Let us read Mark 10:30. "But that he shall receive a hundred times as much now at this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecutions, and in the coming age, eternal life." Here the Lord Jesus mentions eternal life again. We have to note what kind of eternal life this is. The eternal life in Mark 10:30 is not the eternal life of the church age spoken of in the Gospel of John or the eternal life in the new heaven and new earth. Please note that this eternal life is in the coming age. The phrase the coming age in the original language means the next age or the subsequent age. Today we are in the age of grace. The next age is the age of the kingdom, that is, the age of the millennium. Here, the Lord says that one can receive eternal life in the coming age. This does not refer to the eternal life we receive when we believe in the Lord.

Before the Lord spoke this word, a man came to Jesus asking what he should do to inherit eternal life. This was a question concerning works. Hence, the Lord Jesus told him of an eternal life that is gained by works. He told the young man that he must keep the law and sell all he had before he could inherit this eternal life. In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus shows us clearly that eternal life comes by grace and not by works. So why does He say here that we have to keep the law and sell all that we have, before we can inherit eternal life? It is because the eternal life described here in Mark 10 is different from the eternal life described in John. The eternal life in Mark 10 is received through works. The eternal life in John is received through faith.

After the young man left, the Lord Jesus looked around Him and said to the disciples, "How difficult it will be for those who have riches to enter into the kingdom of God!" (v. 23). In saying this, the Lord put eternal life and the kingdom together. After the Lord Jesus said this, the disciples wondered what His word meant. The Lord said, "Children, how difficult it is for those who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (vv. 24-25). The disciples were astounded and asked who then could be saved. The Lord said that "with men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God" (v. 27). Peter then asked what he would get for having left all to follow Him, and the Lord told them of the things that are to come. "Jesus said, Truly I say to you, There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now at this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecutions, and in the coming age, eternal life" (vv. 29-30). They will receive eternal life in the kingdom.