One thing I have discovered for sure is that “eternal life” can never just mean that you and I, as believing followers of Jesus, will one day, after our death, “go to heaven”!

Have you ever tried to find a definition for the word “heaven” that really describes it beautifully and clearly?

To me, “heaven” means the following: To already experience something of it here on earth, but ultimately to be finally, completely, in the life after this, in the direct presence of God as Father, Son, and Spirit!

Few things give me as much peace as knowing that if I were to die today, I would immediately be in heaven, in God’s presence!

How do I know this, you may ask?

Then I want to remind you of what Jesus said to that believing murderer on the cross: “Today you will be with me in Paradise!”

Yet I know and believe that to have “eternal life” involves much more than just this certainty about my final destination after death.

Understand me! I am not pretending that this transition to death, into what the Bible calls “heaven”, or “paradise”, will not be indescribably wonderful!

However, what excites me day by day is knowing that I can already now, in my life every day on this earth, also be in the direct presence of God! The God whom I discovered as Father, Son, and Spirit in and through Jesus and whom I have also learned to trust and serve with my life here on earth!

But let’s talk about “heaven” and what we read about it in the Bible.

The pictures of it that we find in the prophetic book, Revelation, make my mouth water!

Can you imagine what it will be like to be part of the millions before His throne who worship the Lord and sing: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty! He who was and who is and who is to come!”

Or to kneel together before Him who sits on the throne, and worship Him who lives forever and ever!

Yes, to be able to say together: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; and by your will they existed and were created!”

Can you imagine a place and a reality where there is no pain, tears, death, suffering, sickness, crime, or any other consequences of sin!

I must admit, I cannot really think about this meaningfully with my “flat head” in any way!

Having said all this, I also know for sure that this is not all that Jesus meant by “eternal life” in John 3:16!

Why don't you start browsing through the Bible a bit and see what you discover about this in the Lord's Word?

Next time we'll talk more about this.

We are busy talking about the concept of “eternal life” in the Bible. Let’s think a little about the word “life” as it is used in this concept.

Here I immediately think of what the Lord says to us about this in His Word. Such as:

• Do you remember what Father warned Adam and Eve about if they ate from the tree in the middle of the garden, against His command to them? In Genesis 2, from verse 14 onwards, it says the following: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and take care of it. The Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat from every tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of the good and the bad. In the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

• In other words, when man disobeyed this command, they “died”! Which, first of all, means that man as a spirit-man “died”. This means to me that man naturally, if God did not make it possible in His grace, could no longer hear God’s voice clearly; that man could no longer see God and His handiwork clearly; that man’s conscience was no longer sensitive to God, His will and His heart. And of course, this sin caused a tragic “deadness” that would also radically change and deform the rest of man, what we usually describe as “soul”, as well as the man’s body.

• When we think of man himself, just think how the “soul” of man was distorted and died by sin and this deadness! For example, how it made man’s brain, nervous system, emotions, and will “sick” and slowly but surely “die”! Not to mention man’s body!

• It would go far beyond man, to also distort and slowly but surely “kill” the entire creation of God!

• The “death” and “dying” of everything in creation suddenly became this terrible reality! In Romans 8 we even read about how the entire creation “sighs” as a result of this!

• Did you listen carefully to the words of the Father in the parable of the “Prodigal Son”? There in Luke 15:32, the father says after the prodigal son’s conversion and return: “But we could not but celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

• That is why we read in Romans 5:21, when God’s Spirit “inspires” Paul to speak the Gospel, then he writes it like this: “That as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through justification to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Have you read what is written here? Where death reigned as a result of sin, it changes radically, and life returns as eternal life when someone is changed by God's grace and accepts Jesus in faith!

• That is why believing followers who have accepted Jesus as Savior are told the following in Rom. 6:13: “Do not present any part of your body to sin as an instrument of unrighteousness. Instead, present yourselves to God as those who were dead but made alive, and present every part of your body as an instrument of God's will.”

