I think most of us think of eternal life as being something that is in the future. We think that having eternal life means that we will go to heaven when we die. The Bible however doesn’t really see eternal life in this way. Eternal life is something that we receive here and now whilst we are alive on this earth. Yes, eternal life means that we will spend eternity with God in the age to come on the New Earth, but it is something that we have now once we put our trust in King Jesus.

Eternal life is the God-kind-of-life. The life that causes God to be God is made available to us when we take up God’s offer of salvation. He gives us His life. It reminds me of when, having created Adam, God breathed His life into Adam. Sadly, when Adam and Eve sinned, this eternal, spiritual life, was lost and Adam and Eve became dead to the God-kind-of-life. And to become dead to the God-kind-of-life is to be dead to the only life that truly matters. As a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, we are all now born dead to the God-kind-of-life and that is why we all need to be born again from above and receive God’s gift of eternal life. And then we are made fully alive to who God originally made us to be. To be alive to God and receive eternal life is to become fully human in the way God first intended.

I heard a helpful illustration which Todd Hunter used when talking about this. He began by asking people to think about a plant. And that plant is alive. It grows when it is fed with water and, undoubtedly, has life. Then he asked people to think of a kitten. That kitten is very alive, jumps around and is typically playful. And when a little red ball of wool is thrown the little kitten goes chasing after it as you’d expect. The kitten clearly has life. But what would the plant do in response to a red ball of wool being thrown?! Nothing of course. Why? Because the plant doesn’t have THAT sort of life. Likewise, if you tried to teach the kitten the 4 times table, the kitten would not respond at all because the kitten doesn’t have that human type of life.

The offer of eternal life to us as humans is like the plant being offered Cat life. If the plant was to take the offer of Cat life, the plant would move into the Cat-kind-of-life. Likewise, we as humans are born with a level of life that is below what was originally intended. So far below that we are in fact considered to be dead! But God comes to us and offers us the opportunity to receive a new kind of life; His-kind-of-life. If we receive it, it is like we are transformed from a plant to a Cat. We become able to interact on a whole new level, and particuarly we are able to now communicate with God. And that is what it means to receive eternal life. It is not something for the future but is what we receive now.

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