What is "Eternal Life"?

Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life (Jn. 6:68).

 

Before I started to become sensitive to the words of Scripture, I imagined I "knew" what was meant by the term "eternal life."  I thought it referred to the life we would enjoy after this life -- everlasting life in heaven, with all the saints and angels and the eternal Presence of God. 

 

However, after experiencing a whole new kind of "life" as a result of my encounter with the Lord, I began to think that "eternal life" meant a great deal more than living forever in heaven.  I already knew that the "eternal life" referred to all through the book of John was based on the Greek word "zoe" as opposed to the Greek "bios."  Both words are used throughout John's Gospel, and it is a wonderful experience just to read the Gospel noticing the references to "zoe." 

 

When Jesus says, "The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (Jn, 10), the word "bios" is used, meaning "breath" or "spirit."  Throughout all of Chapter 6, however, the word "zoe" is used:



 

I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 

 

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.  The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

 

I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

 

The meaning of the Greek "zoe" is "lively," to live life lively, quick, energetic, with delight and satisfaction.  And this "eternal life" begins NOW for those who live in Jesus Christ.  This is what He came to impart to us --- not just life after death, but life in this life also:  I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.  The fullness of life, the joy of life.  He came to deliver us NOW from fear, from anxiety, from oppression, from slavery to sin and lust that destroys not only us but those around us. 

 

Eternal life is the present life filled with ultimate purpose and meaning,

life given its ultimate horizon, and lived beyond the insecurities and frailties of our humanity because it is now grounded in a firm and perceptible relationship with the God who is indestructible and utterly reliable (Fr. Anthony Oelrich, author of Feeding on the Bread of Life: Preaching and Praying John 6).

 

When Jesus begins to live His life in us, we are at last on "firm ground," whereas before we walked, as it were, in a slippery bog, fearful of human opinion and of our own failure.  When Peter tells Jesus that He alone has the "words of eternal life," he testifies that the words of Jesus, opening to us the Scriptures, bring us security:  As soon as I lie down, I fall peacefully asleep, for you alone, O Lord, bring security to my dwelling (Ps. 4).

 

St. John Chrysostom tells us that the Scriptures are "a door, for they bring us to God and open to us the knowledge of God; they make the sheep, they guard them, and suffer not the wolves to come in after them.  For Scripture, like some sure door, barreth the passage against the heretics, placing us in a state of safety as to all that we desire, and not allowing us wander; and if we undo it not, we shall not easily be conquered by our foes.  By it we can know all, both those who are, and those who are not, shepherds....Seest thou from this too that Christ agreeth with the Father, in that He bringeth forth the Scriptures?  (Commentaries on the Gospel of John).

 

Jesus is the Word made flesh.  In Him is eternal life, and only He can open to us the words of eternal life (zoe).  There are many today who care nothing about the next life, the one after this one, if they think about it at all.  But surely they do care about today's "life."  If we would have liveliness, energy, joy, enthusiasm, satisfaction, fulfillment, and "length of days" in this life, we would do well to hear and consume the words of eternal life given to us by Jesus Christ.