What does the Bible say about eternal life?
God gives all of us a sense of eternity. Eternal life is a gift from God through Christ. When we think of eternal life we think about life after death but it’s more than that. For the believer, eternal life is now. God is eternal.
Eternal life is God’s life living in you. Do you struggle with assurance of your salvation? Do you struggle with the thought of eternal life? Let’s learn more below.
Christian quotes about eternal life
“What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we have in life? To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? To know God. What is the best thing in life? To know God. What in humans gives God most pleasure? Knowledge of himself.” – J.I. Packer
“Eternal life means more than mere future blessing to be enjoyed by believers; it is equally a kind of spiritual ability.” – Watchman Nee
“Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God’s grace.” Charles Spurgeon
“Eternal life is not a peculiar feeling inside! It is not your ultimate destination, to which you will go when you are dead. If you are born again, eternal life is that quality of life that you possess right now.” – Major Ian Thomas
“If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can satisfy, also we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for another world.” – C.S. Lewis“
“You know, eternal life does not start when we go to heaven. It starts the moment you reach out to Jesus. He never turns His back on anyone. And He is waiting for you.” Corrie Ten Boom
“We who have Christ’s eternal life need to throw away our own lives.” — George Verwer
“At most, you will live a hundred years on earth, but you will spend forever in eternity.”
“Eternal life is not a gift from God; eternal life is the gift of God.” Oswald Chambers
“For the Christian, heaven is where Jesus is. We do not need to speculate on what heaven will be like. It is enough to know that we will be forever with Him.” William Barclay
“Three means by which God assures us that we do have eternal life: 1. The promises of His Word, 2. The witness of the Spirit in our hearts, 3. The transforming work of the Spirit in our lives.” Jerry Bridges
“I believe that nothing happens apart from divine determination and decree. We shall never be able to escape from the doctrine of divine predestination – the doctrine that God has foreordained certain people unto eternal life.” Charles Spurgeon
“Since this life is God’s and cannot die, it follows that everyone born anew into possessing this life is said to have eternal life.”Watchman Nee
The gift of life
Eternal life is a gift from the Lord for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. It’s an eternal gift from God and nothing can take it away. God is not like us. We can give gifts and when we are mad at the recipient of the gift we desire our gift back. God is not like that, but often that is how we picture Him in our mind.
We live under a false sense of condemnation and this kills the Christian. Have you been doubting the love that God has for you? Once again, God is not like us. If He says you have eternal life, then you have eternal life. If He says your sins are forgiven, then your sins are forgiven. Due to our sinfulness, we might bring up the past transgressions of others, but God says, “I will not remember your sins.”
God’s grace is so profound that it causes us to doubt it. It’s too good to be true. Now at least you get a glimpse of what the phrase “God is love” means. God’s love is unconditional. Believers have done nothing to deserve God’s grace and we can’t do anything to maintain what God said is a free gift. If we had to work it would no longer be a gift. Don’t allow your joy to come from your performance. Trust in Christ, believe in Christ, cling on to Christ. It’s Jesus or nothing!
1. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2. Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.
3. Romans 5:15-16 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.
4. Romans 4:3-5 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
5. Titus 3:5-7 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
6. Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
7. John 6:54 “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
8. John 3:15 “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
9. Acts 16:31 “They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
10. Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
11. Romans 3:28 “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
12. Romans 4:5 “However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.”
13. Galatians 3:24 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
14. Romans 11:6 “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, since otherwise grace is no longer grace.”
15. Ephesians 2:5 “made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!”
16. Ephesians 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”
God (so) loved you
Dr. Gage gave a brilliant sermon on John 3:16. We have no idea how powerful the word (so) is in John 3:16. The word so is probably the most powerful word in the entire verse. God so loved you. Scripture says that the world was created through and for Christ. It’s all about His Son. Everything comes from His Son and everything is for His Son.
If we put 1 billion of the most loving people on 1 scale it will never be greater than the love that the Father has for His Son. The only thing that we deserve is death, wrath, and hell. We’ve sinned against everything, but most of all we’ve sinned against the holy God of the universe and justice must be served. Though we deserved wrath, God poured out grace. God gave up everything for you!
