Do We Only Hope we Have Eternal Life?

hope of eternal life Every so often, I answer Bible Questions and Theology questions that people send in by email. I not only answer them by email, but also try to post the answers on my blog, since I am sure that others might have similar questions.

Question about the Hope of Eternal Life

Here is a theology question that a reader sent in last week:

I am a new convert to the truth in God’s word of eternal security, therefore I was once a “conditional” securist but I no longer believe in this false doctrine. However something has been bothering me and I am having trouble understanding it, I have searched your website for the answer and was unsuccessful.

In the book of John in many places it is recorded as Jesus having told us we “have” eternal life now in the present, however elsewhere it the scriptures it seems to say we have the hope of eternal life but we don’t actually posses it.

This has confused me, does the Bible mean we have eternal life now, we just enter into it when we die? Or does it teach that we don’t yet have eternal life, but we will obtain eternal life in the future? The latter one sounds to me like conditional security (which I know we both do not believe in). However I am having trouble with this.

Could you perhaps help me to understand this?

Answer about the Hope of Eternal Life

Here is my answer:

The verse you might be thinking of is Titus 3:7. The way to understand this verse is to recognize that in Scripture, “hope” is not the same thing that we think of as “hope.” The Greek word for “hope” (Greek: elpis) is a certain or confident expectation, not a “I wish and dream it might possibly come true” (See Vine’s Expository Dictionary, p. 311). So the best way to understand “hope” in the New Testament is as an “expectation.” Since “certain expectation” is not what we usually think of when we use the word “hope” in speaking today, it might be wise to translate elpis as “expectation” as that word better carries the meaning of the term.

So, for example, Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:1 about “Christ is our hope.” In the context, Paul is pointing out that Jesus is a certain and sure way of receiving eternal life. Also, in Romans 8:24 he argues that our hope in God helps us know we will get what God has promised, even though much of what we hope for will only be received in the future.

It must be noted that hope in man is not certain, as men will almost always let us down. This is the point of Jesus in John 5:45. Some of the Jewish people put their hope in Moses, and specifically in obeying the Law of Moses (see the discussion of Jewish hope in TNDT, II:527-529). Jesus says that this only leads to them begin accused by the Law. Instead, we must hope in God, and specifically in Jesus Christ, Who will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb 13:5). Because our hope is in God and what He accomplished through Jesus Christ, we can know we have eternal life.

How to KNOW you Have Eternal Life

Below is a series of questions I sometimes use to help people KNOW they have eternal life. It is based off of several things that John writes in 1 John 5. I invite the person I am speaking with to turn to 1 John 5:11-13, and based on what we read there, to answer the following questions.

In case you don’t have a Bible in front of you, here is the text:

¹¹ And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

And here are the questions I ask from this text:

believe in Jesus for eternal life If you want to gain assurance of salvation, open your Bible to 1 John 5:11-13, and from the text, answer the following questions.

What has God given us?
Where is this life?
Who has eternal life?
How do they get eternal life?
Who does not have eternal life?
Is there any alternative?
Has this been written so that we may hope we have eternal life?
Is God making a promise?
Would God lie to us?
Have you received the Son?
Then do you know that you have eternal life?
On what ground or basis can you know this?
When can you know this?

According to 1 John 5:11-13, if you have believed in Jesus Christ for eternal life, you have eternal life.

God Himself promises it.

I “hope” that helps! Ha!

If you have a Bible or Theology question, you would like to ask, submit it by clicking here.

Tammy

I like the picture of the sunset and the road. You will like what lies ahead even better than the picture. It’s all free!
- http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers
  
  You got it! The picture was not randomly chosen, but showed the freedom of our future in Christ.
http://twitter.com/docshawn Shawn Anderson

Thanks for the good words, Jeremy. I think there is sometimes confusion surrounding our hope because of a fundamental misunderstanding of grace. Hebrews 10:10 teaches us that Jesus sacrificed himself for us “once for all”. Our sins were not simply pushed forward a year as they were under the Law of Moses; Jesus was the perfect sacrifice because he took our sins away forever. That is grace! Additionally, the blood of Jesus “purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The word “purifies” is in present tense–even in the original Greek–meaning that Jesus’ blood continually washes away our sins. Grace is not something we earn; it is given to us freely as a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). The only thing conditional about grace is that we must accept it.
- http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers
  
  Shawn,
  Absolutely true. We often misunderstand the Gospel and hope because we misunderstand grace. A robust grasp of grace is critical for following Jesus, reading the Scriptures, and interacting with other people. As you say, grace is an absolutely, all-encompassing, radical free gift of God.
John Fisher

I agree with your explanation of how the word ‘hope’ is used here as opposed to how we often use it today. Much like “Love,” the everyday use of the word in our society makes it difficult when we want to discuss it and other words that should be quite powerful and clear.

