[Many Christians hold the concept that eternal life is a blessing given to the believers, in which they merely go to a heavenly mansion to enjoy a better life. When I was in Christianity, no one told me that eternal life is not a blessing, but that it is simply life. In our physical body we have a biological life (bios), and in our soul we have a psychological life (psuche). We had these two kinds of life before we were saved. But when we were saved, we received another life, the eternal life (zoe).
The eternal life is the life that is not only everlasting but eternal both in time and in nature (John 3:16, 36; 1 John 1:2). This life is unlimited both in time and in nature; hence, it is eternal.
The eternal life is the uncreated life of God (Eph. 4:18), the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16), and the incorruptible life (2 Tim. 1:10). Concerning the definition of the eternal life, I received much help through the writings of Watchman Nee, Mary McDonough, Ruth Paxson, and T. Austin-Sparks. Through their writings I came to know that to be regenerated is simply to receive God into us as our life, to receive a life that is divine, a life other than our human life.
The eternal life is the life that is in the Son of God and that is the Son of God (1 John 5:11-12; 1:2; John 14:6). This life is not only in the Son of God, but it is the Son of God Himself.
The eternal life is the life with which the believers are regenerated and which becomes the believers’ life (Col. 3:4a), making the believers the children of God (John 1:12-13) and the members of Christ (Eph. 5:30).]
[In 1 Timothy 6:12 the apostle Paul charged us to lay hold on this eternal life.
The New Testament teaches us that the eternal life has three stages, and these three stages are in three ages—the present age, the church age; the coming age, the kingdom age; and the eternal age, in the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center. In the first age, the church age, we receive the eternal life. Thus, it becomes our life, and we enjoy this life and live by it. In the church age it is a matter of receiving the eternal life, but in the next age, the age of the kingdom, the eternal life is not for people to receive, but for people to enter into. In Matthew 25:46, those among the nations who are judged by the Lord Jesus to be “sheep” will enter into eternal life in the kingdom age. Thus, in the coming age the eternal life will become a sphere for people to enter into. In that age the eternal life will be given as a reward. In this age the eternal life is for us to receive as a free gift (Rom. 6:23b), but in the coming age the eternal life will be for us to enter into, not as a free gift but as a reward. This reward will be given to both the overcoming believers and to the “sheep” in Matthew 25 who paid a price to take care of Christ’s brothers during the great tribulation. Then, in the eternal age, that is, in the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center, the eternal life will eventually be the consummated gift for all God’s redeemed people to manifest the Triune God for eternity.]
[It is by this eternal life and in this eternal life that the believers have been brought forth. The eternal life is crucial for the producing of the believers and for the building up of the organic Body of Christ.]
[The believers are tripartite beings of spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). The believers are redeemed, justified, and reconciled to God in Christ (Rom. 3:24; 5:10a). We have not only been saved; we have been redeemed, justified, and reconciled to God in Christ. The believers have been baptized into the Triune God to have an organic union with the processed Triune God (Matt. 28:19). In his Word Studies in the New Testament, M. R. Vincent, writing on Matthew 28:19, said, “Baptizing into the name of the Holy Trinity implies a spiritual and mystical union with Him.” Such a thought, such a revelation, has been lost in Christianity. Baptism is to baptize us into the Triune God that we may have an organic union with the processed Triune God.]
[The believers are regenerated in their spirit by the Spirit (John 3:5-6) with the divine life, which is Christ (Col. 3:4a), to be the children of God (John 1:12-13), having the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4b), and to be the members of Christ (Rom. 12:5) in the union of the divine life. Regeneration takes place in our spirit. It is carried out by the Spirit with the divine life, and it makes us, first, the children of God, and then, the members of Christ.] The believers have been crucified with Christ, being terminated in their old man (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6). [The believers have Christ living in them as the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit, indwelling them (Rom. 8:11).]