. John, in referring to those embracing the antichrist spirit, states that “These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise, they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us” (1 John 2:19 NLT).

So, what is the mark of being a genuine believer, as opposed to being someone who has only given God lip-service? First, a repentant heart shows that we are living out a genuine faith, because “[i]f we confess our sins to [God], he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9 NLT). Second, and most important, the ultimate mark of genuine salvation is to endure in the faith until the end of life. Scripture states this several times:

For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. (Heb. 3:14 NLT)

Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off. (Rom. 11:22 NLT)

It is clear that those who fall into sin and do not depart from it were never genuinely saved, and, even for readers who might not accept this scriptural interpretation, the end result is the same: those who do not repent of a life of grievous unconfessed sin and who do not continue lifelong in the faith are not saved, but, on the other hand, those who have a genuine conversion experience will not continue living a life of sin and will, certainly, be saved.

6. Self-examination

Paul instructed the people in the Corinthian church to examine themselves to see whether they were, indeed, in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). 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 (2 Cor. 12:21). Self-examination has the pitfall of becoming self-condemnation; however, “… there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1 NLT), and “even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything” (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).

Self-examination with reliance on the Holy Spirit softens our conscience so that we desire to live a holy life. Our response to the realization of sin in our lives should be to repent—that is, to admit to God that we “blew it” and to receive the forgiveness that He offers (1 John 1:9).

6.1 Assurance of Our Salvation

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 already seen, the “eternal life” that the Bible speaks of is certain and irrevocable. Our assurance arises from receiving the understanding of and faith in the Word through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, for “the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom. 8:16 NIV). This assurance is so powerful that it nullifies any fear of not being able to “endure until the end.”

7. Biblical Examples of Salvation

The simplest example of salvation occurs when the panic-stricken Philippian jailer comes to Paul and Silas and begs, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30 NLT). Paul replies, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31 NLT). Accepting Jesus Christ for salvation is so simple! Simply accept Him for who He is—not just intellectually, but in your heart. In his letter to the Romans, Paul describes how to be saved:

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. (Rom. 10:9-10 NLT)

Every person who receives Jesus Christ as Savior is at a different place in terms of scriptural know-ledge. Some have virtually none. Whatever they express in their response to Jesus’ invitation must communicate repentance and belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and it must come from their heart. It is important to note that the scriptural examples of salvation require repentance—in other words, a change of mind and direction, and receiving forgiveness of sins, which are already paid in heaven. This last point is vitally important. We must be completely dependent on Jesus to perform all that could ever be done for our salvation. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8 NIV). The reader may find it useful to think of God’s offer of forgiveness as a check which must be cashed or deposited by the recipient in order to receive its benefit.

8. Conclusion

Jesus, through His death on the cross, paid for the sins of all humanity. After that, any person who genuinely repents and places her or his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is born again. Jesus Christ, Father God, and the Holy Spirit have guaranteed each person’s salvation as permanent and irreversible.

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 all. 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 the acceptance of Jesus Christ.

9. Your Participatory Response

Say this prayer to God the Father out loud in order 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.