• Eph. 2:1 and further, therefore rightly says the following about us as humans before our conversion: “You were dead because of your transgressions and sins that characterized your former way of life. You lived like this sinful world and let yourself be led by the prince of the invisible powers, the spirit that is now at work in the people of disobedience. In fact, we all lived like this in the past. We were dominated by our sinful desires and did only what our desires led us to and what came to our minds. Because of our sinful nature, we should have been punished by God just like other people. Next time we will talk about how death changes into “life” in the life of a believing follower of Jesus.

Last time we talked about the “death” and “deadness” that came about because man, as a free-will being, chose to rebel and sin against the will of His Creator!

The glorious sounds of the Gospel message are precisely that when you and I, in the words of Jesus in John 3, “look up” in faith to the One hanging on the cross, at that moment God’s Spirit comes, where we cannot see with our ordinary eyes, and brings “life”!

Yes, the man who was previously “dead” is “renewed” by the work of God’s Spirit and thus part of a new creation that is taking place (see, among other things, 2 Cor. 5:17).

Therefore, Ephesians 2, starting with verse 4, continues and says the following:

“But God, who is rich in mercy and with his great love for us, made us alive together with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses. By grace you have been saved!

Yes, in Christ Jesus he raised us from the dead and seated us with him in the heavenly places, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable greatness of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one should boast.

No, God has made us what we are: he created us in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he prepared in advance for us to do.”

That is why it says in Col. 2:13-15:

“You were dead in your sins and in the undone nature of your body. But God made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespasses.

He cancelled the record of our guilt and its demands, having taken it away forever by nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed every rule and authority and made a public spectacle of them, leading them in triumph in Christ.”

And in Heb. 2:14 and 15:

“Since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself also shared in their human nature, so that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to slavery.”

Let us kneel again before the One who gave His life so that the Father could give us “new life,” and praise, glorify, and thank Him for what He has done for and on our behalf!

Thank you, King Jesus! To You be all the praise and the honour!

Thank you for thinking with me a little about why we can be so sure about what we believe as followers of Jesus Christ.

Can I challenge you to think with me a little about: Yes, we have chosen to believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him as our Savior and Lord, but what next?

As a starting point for our reflection, let’s start again with the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Have you ever sat down and thought about what “eternal life” would entail?

I have, and I want to invite you to think about this with me a little.

Let's start with the obvious:

In this concept of “eternal life”, there are two words that are each extremely important: “Life” and “eternal life”.

I am now going to quote you a few passages of Scripture and I trust that God’s Spirit Himself will minister life and revelation to you as you read these verses.

Please take some time to read it with attention and focus!

“LIFE”

Let’s start with the concept of “life” and then specifically “life” as it is meant in the concept of “eternal life”. We read about this in so many places in the Bible.

John 1:4 – “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

John 3:14,15 – “Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness; even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

John 3:36 – “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but whoever does not obey the Son will not see life, but the judgment of God remains on him.”

John 6:35 – “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.’”

John 6:63 – “It is the Spirit who gives life; man himself cannot do this. The words I speak to you are from the Spirit and give life.”

John 10:10 – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.”

John 11:25,26 – “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if they die, will live; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“ETERNAL LIFE”

And then there is the concept of “eternal life”, or in other words, a life that never ends and just goes on and on forever.

I always imagine it this way: Let’s take a piece of rope 10 meters long, and imagine that our life here on earth is 20 centimetres of this rope. The rest then represents the other part of the infinite, eternal life that the Bible speaks of in the sentence.

We then find this concept in passages of Scripture such as:

Mark. 10:17 – “As Jesus was just leaving the house to go on his way, someone ran up to him and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Mark 10:29,30 – “Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel’s, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with many persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life.”

John 3:36 – “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the judgment of God remains on him.”

John 4:14 – “…but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst. The water that I will give him will become in him a well of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 5:24 - “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

John 5:39,40 – “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is they which testify about me. Yet you do not want to come to me that you may have life.”

John 6:27 – “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for God the Father has given him this authority.”

John 6:47 - "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever believes in me has eternal life.”

John 10:27,28 - "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand."

Spend some time at the feet of Jesus and ask Him to speak to you from these Scriptures.