The world was for Christ, but God gave up His Son for the world. You and I will never understand the depth of God’s love. Only God has eternal life, but through Christ He gives us eternal life. It would have been mind-blowing if God would have made us servants in His Kingdom, but God has made us ambassadors in His Kingdom.
Jesus took your grave and shattered it. Jesus took your death and poured out life. We were once far from God but God has brought us to Himself. What an amazing measure of grace. I once asked someone, “why should God let you in Heaven?” The person replied, “Because I love God.” Religion teaches that you must (so) love God so you are worthy to enter Heaven. No! It is God who (so) loved you. Demonstrating that love God sent His Beloved Son to take our place.
Jesus is the only claim that any believer has to Heaven. Whoever believes in the gospel of Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life. If Jesus had to, He would do it all over again. God’s love destroys our false condemnation, shame, and doubt. Repent and trust in Christ alone. God doesn’t want to condemn you but reassure you of His great love for you.
17. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
18. Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
19. Jude 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
20. Ephesians 2:4 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy.”
21. 1 John 4:16 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
22. 1 John 4:7 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”
23. 1 John 4:9 “This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.”
24. 1 John 4:10 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Do you know God?
The Father reveals Himself through the Son. Jesus describes eternal life as knowing God. We all say we know God. Even demons say they know God, but do we truly know Him? Do you know the Father and the Son in an intimate way?
John 17:3 is talking about more than an intellectual knowledge. Do you have a personal relationship with the Lord? Some people know all the best theology books. They know the Bible front and back. They know Hebrew.
However, they don’t know God. You can know everything about Christ but still not know Christ. Do you read the Bible for a new sermon or do you search the Scriptures to get to know Christ in His Word?
25. John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
26. John 5:39-40 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
27. Proverbs 8:35 “For he who finds me finds life And obtains favor from the LORD.”
Your salvation is secure in Christ.
Believers cannot lose their salvation. Jesus always does the will of the Father. In John 6:37 Jesus says, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never turn away.”
Then Jesus tells us He has come down to do the will of the Father. In verse 39 Jesus says, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.”
Jesus always does the will of the Father, those who the Father gives will come to Him, and Jesus will not lose any. He will raise that person up on the last day. Jesus is not a liar. If He says He will not lose any, then it means He will not lose any.
28. John 6:40 For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
29. John 10:28-29 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
30. John 17:2 For You granted Him authority over all humanity, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him.
Those who put their trust in Christ immediately have eternal life.
There are some who might say that eternal life is something that occurs after death, but Jesus says those who believe have eternal life. He is not referring to the future. These verses below clearly show that He is referring to the present.
31. John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
32. John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”
33. John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
34. John 17:2 “For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.”
God wants us to be confident of our salvation.
35. 1 John 5:13-14 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
36. John 5:24 I assure you: Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.
37. John 6:47 “Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes has eternal life.”
Having eternal life is not a license to sin.
Those who truly put their trust in Christ will be regenerated by the Holy Spirit. They will be new creatures with new desires. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice.” If you are living in rebellion and you are deaf to the words of the Lord that is evidence that you are not His. Are you living in sin?
Scripture makes it clear that many people who profess faith in Christ are going to one day hear the words “I never knew you; depart from me.” Christians don’t desire to live in sin. Examine your life. Does sin affect you? Do you see God working in you?
38. Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
39. Jude 1:4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
40. 1 John 3:15 “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
41. John 12:25 “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Reminder
42. 1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
43. John 4:36 “Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.”
44. 1 John 1:2 “the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.”
45. Romans 2:7 “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life.”
46. John 6:68 “Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
47. 1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
48. John 5:39 “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.”
Our home is in Heaven
If you are a believer your citizenship has been transferred to Heaven. In this world, we are sojourners awaiting our true home.
We were rescued from this world by our Savior and we were transferred into His Kingdom. Allow these truths to change the way that you live your life as a believer. We must all learn to live in eternity.
49. Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
50. Ephesians 2:18-20 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
51. Colossians 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Do you know if you have eternal life? I encourage you to read this salvation article to learn how to be saved. “How can I become a christian?”
