I mentioned recently my hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8), and was asked:
“How don’t you know you’re saved? 1 John 5:13, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
When I began translating scripture, I was advised by experienced translators not to render zōē aiōnios in ways that suggest “everlasting existence.” After all we know that in fact all people will exist forever in one state or another. But zōē aiōnios literally indicates the life of the ages, the life of eternity – which is properly the Life of the Eternal one.
W.E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (1940) in its entry on “Life” (zoē) illuminates what this word means:
ζωή (English, “zoo,” “zoology”) is used in the NT of life as a principle, life in the absolute sense, life as God has it, that which the Father has in Himself, and which He gave to the Incarnate Son to have in Himself, John 5:26, and which the Son manifested in the world, 1 John 1:2. From this life man has become alienated in consequence of the Fall, Ephesians 4:18, and of this life men become partakers through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, John 3:15, who becomes its Author to all such as trust in Him, Acts 3:15, and who is therefore said to be ‘the life’ of the believer, Colossians 3:4, for the life that He gives He maintains, John 6:35,63. Eternal life is the present actual possession of the believer because of his relationship with Christ, John 5:24; 1 John 3:14, and that it will one day extend its domain to the sphere of the body is assured by the Resurrection of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:4; 2 Timothy 1:10. This life is not merely a principle of power and mobility, however, for it has moral associations which are inseparable from it, as of holiness and righteousness. Death and sin, life and holiness, are frequently contrasted in the Scriptures.
That last part is why the opening chapters of Genesis are relevant here. YHWH breathes into man “the breath of life” (nishmat chayyim, pnoēn zōēs) and man becomes a living soul (lenefesh chayyah, psychēn zōsan.)
God is uncreated, and created man is not a participant in the life and nature of the Eternal One. So God breathes into man His own life, and in union with the Life of Eternity which is on loan to him, man becomes alive. The eternal and spiritual Life in man is a feature of his union with God.
In contrast to life as union, we see in many places in scripture the figure of death as alienation. When a person sins gravely without repentance, the Jewish law commands that he be cut off. A person who is cut off is at least severed from the life of the covenant people, and often the text explicitly refers to being killed. A few references among many:
- “Cut off” unambiguously meaning physical death: Exodus 31:14; Numbers 15:30–31; Jeremiah 11:19.
- “Cut off” suggesting exile and alienation: Genesis 17:14; Exodus 12:15, 19; Leviticus 18:29.
Christians will recognize the familiar passages Isaiah 53:8 and Daniel 9:26 in which it is Christ who is “cut off” from the life of the body by death. We all expect that at the end of our time on earth we will experience death and be cut off from this world and the people we love.
The faithful participate in the life and nature of God (2 Peter 1:4) in union with Him; but to be cut off from Him is death – as we see when Adam eats the fruit and “in that very day” (Genesis 2:17) he dies. And then, having acquired the state of death, being cut off from the Life of God, Adam walks around dead for another 900 years, fathering children who share his state of alienation from the Life of Eternity. Death is not an end but a severing from the Living God.
Christ’s teaching in John 15 expresses the understanding of life as union and death as being cut off.
I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples (John 15:1-9).
Paul says the same thing in Romans 11:16-24: The Life of the believer is Christ himself, yet not every branch in him participates equally in His life. Some bear much fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) and some little (Mark 4:20) and some fail to produce anything at all and “even what he has will be taken away” (Matthew 13:12; 25:29).
In light of the Lord’s teaching here, Saint John’s words about eternal life are both reassuring and sobering:
This is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:11-13).
We have been given the Life of Eternity in Christ. Those who “abide in him” bear fruit, and in their lifetime God purifies them to make them even more fruitful; but those who neglect to abide in Christ (Hebrews 2:1-3) bear no fruit, and are “cast out and withered, and they are gathered and thrown into the fire.”
The command, of course, is not simply to bear fruit. No tree responds to commands, but fruit is produced when branches are healthy, well-nourished, and participating in the life of the root. Christ’s command is to abide in him. Abide is the opposite of visit; You visit a market or meeting and you leave again – but you have a place where you abide, dwell, make your home.
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may abide in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 26:4).
Unless you’re a nun, you probably can’t physically abide in the temple. So the disciple needs to practice the presence of God with intention in order to remain at His feet where nothing will be lost (Luke 10:38-42). While we are driving, working, caring for children, serving customers, chatting with one another, we need to intentionally live and abide and “dwell in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 90:1). Otherwise it is not possible to obey the first and greatest commandment, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37-38).
Eternal Life is not a thing that someone can have or get or lose. Nothing so impersonal or transactional. For us who abide in Him, Christ himself is the Life that is in us (Colossians 3:4; John 14:6) and by His promises we may become participants in the nature of God (2 Peter 1:4).
Salvation from sins is not a One-and-Done change; but Saint Paul gives this future hope to his Christian readers: “Being reconciled, we shall be saved by his Life” (Romans 5:10). And “He that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22; 24:13; Mark 13:13).
