Whenever we talk about eternal life, the common traditional understanding is, that it is the life that Christians are going to live forever and ever in heaven with God. It is always associated with a future life after death. But on proper study using the original Greek text, there were some astounding revelations on this concept. It simply does not mean everlasting life in Paradise alone but holds much deeper significance and truth which is the centrality and essence of Christian life. The lack of this revelation and knowledge has been the basic foundation of religiousness in Christianity. In order to forego religiousness the first and foremost truth we need to know is about eternal life.
‘Eternal’ means “valid, lasting, enduring or existing at all times (timeless), perpetual, characterized by abiding fellowship with God.”(1) So, what we have is just a partial understanding of eternal life i.e., life after death, but are ignorant about the more important and practical aspect of it.
In the English language and maybe in a few other languages as well, ‘life’ is represented with just one common word for all forms of life. But in Greek, ‘life’ is mentioned with three different words unlike English. They are represented as follows:(2)
Bios – This Greek word refers to the life of the physical body and is where we get the word ‘biology’ from.
Psyche – This Greek word refers to the psychological life of the human soul, that is, the mind, emotion, and will. It is where we get the word ‘psychology’ from.
Zoe – This Greek word refers to the uncreated, eternal life of God, the divine life uniquely possessed by God.
So, our life or soul is represented with the word ‘psyche’ and God’s life is represented with the word ‘Zoe’. Now if we read certain words of Jesus Himself with this insight and clarity of ‘life’, we will realize its importance.
John 12:25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
If we read this verse again with the original transliteration, it goes like this, “He who loves his life (psyche – soul) will lose it, and he who hates his life (psyche – soul) in this world will keep it for eternal life (Zoe – life of God).” This verse indicates that eternal life is the life of God Himself. Our five senses feed the soul with all the information they perceive based on which the soul decides, desires and functions. Our soul is the seat of our knowledge, likes, dislikes, desires, wants, wishes, attitude, sentiments and decisions which control us and basically represents our human and moral nature. The soul is contaminated and manipulated by all the distorted information that the devil injects into it, the classic example for which is the serpent’s deception of Eve regarding herself, God and their relationship. This soul, which is under the deceptive control of the devil, without our own knowledge, is in opposition to the truth and nature of God. The soul that was created to love God is functioning in the exact opposite manner and against Him. Coming back to the verse, Jesus says that unless we lose our functional and falsely perceived selves/ lives, we can never have eternal life i.e., the life of God. The contaminated soul needs complete renewal which is possible only through His truth and blood and this is losing our lives (as we saw in the previous chapter, the blood of Jesus means the life of Jesus). Let us try to understand this further.
1 John 2:25 And this is the promise that He has promised us – eternal life (Zoe).
Note that in the above verse God talks about ‘eternal life’ as the promise of God. Now, note the following verses which explain what eternal life means.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life (Zoe). No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
1 John 1:2 The life (Zoe) was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life (Zoe) which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
John 17:3 And this is eternal life (Zoe), that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
It is very clear from the above three verses that eternal life refers to Jesus, the very life of Jesus Himself! Surprisingly all the above verses clearly say that this life of Jesus is something that we can live and experience now, which John says was manifested to him, has seen, is bearing witness to and declaring it. Let us understand this concept better from the following verse:
John 6:40 “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life (Zoe); and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Note the order of words written in this above verse. 1. Everyone who sees the son and believes in Him 2. may have eternal life 3. and I will raise him up at the last day. If eternal life is one to be lived in paradise, the order should have been 1. Everyone who sees the son and believes in Him 2. I will raise him up at the last day. 3. and he may have eternal life. Unless we are raised from the dead we cannot enter into ‘eternal life’ if we go by our traditional interpretation. So here Jesus makes it very clear that unless anyone perceives and believes in Him and has His life in Him, will never be raised up at the last day. John repeatedly emphasizes that knowing Jesus the Christ and experiencing Him is eternal life. He implies it as a very vital and exquisite relationship between us and Jesus. Hence, it is evident that eternal life is something we have to receive and live in this world in order to live in the one to come. Let us look at the creation of the garden of Eden and the incident that followed to understand this further.
Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:15–17 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
We have read this passage hundreds of times but we invariably interpreted and focused on God’s prohibition of the tree of knowledge and man’s disobedience regarding it, but we neglected the most essential truth and heart of the matter i.e., the tree of life. We only talk about the forbidden tree but never give a second thought to the tree that was inconspicuous but rather was the center of Eden. What or who was then the tree of life? Following our previous reasoning, if Jesus himself is the life, the tree of life consequently is the ‘tree’ from where we can receive Jesus. It is by now very clear that the fruit of the tree of life is Jesus. Thus, man since Adam till now has two choices in front of him; to either choose Jesus, the way, the truth and the life or to operate on his own using the knowledge of good and evil. Eating the fruit of knowledge doesn’t mean biting an apple as it has been figuratively represented. It is a more serious implication of us making the choice of using our knowledge, capacities, resources, experiences and strengths to analyze and plan any aspect of our lives instead of choosing to focus and trust the Lord of life, Jesus. This choice to surrender ourselves to His life is what will heal our souls, as we cannot consciously get rid of the contaminations and we may not even be aware of their existence in the first place. Unless this life of Jesus the Christ dominates us and becomes our life, then we by no means can adhere to the truth. This is what He says in the following verse:
Genesis 3:24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
As long as we keep making the choice to possess the knowledge of good and evil, or in other words to decide what is right and wrong by ourselves, then God Himself denies us Jesus the Christ. How sad and lost can that life be? And almost all of us live this life assuming that we are righteous. Therefore, when He says “seek first My Kingdom and My righteousness”, He simply asks us to choose to look to Him rather than ourselves because only His life, His blood can be our righteousness.
Revelation 2:7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life (Zoe), which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
In the above verse, there is a pre clause to eat from the tree of life, ‘to him who overcomes’. Unless we overcome, we can never eat from the tree of life. What do we need to overcome? Satan? Evil powers? Darkness? Our temptations? Adam and Eve lost the tree of life because they did not endure in the trial. All of us face trials and temptations. It is not necessary that we need to be victors in these trials or defeat Satan. It is not our job to defeat evil powers. The battle is God’s. What is required of us is the choice to surrender to and stay steadfast in Him instead of depending on our ways and efforts. After Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God came in their midst. His presence did not leave them but the way they handled it incurred them God’s curse. We may fail in our trials and temptations, we may sin in our weakness but instead of blaming others or the situations or hiding from God, if we fall at the feet of Jesus and surrender to Him in all honesty, then we overcome. Jesus knows our weaknesses and struggles. The Bible is full of examples of great men of God who failed, yet found grace and were not rejected by God. When Nathan the prophet confronted David about his sin with Bathsheba, the way David handled his sin in the presence of God decided the outcome. He did receive a punishment but he did not lose God’s love and presence like Adam and Eve did and this is because of the beautiful prayer of submission and cry for restoration he makes in Psalm 51. A similar constant submission of ourselves with awareness in His presence based on our only hope, i.e., His blood, is endurance. To those who endure in this manner, He definitely gives to eat from the tree of His life.
1 John 5:11-13 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
John cannot be more direct and precise than this. He has summarized the entire concept of ‘eternal life’ in simple terms in three verses. He says that God has given us eternal life and this life is in Jesus. Therefore, if we abandon ourselves to Him then we have His life. Most importantly, he says that he is explaining these things to us so that we know that we have (present tense) eternal life, meaning that it is not something to look forward to after death but it is a present experience, so that in this assurance we should continue to believe in Jesus.
Colossians 3:3,4 For you died, and your life (Zoe) is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life (Zoe) appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
If we die to ourselves (psyche), our new life (Zoe) becomes hidden with Christ in God as He becomes our life and only we can then have fellowship with Him and appear with Him in glory. Our lives needs to be hidden and overcome with His life and this is the true relationship of a Christian with His King Jesus. Any other factor governing this relationship is no relationship at all.
We hope now you understand what we mentioned in the beginning of the chapter that without the truth about eternal life, Christianity has indeed become a religion.