John 17:3
Now this is Eternal Life
3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Luke 14:15-24
Parable of the Great Banquet
15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
Romans 5:12-21
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hebrews 11:6
Believing and Seeking God with Faith
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
God is LOVE...And He LOVES each and everyone of us...He is not constrained by who we are or who we are not, and in this sense we all can receive His gift of grace...Everyone is included equally in His Grace...We are all forgiven of our sins, and pardoned by His Son Jesus who died on the cross for our sins...So if all of us are included in His Grace then why do we even need to believe in God and His Son...God’s Grace and His Gift of Grace came by the Grace of the One Man, who is full of Grace and Truth -His Son, Jesus...
Jesus says this: "Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent...St. John writes in his gospel that 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...For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him...
So, if we believe in the One True God and His Son then we are given everlasting life with Them, because Jesus died on the cross for us...So included in God's pardon of our sins, is that we believe in them -to receive eternal life...So we must make the effort to seek Them, believe in Them, and have faith in Them...Or as the Hebrew author writes that without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him...So we must seek God and have faith in Him and His Son if we want eternal life with Them...
God gives us this free will through His LOVE to seek both Him and His Son and to have faith them, but that is our choice...And we make this and these choices each and everyday...We may have reasons of being to busy, not having the time, I have other things I am doing and would rather do, or whatever the reason we may not find Him or maybe even seek Him...But God's free will gives us the choice to seek and find Him or not to seek Him at all...Jesus paid our sin debt, but have we accepted it through the choices we make and our believing and searching in Him and having faith in Him and His Father...
Theologian William Lane Craig seems to say that this acceptance of Jesus' death on the cross is part of the pardoning process in us seeking and searching for God...Mr. Craig writes this about the atonement process: "The theological analogue to this situation concerns whether a divine pardon must be accepted in order to be efficacious...Given my commitment to human freedom of the will, I think that it must... Obviously, God is not constrained by some higher law, but He is constrained by human freedom...Theologians have differed on whether God’s grace is intrinsically efficacious and so irresistible by Him upon whom it is bestowed or whether grace is extrinsically efficacious and so requires the free consent of the creaturely will in order to produce its effect...I take the latter view...God treats us as significant moral agents who make free moral choices...He would violate His own essential justice if He forced a pardon upon us...Because it is Christ and not we who has discharged the sentence for our sins, our redemption is not accomplished unless and until we freely receive God’s pardon...In contrast to the criminal who has been pardoned after fully serving his sentence, we remain in our state of judicial condemnation until we accept the pardon offered us by God...If anyone refuses the pardon offered by God, then Christ’s sacrifice avails him nothing, for he has rejected the satisfaction of God’s justice wrought by Christ...Thus, “those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One Man Jesus Christ” (Rom 5.17)...
Let us seek God's Grace through our faith...We can all accept His Gift of Grace, but some will not...We can all accept His Son and believe in Him, but some will not...In Jesus' Parable of the Great Banquet some, in fact, many did not accept His invitation...Even a few lost children who refuse His invitation of Grace is many to Him...Let us seek and find God and His Son and receive eternal life and accept through faith and believe in the One True God and His Son...Now this is eternal life with Them...