Anticipating Eternal Life with Jesus
As followers of Jesus we think about eternity. We especially anticipate eternal life with him. By faith, eternal life is a future reality that we expect to experience.
The primary definition of eternity is time without a beginning or an end; it is infinite time. As such, eternity extends into the future far beyond what we can imagine. Similarly, eternity emanates from the past far before what we can ever comprehend.
Eternity in the Bible
Interestingly, eternity appears in only two Old Testament verses.
The psalmist writes that God’s throne was established long ago. He is here from all eternity (Psalm 93:2).
Solomon expands on this. He says that no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11). He also writes that God has set eternity in the hearts of his creation. It’s something we desire.
Eternal in the Bible
The word eternal, however, occurs much more frequently in Scripture. It also means without beginning or end. The primary example is our eternal Creator. That is, our eternal God (Genesis 21:33).
Beyond this, we see that our Lord’s love for us is eternal (1 Kings 10:9). His law is eternal (Psalm 119:160). And he is the eternal King (Jeremiah 10:10). This means his kingdom is eternal (Daniel 4:3). We call this heaven.
The opposite it eternal fire (Matthew 18:8). That is, eternal damnation or hell.
Eternal Life in the Bible
The most frequent use of the word eternal in the Bible is paired with the word life, as in eternal life.
People often come to Jesus and ask him what they must do to inherit eternal life. He often gives various requirements that pertain specifically to each person. Let these personal responses, however, not confuse us.
For Jesus also proclaims that whoever believes in him will have eternal life (John 3:36). It’s that simple. We can have eternal life with Jesus. This happens because he gives it to us, and we will never perish (John 10:28).
I’ve written about this: Eternal Life, What is Eternal Life?, Inherit Eternal Life, and How Do You Earn Eternal Life?
For the Rest of Eternity
Jesus will bring us into eternal life (Jude 1:21). From our earthly, time-bound existence, it appears that when we die here on earth, we will live on from that point with him for all eternity.I sometimes communicate this as saying for “the rest of eternity.”
Though people understand what I mean, it’s also grammatically incorrect. It’s like saying a glass is partially full, a person is half dead, or a woman is a bit pregnant. The one that irritates me the most is labeling something as somewhat unique.
In all these cases, the first word of the phrase diminishes and even contradicts the precise meaning of the second word.
A glass is either full or not. A person is either dead or not. A woman is either pregnant or she’s not. And there are no degrees of uniqueness. It’s either unique or it’s not. So, too, with eternity.
Something cannot be half eternal. That runs counter to its definition of having no beginning and no end.
Eternal versus Time
So given that eternity is without beginning or end, if we will spend eternity in heaven with Jesus, we will be with him throughout all eternity—without beginning and with no end.
This means that if we believe in Jesus, we are already with him in eternity. We always have been, and we always will be. The idea makes my head spin. Perhaps yours too.
Yet we live in the space-time reality that God created for us. This means that he exists external to it. He looks into it. Just as he exists outside the physical realm he made for us to inhabit, he likewise exists outside the temporal realm that he created for us.
As God’s creation we experience time as linear. There’s past. There’s present. And there’s future. Yet God exists outside of all three. He transcends them.
To get a hint of this, recall that to God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day (2 Peter 3:8). In short, our eternal Creator comprehends time far differently than we do. God, after all, is eternal.
When we believe in Jesus to receive eternal life, we will be eternal too. More correctly, we are eternal—even if we can’t comprehend what it means.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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