Time is so ingrained in our lives that who can grasp the concept of ETERNAL! This word describes the kind of life that God has and that He gives to those who believe in His Son, yet how can it be understood? The Hebrew versions says, “forever, an indeterminate and unending time going on into the future; also possibly an indeterminate and unending time extending into the past.” In relation to time (as a continuum of experience), eternal is without beginning in the past or ending in the future. Yikes!
My mind cannot grasp “unending” since there is nothing to compare it with; everything I know has an ending. Yet the OT says in Deuteronomy 33:27 that God is eternal and the dwelling place of His people.
(Psalm 90:2) Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
The NT does not clarify. The Greek words are defined as “everlasting, continuing forever or indefinitely, sempiternal” and characterized by being always, extending across time indefinitely.
This word eternal describes God. He has always been and always will be. Everything about Him also fits that description. He never changes. He is who He is and because of that, He is that anchor that my soul longs for, the stability that gives peace and security in a world of conflict and unsteadiness.
Most of the verses, especially in the New Testament, are about eternal life from God given to those who believe. Only a few tag God as this source of life, but they are definite and marvelous.
John speaks of how that life was revealed when God became visible in the Person of Jesus Christ . . .
(1 John 1:1–2) That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life — the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us —
(1 John 5:20) And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Not only is Jesus Christ the eternal God who became flesh, He is also this eternal life made real, touchable as well as visible. I can imagine Jesus, but I cannot see and touch Him the way that His disciples did. Yet I can know Him as they knew Him:
(John 17:3) And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Because God is eternal, His other attributes and His rule are also eternal. This includes all of who God is — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
(1 Timothy 6:15–16) which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
(Hebrews 9:14) how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Further, there is something about His eternal nature that He has made visible to everyone through all that He has made. As Romans 1:20 says, “His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made . . . ” Even though the mountains, trees and sky were created and not always here, when I look at them I get the sense of the eternal God who formed them and all things.
Human beings, like Adam and Eve, want to be like God. Some desire His power or total rule, but for many it is His eternal life. Mark 10:17 describes a man who asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” We want to live forever and assume that we need to do something to make that happen. Jesus says otherwise.
(John 3:16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Too simple? Or is it too humbling?
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY and see His eternal power in creation. See His eternal nature in Jesus Christ. Rejoice in His eternal love and steadfast commitment to His people. Tell others that they need not fear death for the eternal God offers them eternal life with His invitation to know Him through faith in Jesus. Realize all the time that I no longer live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live is because of Him, the eternal Son of the eternal God. I don’t have to understand it, just believe it.
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