Eternal life actually starts when a person humbly asks Jesus Christ for forgiveness of their sins and chooses to follow Jesus Christ and His Word. For many who are living their physical lives right now, eternal life has already started. When Jesus prayed in the company of His disciples, He made this statement: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3; italics mine). The word know comes from the Greek ginosko, which means to come to know or experience.[1] This is not just to know someone or something intellectually, but to actually have the experience of knowing them. Hence, eternal life is actually experiencing God and His Son Jesus Christ (both manifestations of the same God). It is what was referred to earlier as having a relationship with Jesus Christ, which is the benefit of confessing our sins to Him and following both Christ and His Word. The word true in the previous verse comes from the Greek alethinos, which means “one who cannot lie.”[2] In today’s age of social media, there exists the underlying thought as to what is the truth. The fact is, there are a lot of untruths in cyber space because people can voice or post whatever they want. If they feel a certain way, they can post that. However, what they feel and post may not be the truth. It depends on what their feelings are based on. In the case of God, we do not have to worry about whether or not He is true. God’s Word tells us He is. Some may question whether or not God’s Word itself should be able to determine God’s truth, but how we can we argue with a God who made the heavens and the earth and us too? Like the biblical analogy says, does the piece of pottery have a right to say to the potter, “Why did you make me like this?”

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[1] Spiros Zodhiates and Warren Baker, eds., Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible: Key Insights into God’s Word (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1996), 1601-1602.

[2] Ibid., 1582.