Promised, Given, and Possessed in Christ
There is no question more important than this: Do you possess eternal life? The rich young ruler asked Jesus, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” A lawyer asked a similar question: “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” These men understood that eternal life mattered, but both approached the subject with the same assumption. They believed there must be something they could do to obtain it.
That assumption is still common today. People imagine that eternal life is a reward for good behavior, religious devotion, morality, church attendance, generosity, or personal improvement. Others think eternal life simply means living forever, or that it is something a person receives only after death. Scripture presents something far greater.
Eternal life is not merely endless existence. The lost will also exist eternally, but their eternal destiny is not called eternal life in the saving sense presented in Scripture. Neither is eternal life something that suddenly begins when a Christian dies. According to the Bible, eternal life is a present possession. If we are to answer the question, “Do you possess eternal life?” we must therefore understand where eternal life comes from, how it is given, and who possesses it.
Eternal Life Cannot Be Earned
When the rich young ruler and the lawyer asked Jesus what they must do to inherit eternal life, Christ pointed them to the commandments of God. Why? Was Jesus teaching salvation by works? No. He was confronting their confidence in their own ability.
Galatians declares, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” Anyone who attempts to earn acceptance with God by keeping His law places himself under the law’s demands, and those demands are absolute. The law requires personal obedience, perfect obedience, and perpetual obedience.
It is not enough to keep most of God’s commandments most of the time. A man seeking to earn eternal life through obedience would have to obey God personally, perfectly, and perpetually from the beginning of his life until the end. No sinner can do that.
Suppose a man determined that from this day forward he would never sin again. Even if such a thing were possible, what would he do about yesterday’s sins? What about all the commandments he had already broken? Future obedience could never erase past guilt. That is why the law cannot justify a sinner.
The rich young ruler believed he had kept the commandments from his youth. Christ then exposed the condition of his heart by telling him to sell what he possessed, give to the poor, take up his cross, and follow Him. The young man went away sorrowful because he had great possessions. His money had become his god.
Christ was not establishing a universal requirement that everyone must sell everything before being saved. He was applying God’s law directly to this man’s heart and demonstrating that his claim to perfect obedience was false. The law does not provide sinners with a ladder by which they may climb into eternal life. It exposes our guilt and destroys our confidence in our own righteousness. If eternal life is ours, it must come another way.
Eternal Life Was Promised Before the World Began
Titus 1:2 speaks of the “hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” That statement takes us beyond our own lifetime, beyond human history, and even beyond creation itself. Eternal life was in the purpose of God before the world began.
It was not devised as an emergency response after man sinned. Redemption was not God attempting to repair an unforeseen disaster. According to the sermon’s presentation of these passages, eternal life belongs to the eternal purpose of God and to the everlasting covenant.
Hebrews speaks of “the blood of the everlasting covenant.” John 17 repeatedly records Christ speaking of people whom the Father had given Him. Galatians 4 says that when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son “to redeem them that were under the law.”
The work of salvation is therefore presented as the work of the triune God. The Father chose and gave a people to the Son. The Son came into the world to redeem them. The Holy Spirit regenerates and calls them.
Ephesians 1 beautifully brings these truths together. Believers are said to have been chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world.” In Christ, they have “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Those who hear and believe the gospel are then “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”
Salvation, from beginning to end, is of grace. Second Timothy 1:9 says that God “hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace.” That grace was given “in Christ Jesus before the world began.”
The sinner therefore has no room for boasting. Eternal life does not originate in human merit, human decision, human worthiness, or human works. Its fountain is the eternal grace and purpose of God in Jesus Christ.
Eternal Life Is a Gift
What God purposed in eternity is manifested in time through the preaching of the gospel. Titus says that the promise made before the world began was “in due times manifested his word through preaching.” The gospel announces in history what God purposed in eternity.
When Scripture speaks of eternal life being given to sinners, it consistently describes it as a gift. Jesus said of His sheep, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.” Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” First John says, “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.”
Eternal life is not a wage, compensation, or God paying a debt to a worthy individual. It is a gift of grace. More than that, eternal life cannot be separated from Jesus Christ Himself.
First John 5 says, “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” It continues, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” That is the dividing line.
Eternal life is not found merely in religious knowledge. It is not found in ceremonies, denominations, moral philosophies, or human achievement. Eternal life is in the Son of God. To possess Christ is to possess life, and to be without Christ is to be without eternal life.
Who Possesses Eternal Life?
From the divine side, the sermon emphasizes those whom the Father gave to Christ. Jesus said in John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” In John 17, He repeatedly referred to those whom the Father had given Him. He also prayed, “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” Acts 13:48 similarly says, “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”
But this divine purpose does not erase human responsibility. The same Christ who said, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me,” also said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” There is the divine side and the human side together.
Those whom the Father gives to Christ come to Christ in time. They repent of sin and believe the gospel. They turn from self-righteousness, rebellion, and confidence in their own works, and they trust Christ alone. Repentance and faith do not earn eternal life. They are the means through which the sinner comes to Christ, who alone possesses and gives eternal life.
The evidence of salvation also appears in a changed life. Paul told the Thessalonian believers that he knew their “election of God” because the gospel had come to them “in power, and in the Holy Ghost.” They had received the Word, become followers of the Lord, endured affliction, spread the gospel, turned “to God from idols to serve the living and true God,” and waited for His Son from heaven.
Their lives provided evidence that God had done a saving work within them. True eternal life manifests itself. A person does not become sinless, but a new direction appears. There is repentance, faith, love for Christ, a desire for holiness, perseverance, and a turning from idols to serve the living God.
Why Sit Here Until We Die?
Near the conclusion of the sermon, an Old Testament account provides a powerful illustration. In 2 Kings 7, Samaria was surrounded by the Syrian army and suffering from terrible famine. Four lepers sat outside the city gate. They could not remain where they were without dying. Going back into the city offered no hope. Their only possibility was to approach the Syrian camp.
So they asked one another, “Why sit we here until we die?” That question applies powerfully to the sinner.
Someone may hear about God’s sovereignty and ask, “How do I know whether I am one of those given to Christ?” The answer is not to sit still in despair. Come to Christ. Seek Him for mercy. Seek repentance. Seek faith. Turn from your sin and cast yourself upon the Savior.
You lose nothing by coming to Him, and Christ has already given this promise: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility are not enemies. God remains sovereign, and man remains responsible to repent and believe.
The gospel does not tell the sinner to discover the secret counsels of God before coming to Christ. It tells him to come.
Do You Possess Eternal Life?
We return, then, to the original question: Do you possess eternal life? Not: Are you religious? Not: Were you baptized? Not: Do you attend church? Not: Are you trying to become a better person? Not even: Do you hope you will go to heaven when you die?
Do you possess eternal life now?
The Bible’s answer centers entirely upon Jesus Christ. “He that hath the Son hath life.” Eternal life was purposed by God, promised before the world began, purchased through the work of Christ, revealed through the gospel, and given freely by grace.
You cannot earn it, purchase it, or deserve it. You must receive it in Christ. If you are resting in your own works, abandon them as the basis of your hope. If you are clinging to your own righteousness, recognize that it cannot satisfy the perfect demands of God’s law. If you are living apart from Christ, do not presume upon tomorrow.
Come to Christ in repentance and faith. When a sinner comes to Him, he discovers that the Savior who gives eternal life is also the Savior who promises, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
Eternal life is not merely a future hope for the Christian. It is a present possession in Jesus Christ.