What did Jesus mean when he promised us life? I go back to the source and what I find is just astounding.
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13)
I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and, in the age to come, eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30).
Jesus doesn’t locate his offer to us only in some distant future, after we’ve slogged our way through our days here on earth. He talks about a life available to us in this age. So does Paul: “[G]odliness has value for all things, holding promise both for the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8). Our present life, and the next. When we hear the words “eternal life,” most of us have tended to think, “a life that waits for me in eternity.” But eternal means unending, not later. The scriptures use the term to mean you can never lose it. It’s a life that can’t be taken from you. The offer is life and that life starts now.
And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives (Romans 6:4 NLT).
The glory of God is man fully alive? Now? Hope unbidden rose at the thought that God’s intentions towards me might be better than I thought. His happiness and my happiness are tied together? My coming fully alive is what he’s committed to? That’s the offer of Christianity?
The offer is life. Make no mistake about that.
-John Eldredge, Waking the Dead, 11, 12
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