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Eternal Life

Concise Bible Dictionary:

This stands commonly in scripture in contrast to death. It is revealed in the Lord Jesus. “He is the true God, and eternal life.” “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11-12, 20¹¹And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11‑12)
²⁰And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)). He that has the Son of God therefore has life now, and knows it by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life. The apostle John speaks of life as a subjective state in believers, though inseparable from the knowledge of God fully revealed as the Father in the Son, and indeed characterized by this. The Lord said to His Father, “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3³And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)). The Apostle Paul presents eternal life more as a hope before the Christian, which however has a present moral effect (Titus 1:2²In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; (Titus 1:2); Titus 3:7⁷That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:7)). From which we gather that eternal life for the Christian refers in its fullness to the glory of God, when the present body as a part of the old creation will be changed, and there will be complete conformity to Christ, according to the purpose of God. In the meantime the mind of God is that the Christian, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, should know (have the conscious knowledge) that he has eternal life (1 John 5:13¹³These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)). For Christians it is evident that eternal life is morally distinct from life after the flesh.

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