Hello All,

As I sat down to write this morning the Lord drew me to a verse that He highlighted earlier this week in the Gospel of John.  As I was reading, this verse jumped out at me and revelation came as I began to meditate on it.

John 17:3
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  NKJV

What jumped out at me was the fact that we have a definition of Eternal Life given by Jesus Himself.  In this verse He defines eternal life as knowing the Father and knowing Him and it shouts relationship.  To fully understand this I want to go back to the first time Jesus mentions eternal life in the book of John.  We see in John chapter 3 that Jesus came that we would have “eternal life,” which He described as something we possess once we believe in Him…

John 3:15-16
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  NKJV

What is so powerful about these verses…which define this eternal life that we possess…is the fact that we have this life because we are positioned “into Him.”  Let me explain, the word “in”… which is used in this verse… literally means “into.”  So, when we accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord we are literally placed “into Him” and it is in Him that we possess this “eternal life.”  I want to define the word eternal/ everlasting (same Greek word) and the word Life, so that we can understand what is really being said…

Eternal – NT:166 – aionios -without beginning or end, that which always has been and always will be:  (Thayer's Greek Lexicon)

Life – NT:2222 – zoe – the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic ‎logos‎and to Christ in whom the ‎logos ‎put on human nature (Thayer's Greek Lexicon)

So, this eternal/everlasting life is based on the fact that once we “believe” we are placed into Him…and He is eternal LIFE!  Jesus “always has been and always will be” and He has the “absolute fullness of life…which belongs to God” and we are placed “into Him.”  Now that excites me…that means that we are not walking with Christ Jesus on the earth…we are walking “in Him.”  We must not allow the traditions of man to relegate “eternal life” to a future hope, while Jesus sees it as a present position…that includes our future.

I will close by looking back to our first scripture and defining one more word…

Know– NT:1097 – ginooskoo – to become acquainted with, the one, true God (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon)