What is “eternal life”?

People often assume that this phrase simply means life that doesn’t end. An unending sequence of lived experience, stretching into a future beyond the length of time we can imagine.

But as many astute thinkers have pointed out, if the only thing that changes about your life is that it *keeps going,* that’s not very good news. It could, in fact, be bad news. 

When the phrase “eternal life” pops up in the Bible, it’s not primarily about the *quantity* of life someone has.

It’s talking about the *kind* of life they have, the kind of life that they possess in their inward being.

Jesus gives us one clear definition: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3 NIV).

This is the language of communion: A life where you know God and God knows you.

That’s what eternal life means.

Sources: John 3:16-17 (ESV)

John 17:3,6-8 (ESV)

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