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What Is Eternal Life?

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“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
(Jhn 17:3)

What Is Eternal Life?

What would we say if someone asked us, “Tell me, what is eternal life? Define it for me. Describe it for me.” Most simply, we might answer that we shall forever miss hell and forever we get heaven. That is good. But it does not get at the heart of it. That is not wrong. But it is not eternal life itself. Everlasting heaven is certainly included. Eternal life is really so much more.  Just going on and on in existence forever—that is not eternal life.

Forgiveness of sins is also involved but is not the heart of eternal life either. Jesus tells us, “This is eternal life.” This is eternal life. He doesn’t merely say, “This is included in eternal life.” According to the very Son of God, eternal life is that they, people of God, might know God the Father, the only true God, and His Son who was sent. Coming to intimate acquaintance with God is what eternal life is all about. Building an on-going friendship and acquaintanceship.

Too many Christians, after meeting God, do not grow in acquaintanceship with God. And for some reason modern Christianity has become for too accepting of this trend, as if it were the norm. God never intended us to meet Him in salvation and then be strangers until we stand before Him in glory.

Jesus and His Bride

The marriage relationship is to picture the relationship between Christ and His bride. A man and woman do not marry and then go through life happily apart for years at a time, visiting only frequently enough to come to a vague recognition and catch up on the latest news. No, marriage involves really, really getting to know each other as servants. We should be filled with the Lord’s Spirit, abounding in grace, and serving one another while coming into intimate knowledge of the Lord.

…Just like a marriage is all about knowing our mate, so our relationship with God is a relationship of knowledge. We know our mates in order that by knowing them, we would bless them (not simply to use them). So it is with God. We come to know Him in order that we might bless Him. We never come to Him, asking to know that we might use Him; when we truly know Him we will, rather, seek to be used by Him. “This is eternal life, that they might know You, God the Father and the Son who was sent.”

Just as it would be tragic, pathetic, and heart-breaking for two people to unite in marriage and then never get acquainted after that, so the tragedy would be magnified by operating such in our marriage to He who is infinitely worthy of love. We are the bride of Christ. We met Him when He called us to His side. Our sins were forgiven and new life was ours. We were brought into the family. We were introduced to the Lord God Almighty. This is what eternal life is all about—“that they may know You.” Coming to know God in intimacy is the purpose and drive of eternal life.

This is an excerpt from Bob Hoekstra’s Grace for Knowing God which is also available in RealAudio format. Bob Hoesktra (1940-2011) passed away on December 20. He is now at his eternal home, in the presence of his Lord and Maker.

Comments

    • Thank you for posting this amazing insight into God’s Word. I have been a devout Christian for many years and during this time of fasting for all that 2012 holds I find the Lord is bringing me to a deeper understanding of what on the surface seems to be such a simple truth…amazing Grace!

  2. The moment the Holy Ghost performs the work of the new birth within us is when our eternal life begins. So many folks believe that eternal life begins when we die, but it is to be enjoyed today among the born again children of God! Thank you for this post!

  3. Excellent insight. I believe that people are beginning to spend more time developing their knowledge in the Word of God and less time developing a relationship with God. I agree that a bond with God is eternal life.

    • Right. I would just add that true knowledge of God’s word will lead to a right relationship with God. And a deep relationship with God will be driven by His live-giving words.

      Thanks for the comment!

  4. Bob Hoekstra has been “right on” with all of his devotionals, which I have been enjoying for quite some time. Now Bob is enjoying the blessed grace and intimacy with our Lord that he always wrote about. What a glorious joy that is for him!

    Will his “Day By Day By Grace” devotionals still be used in the future?

  5. God bless Bob Hoekstra for his years of service to the Lord while on earth. I will pray for his family as they grieve his passing. All of the things he has contributed for everyone to study has truly helped me grow in my faith as a “christian”, then as a Believer and now as a Follower of Jesus.

    I smacked myself on the forehead when I read PB’s post that “the moment the Holy Ghost performs the work of new birth within us is when our eternal life begins.” Of course! How could I forget that?

    When I get to Heaven, I want to feel comfortable running up to God and grabbing him around the waist and hugging him so tightly and falling to his feet to laugh and cry with gratitude and joy all at the same time. I want to know him well before I get there!

    • debi, well said.I remember the day i said out loud to the lord ! I want to know u not just read about u well the holy spirit done his work in my heart. I know exactly what this is I feel the same about hugging him and talking with him.we must do this here after all the pure in heart shall see god.I think I would feel ashamed if I did not have that relationship; here before he called me home so when we do go home we will feel very comfortable amen thanks bob for all your faithfulness here

  6. Alveno, I agree with your statement regarding the tendency of the Church to be filled with knowledge of the Word, but not having that intimate friendship with the Lord. I’ve seen many who don’t walk in love or in wisdom, presumably because of this, and it has me alert to my own balance of studying the Word and just building my relationship with God. May 2012 be a year of growing closer to Him day by day – for all of His children!

  7. Very insightful post in regards to the understanding of eternal life. It truly is a sad commentary in the Body of Christ that many believers never take the initiative to move on to maturity because it truly is the desire of God that we “be no more children” Ephesians 4:14. So, I am thankful and grateful for the five-fold ministry gifts, (Ephesians 4:11-13), in the Body of Christ who take the time to teach us how to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May we all have a Blessed, Prosperous, and Favorable Year in our Lord Jesus Christ in 2012.

  8. Yet another precious heart joins the so great a cloud of witnesses we are surrounded by…Thank you Pastor Bob for running w/the GOD given endurance and finishing the race. You have blessed us in so many ways…teaching me to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares me! See you soon! Praying comfort and strength to your family and friends.

  9. John 6:38 Then answered Simon Peter LORD to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life

    Titus 3:7 That being justified by HIS grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life

    John 8:31 Then said JESUS to those Jews which believed on HIM IF YOU CONTINUE IN MY WORD then are you My disciples indeed

    Colossians 1:21-23 And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath HE reconciled
    (22)In the body of HIS flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in HIS sight (23) IF YOU CONTINUE IN THE FAITH grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven wherefore I Paul am made a minister

    Romans 2:6&7 Who will render to every man according to his deeds (7) to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life

    Proverbs 15:4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit

    John 6:54 Whoso eateth MY flesh and drinketh MY blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day

    1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life where unto thou art called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses

    John 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life

    Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do HIS commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city

    Mark 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever loseth his life for MY sake and the gospels the same shall save it

  10. this is amazing! this scripture has really been on my heart and it was confirmation to me wanting to know God. i want that intimacy with God, i pray that He will grant me to know Him…that i might withstand every test, trial and temptation because knowing Him is greater! God is soooo worth it! i pray this intensifies everyday! 🙂 God bless you all to know Him, and Jesus whom He sent! <3

  11. I can only imagine what Bob is experiencing about now. Talking about “eternal life” being intimate relationship with the Most High and Holy God.
    The tragedy of the matter is that there has been a “culture” created in the church that is not conducive to having this intimate relationship i.e. “eternal life” NOW. Far too many of us have settled for a “religious” experience that leaves us dry and dead on the inside. May God grant us in 2012 the grace to walk out of the desert of religion and enter into the eternal life of knowing God in intimate, experiential, relationship.

  12. Help me Lord… that I may know you and the riches of your inhetitance. Teach me to number my days filled with your spirit and knowledge of the Trinity. Thank you Lord.

  13. I love this website it has been a great tool for studying, listening to whole books of the bible, comparing bible translations, getting meanings of words used in the Scriptures and especially for looking up and verifying truths of what the Lord Himself has been talking to me in my personal conversations with Him.

    I had never real got into the devotional section; I am sure like many other great tools on this website that I am yet still to discover but boy this subject “ETERNAL LIFE” has really caught my attention today.

    If God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16NLT. Then this subject is one of if not the most important. Lord thank you for this article and for defining external life for us. And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. John 17:3 NLT.

    One of the enemy’s tricks from the beginning is misrepresent what God means by using what God said. He defines words wrongly or more cunningly get people to focus on just but a part of the meaning and gets us to miss out on all that the Lord has afforded us by His finished work of the cross.

    Looking at John 17:3 closely knowing the meaning of the word know is really key to enjoying eternal life. Defining knowing as acquiring knowledge of… is responsible for people spending more time developing their knowledge in the Word of God and less time developing a relationship with God. Genesis 4:1 KJV And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. The marriage relationship is to picture the relationship between Christ and His bride. When we understand knowing as an intimate communion that produces fruit then we start to really notice the picture our Lord gave us of how we are to live life on earth John 15:4&5 KJV Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. This picture has really helped me stay anchored in His grace and truth enjoying eternal life.

