I was raised in a Christian home and was taken to church from the age of two weeks. Yet for many years I had a misconception as to what the Bible means when it speaks of eternal life. And as a Bible teacher today, I have often seen this same confusion with many other believers.
My misconception was this: I believed that when I became a Christian, God took the physical life He had given me at birth and miraculously transformed it to live on throughout eternity. While this belief would indeed be miraculous, it is not biblical and shows a misunderstanding of the word eternal itself.
The definition of the word eternal is this: without beginning and without end. So since we all know when our physical life began, God must have given us a completely different life than the physical one we received on the day of our birth.
In fact, the Bible says, “You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Since we died, as this verse says, then our life must be a life other than ours. Verse 4 goes on to say, “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (emphasis mine). This agrees with Galatians 2:20 as well, which says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
The Bible teaches that there is eternal life only in Jesus Christ, the preexistent creator of the universe. Hebrews 1:2 says, “In these last days he [God] has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” Jesus is the great “I AM” of Scripture, existing from eternity past throughout eternity future. And 1 John 5:20 equates Jesus with eternal life by saying, “We are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (emphasis mine).
Once I understood that I was given His life, one without beginning and without end, I gained a fuller understanding of His great love for me. And it has helped me understand how one Christian can meet another one for the first time, and yet have an immediate bond of kinship. This has happened to me over and over again, but now I understand. You see, it is not my spirit relating to the spirit of another person, but the Spirit of Christ in me relating to the Spirit of Christ in that other believer. “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16).
Oh, how I would love to have a full understanding of His amazing grace! With what little I now grasp, I am still overwhelmed and humbled with this incredible truth: “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).