ETERNAL LIFE – Does that mean Forever?

It is a misconception that Eternal Life is time related, that it is something in the future. Eternal Life does not mean everlasting. Its meaning is better expressed by the word limitless. It is not related to time or space. It is being with God who is beyond time and space. The Good News is that “being with God” is not something that only happens after we die.

In John’s Gospel, John has Jesus say, “Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life” [John 3:16].   Eternal life is now. Eternal life is a limitless part of God’s gift, God’s grace, given to each of us that we experience now. In a recent Easter sermon, Rev Dawn Hutchins describes it as follows:

“The gift of breath itself is pure grace. Thirteen billion years of evolution have resulted in the cosmos producing human life and each and every breath we breathe is pure gift. We are living breathing, walking, talking, loving, miracles. The breath that flows through us, enlivens us, and empowers us. This breath is the Spirit of all life, that emanates from the One who is the source of our being. The eternal quality of our life, of all our lives is knowing. To know, is to experience deeply. The ancients understood this as the essence of what it means to be human; to know.

“The storyteller we call John, puts into the mouth of Jesus words that I am only beginning to know, to experience deeply. Jesus said, “And this is eternal life: to know you, the only true God.” [John 17:3] The words translated from the Greek as “to know” are the same words used in the scriptures to describe the intimacy of love-making. This is eternal life, to know, to make love to God. Eternal life is a quality of living that shares a deep intimacy with the One who is the source of our being.”

Eternal life is the experiencing of intimacy with God now, each day, without time or space limits What those early disciples saw as they were living with Jesus was that he knew God in this way, and the Cross became the sign that with the resurrected Jesus within them, they too knew God as an intimate and deeply transforming experience. It changed their lives and changes each day of our lives too.

“Know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” [John 14:20]

Loren Bullock
November 14, 2017

Rev Dawn Hutchings is pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Newmarket (nr. Toronto), Ontario, Canada
Her blog is pastordawn.com