  14. Amen Tichatonga!! John 15:4-5 has especially been a blessing to me in the past few days. As we abide in Christ (dwell, remain), we are nurturing a “relationship” with him and in doing so, we will be producing the healthy fruits of the Spirit. And as the Holy Spirit indwells each of us, so we begin our walk in eternal life! God you are so beautiful!!

  15. Why is baptism in water a requirement in the process of becoming born again of God?
    There are many religious proposals asserting that if they are believed and followed the result is a union with God, a god or many gods, which are supposedly unseen beings of supernatural power.
    “No man hath seen God at any time.” The main claim the Bible makes is that the god it describes as God is the only Living God. And it is only this God who has supernatural power for no other gods have any power whatsoever. “There are no other gods besides Me and you shall not have any other gods beside Me.” Period. But devious sinful mankind, who is practically unalterably wicked because of being a natural descendent of Adam, has the devious idea that the Living God did not mean exactly what he said. And no matter what form God presents himself in, unseen, manifested in the flesh and even in one Word, devious wicked mankind always erroneously thinks he has the best ideas regardless of what the Living God says. There is nothing of greater contrast, absurdity and oxymoronic than this one term, YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN, to the naturally born human. Because the naturally born erroneously thinks he is a child of God, but the actual truth about him is “Ye are the children of your father the Devil” which is the curse of natural birth to both the Jew and Gentile alike.
    There are two things we all know from the Bible. But regardless of whether one accepts these things as being true it does not change these facts into not being true. The man, titled as the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible, is God manifested in the flesh. The man, titled as the only Begotten Son of the Living God, has perfected the only Way any child of the Devil by natural birth can escape from that curse by his crucifixion. However the naturally born must have the faith to use, put into physical human practice, exactly what the Lord thy God says through the apostles to become redeemed from the curse of your physical natural birth. This has only produced another child of the Devil.
    In all of your cases there are actually four things you must have the faith to do in order to be redeemed from the curse of your natural birth.
    1. Lay aside every contemporary explanation of salvation which you have read, heard from any contemporary church’s pulpit. The salvation doctrines of all theologians and whomever they have taught, and whoever positively pontificates in any form that what theologians teach about the Lord’s Way of salvation is not falsehood. For their doctrines of salvation are specifically designed to keep you out of God’s kingdom and t
    2. If you get over that hurdle, which I doubt many of you will, it is necessary to test what I teach. In other words you will have the faith to try what I teach to prove or disprove what I teach. If any of you sincerely obey my gospel one or more of the spiritual gifts listed by the apostles will be physically manifested in you proving what I teach is actually true. But the required confession must be your honest conviction or it is a lie.
    3. Hurdle three. Where the rubber meets the road and what every theologian and contemporary preacher hotly contests and must contest. But if you continue to believe what they contest and pontificate there is no hope of you escaping the curse of your natural birth. None. For this is the actual key you must have the faith to hope, trust in, and in sincerity use to escape from the consequence of your natural birth. For there is absolutely no other way of escaping the curse of natural birth and the curse of the law. For by Jesus’ crucifixion a law has been added to the law. And you must have the faith to obey this law exactly as you have been commanded by the Lord thy God given through the apostles. Or willfully disobey a law of God which is not forgivable. Which is what Jesus meant by saying “they are now being forced in” by the law added to the law by and after his crucifixion?
    4. Hurdle four. Recanting your former ways of salvation and be baptized into the new testimony about Jesus’ bloodshed. For without the shedding of His blood there is no remission of sin’s penalty for any of the naturally born. But understand me clearly. The crucifixion of Jesus’ has only perfected the Way you might escape from the curse of your natural birth and the law’s penalty. But to escape both you must by faith, sight unseen, obey an actual law that has been entered into the law as an act of righteousness. That if correctly obeyed by any naturally born individual God will declare him righteous as he promises.
    “It is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”Rom. 2:13
    The only Way this law, the Law of the Spirit, can be obeyed is by making this confession directly to God sincerely meaning it in your heart and be baptized in water to receive the promise.
    “Oh God I am so truly and sincerely sorry your only begotten son Jesus’ lost his life by bloodshed when he was crucified.” There is no other way to escape.
    “I am not ashamed: for
    I know whom I have
    believed, and am
    persuaded that he is
    able to keep
    that confession
    which I have committed
    unto Him against
    that day.
    Theodore A. Jones