John 17:1-3
Now This is Eternal Life
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Jesus spoke often about Eternal Life...Much of the time when He was speaking about Eternal Life, He spoke about belief in Him and His Father...For us to have Eternal Life, we need to believe in Him and His Father...As we read these many verses about God, Jesus and Heaven, we see Him weaving in the importance and the many times of believing in His Father and in Him in His Teachings...Jesus comforted His Disciples before His death by saying, “Do not let your hearts be troubled...You believe in God; believe also in Me...My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I AM going there to prepare a place for you?...And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I AM...You know the way to the place where I AM going.”...
In His speaking about Eternal Life, we must believe in both God and Jesus...I cannot emphasis this enough that belief and faith in Jesus and His Father...His frequent mention of belief are the key to Eternal Life with Them...Jesus is the Only Way to God...In His verses of Scripture about Eternal Life, He makes it clear that He is the True Way, Life's Way to God and to Eternal Life...He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life...Eternal Life is a gift that is given to those who believe in Him....To receive Eternal Life with Him and His Father, for a life that is not subject to death or decay, but is Everlasting Life is to believe and have faith in Him and His Father...Jesus also makes it clear that He is the source of Eternal Life...He is the One who gives it to those who believe in Him, and He is the One who will raise us up at the last day...Jesus give us this promise of an Eternal Life that is lived in the presence of God...Jesus gives us this Promise of Hope and assurance of Eternal Life for those who believe in Him...And because Jesus died for our sins, this Promise of Eternal Life is one that is free from sin, suffering, and a final death...Eternal Life is Everlasting to Everlasting...
Jesus often spoke of Eternal Life and the Hope of Everlasting Life with Him and His Father...Jesus said and teaches us these things about Eternal Life: For God so LOVES the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have Eternal Life...Whoever believes in the Son has Eternal Life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on them...Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have Eternal Life in Him...Very truly Jesus tells us, whoever hears His Word and believes in Him and also believes in the One who sent Him to earth -has Eternal Life and will not be judged...For his belief the believer has crossed over from death to Eternal Life...For My Father's Will is that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him shall have Eternal Life, and then Jesus will raise these believers up at the last day...Jesus said to Mary, sister of Lazarus, "I AM the resurrection and the life...The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die...Do you believe this?"...
Jesus told His Disciples that He is the Way and the Truth and the Life...No one comes to the Father except through Him...Whoever drinks the water that Jesus will give us will never thirst again...Indeed, the water Jesus gives us will become in us a spring of water welling up to Eternal Life...Jesus is the Living Bread that came down from heaven...Whoever eats this bread will live forever and never die...This bread is His flesh, which He will die on the cross and give for the Life of the world...Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has Eternal Life, and I will raise them up at the last day...Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to Eternal Life, which the Son of Man will give you...For on Him, God the Father, has placed His seal of approval...Jesus' sheep do hear His voice, and He knows His sheep, and they will seek Him and follow Him...He then will give them Eternal Life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch those who believe in Him out of His hand...And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom You Father have sent...
Jesus knows that it is God's commands that lead to eternal life...Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear these things will live...For Jesus does not speak on His Own, but the Father who sent Him commanded Him to say all that He said on earth...Jesus knows that His Father's commands leads to Eternal Life...So whatever He said was just what the Father had told Him to say...
St. John wrote in His Gospel that these things are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name...Jesus teaches us that "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life."...
All these verses affirm Jesus' Teaching on Eternal Life...God has give us this gift of Eternal Life for those who believe in Him...They also make it clear that Jesus is the Only Source and the Only Way to Eternal Life with Him and His Father...