ETERNAL LIFE
ETERNAL LIFE
si5oken of in contrast with ' death ' and ' perishing.' The believer ' sliall not perisli, but have eternal life ' (3"), ' hath passed out of the death into the life ' (S^''), ' shall never see deatli,' nor ' taste of death ' (8^'- ^\ ' shall never perish ' (10=8). He who has not tlie life is in a condition of spiritual death, and must perisli unless he receive the life of God, the eternal kind of life, which has been manifested in Christ. In these and other similar passages life and death are not to be understood as identical in meaning with existence and non-e.\istence. The |)erson who has passed out of death into life had existence before the new life came, and such exist- ence, in estrangement from God and in disobedi- ence of the gospel, may be perpetuated in ' eternal destruction from the face of the Lord ' (2 Th 1"). So the ' death,' which those who ' jjerish ' taste, need not be understood as annihilation, or utter extinction of being. As ' the death ' is a condition of moral and spiritual destitution in which one has no fellowship with God, so ' the life' is the blessed experience of fellowship and union with Clirist as vital as that of the branch and the vine. And this participation in the very nature of the Eternal God is the essence of the ' life eternal.'
In the writings of St. Paul we also find a mystic element in whicli we note the concept of eternal life as a present possession. The exhortation to 'lay hold on the life eternal,' and the designation of it as ' the life which is life indeed ' (17 ti/rui fwij, 1 Ti 6'" '»), may refer either to the present or tlie future ; but when the Apostle speaks of believers as made alive and risen with Christ, and sitting with Him in the heavenlies (Eph '2^- ''), he implies a fruition that was already realized. It involved a positive experience like tliat in which ' the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made him free from the law of sin and of death' (Ro 8-). He also has a wonderful appreciation of the heavenly illumination which ' shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ' (2 Co 4'=). 'fhis surpassing light is conceived by the Ajjostle as a product of the Spirit of the Lord, and a reflexion of the glory of Christ as seen in the mirror of His gospel. In that mirror the believer beholds the glory of his Lord reflected, and by the power of the heavenly vision he is ' transformed into the same image ' (2 Co 3"- "*). The Johannine doctrine of ' passing out of death into life ' is conceived by St. Paul as a dying unto sin and being made alive unto God in Christ Jesus. The believer is ' alive from the dead ' and ' walks in newness of life ' {Eo 6'"'^). He has been ' crucified with Christ : and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me ; and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, wliich is in the Son of God' (Gal 2-"). And so in Pauline thought the spiritual life of faith, enjoyed in fellowship with God and Christ, is a 'life hid with Christ in God' (Col 3»), and 'the free gift of God' (Ro 6-^). This conception is in essential harmony with the doctrine of St. John. Eternal life is in its inmost nature the free, pure, permanent spiritual life of Christlikeness. It is a present possession, a glorious reality, a steadfast- ness of conscious living fellowship with the Eternal Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
But in all the Gospels and in tlie Epistles we also find eternal life contemplated as a future glorious inheritance of the saints. In St. John's Gospel the ' eternal life ' which the believer now 'hatli' is destined to attain a glorious consumma- tion in the resurrection ' at the last day ' (5*"- "). For Jesus is Himself the resurrection as well as the life, and declares : ' He that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die ' (W-'^- ^). Such a life must needs abide in eternal permanence.
Jesus sjioke of ' the water of life ' which becomes in him who drinks it ' a fountain of water spring- ing up into eternal life ' (4"). He six)ke of food 'which abideth unto life eternal,' and of 'gather- ing fruit unto life eternal' (4^'* 6-'). In all the Gospels He is represented as teaching that ' he that lovetli [oc findetli, .so Synopt.] his soul loseth it; and he tliat hateth [ur loseth] his soul in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.' We read in Mk lO'-"- ™ ' There is no man that liatli left house, or brethren, ... or lands, for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, . . . and in the age to come life eternal ' (cf. Mt 19-'-' and Lk IS^"- »"). These Gospels also speak of eternal life as an inheritance to be received at a future day (Mt 19'«, Mk 10", Lk 10=' 18'*). Such contrast of ' this time,' ' tliis world,' ' on the earth ' with ' the age to come,' and ' in heaven,' implies possessions in some other age or world beyond the present. In the picture of the Judgment (Mt 25^'"^''), the righteous who go ' into eternal life' are said to 'inherit the kingdom pre- pared for them from the foundation of the world,' and to enter into the joy and glory of the King Himself.