WHAT IS ETERNAL LIFE? JOHN 5:24 EXPLAINED

“Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life. John 5:24

OSAS advocates say that this passage says that those who believe “have”, present tense, eternal life.

They argue that if you can lose eternal life then you never really had eternal life because eternal life is eternal.

I want to make 3 arguments in response, each of which is sufficient to debunk this argument.


ARGUMENT 1

Believers do not have life in themselves, only God has life in himself.

We have eternal life by virtue of being in Christ.

Truly, truly I say to you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself… John 5:25-26


So, the Father has life in himself and the Son has life in himself, but nowhere does the bible say that we have life in ourselves.

We have eternal life, not in ourselves but in Christ.


And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:11-12


For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2


Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2 Timothy 1:1


So, we have eternal life in Christ, but if you are not in Christ, or no longer in Christ, then you do not have eternal life or no longer have eternal life.

Adam had eternal life, but he lost it because he did not have eternal life in himself, but he had it by virtue of his access to the tree of life.

So long as he kept eating from the tree of life he had eternal life, but if he ceased eating he lost it. In the same way we too have eternal life if we keep on believing in Christ, but if we don’t continue in our faith then we lose eternal life.

Another illustration of this is the parable of the vine and the branches.

The branches have life so long as they are in the vine. The branches have life by virtue of being in the vine. So long as we are in Christ we have eternal life, but if we turn away from Christ we lose the eternal life that is in Christ.

He alone has immortality, living in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen, nor can see. To Him be honor and everlasting power. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:16


ARGUMENT 2

Eternal life is not a duration of existence, even people in hell have that kind of eternal life.

Eternal life is fellowship with God.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3

Eternal life is fellowship with God.

The opposite of eternal life is death and separation from God.

Adam was told that the day he ate of the forbidden fruit he would surely die, and what happened? He did not die physically, he was removed from the garden of Eden where he used to walk with God in the cool of the day.

The father of the prodigal Son said that his son was once dead but now he is alive.

People in hell will forever be cut off from God’s favorable presence but the righteous will have fellowship with God and that is what it means to have eternal life.

Everybody lives forever, even those in hell, but not everyone has fellowship with God in Christ.


ARGUMENT 3

“Believe” is in the present tense and it is not referring to a once off moment in which you believed, it’s referring to those who are believing or those who believe and go on believing.


He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved. But he who does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:15-16


If you say that this passage means that he who believes once is saved, then you have to equally say that he who does not believe once is condemned.

We must not only believe once, we must continue to believe.

We are kept by the power of God through faith.


Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Hebrews 3:12