However, do you then agree with the reader that asked you the question on the issue of Eternal Security? Your “No Sacrifice for Willful Sin is Left” post seems to suggest it, but I’ve heard you refer to yourself (perhaps somewhat in jest) as a 2.5 point Calvinist, giving 1/2 to each point, so perhaps your 1/2 point in “Perseverance of the Saints” doesn’t fully mean what the doctrine of Eternal Security actually from a traditional Calvinist perspective.

As far as I’m concerned, Eternal Security, or Perseverance of the Saints simply can’t be true. I’ve simply known people personally who well into their adult lives were confident their acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and their acceptance of eternal life, but eventually they came to disbelieve in the existence of God – some going so far as to eventually say with confidence that not only do they not believe in the existence of God anymore but that if God does exist they would never again worship Him or want anything to do with Him.

If the doctrine of Eternal Security is true then, such people, having already secured their salvation are still ‘saved’, despite their subsequent rejection; we will one day meet with such people in Paradise, though they will be with us eternally basking in the presence and love of God we’ll always have them to tell us how much they hate it here and hate this God who’s presence we share.

Otherwise we have believe that if they are currently rejecting God it must mean that they were never “really saved” despite what they say. I’ve seen far too many Christians, so confident that “once saved, always saved” they therefore must dismiss the genuine experiences of these types of people; instead of expressing love and concern for someone who’s relationship with God is suffering, they inevitibly come across as smug and arrogant in telling them that they are either lying or foolishly mistaken in thinking they were saved before (“But I’m want to help you get REALLY saved”).

Incidentally, the doctrine of Eternal Security could be true depending on how you interpret Scripture, it is that it contradicts reality as I’ve experienced it that convinces me it is false – if I’m confident that God did not create a self-contradictory Creation there is still room for my lack of understanding; but the doctrine of Eternal Security and that of Assurance of Salvation are most certainly logically mutually exclusive without any room for misunderstanding on an observers part.
- http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers
  
  John,
  
  Good questions. I really need to write more on this, not just to share my thoughts, but to get them all organized in my own brain.
  
  My basic answer is that “eternal security” is not “Scriptural” …. but only because the term is not mentioned in the Bible, and often carries all sorts of theological baggage that confuses people and leads them astray. One of the problems is how we use the word “saved” and how the Bible uses it. It’s a term that trips a lot of people up. Also, the word “Gospel” is another term that means something different in most people’s minds than what the Bible means by it.
  
  I do believe that eternal life, once given, is eternal. Earl Radmacher used to say that if everlasting life is not everlasting, it has the wrong name. I agree. Explaining and defending this would take a whole series of posts… or maybe a free ebook…. (it’s in the works… but will be YEARS before I put it out).
  - John Fisher
    
    Yes, “Saved” is one of those words I threw quotes around because the problem with having a conversation like this is that often when we use a new word to explain something we only introduce a new term that needs explanation itself, I read the same thing out of your use of “Scritputral.”
    
    For example, I consider the Trinity to be Scriptural – not just ‘not opposed to Scripture’, but actually so evident by implication that we only had to later come up with a term to describe what we all knew was there. But then there are some who consider themselves Christians who do not believe in the Trinity (so what makes someone REALLY “Christian?). I would like to then be able to say “Well, at least all orthodox Christians believe in the existence of the Trinity,” except that most would think that I mean the denomination(s) of Orthodox Christians.
    
    You’re right, this could fill several pages, or would work better in a real life dialog where our use of terms can quickly be cleared up as the come up rather than having paragraphs worth to deal with.
    
    I agree with Earl Radmacher’s saying, but the question then is, when precisely is it actually ‘given’, or is it more correct to say “once received” rather than “once given”?
    - http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers
      
      John,
      
      Good points. I do think there are lots of people who think they have eternal life, but maybe don’t… and there are probably lots of people who have it but don’t think they do.
      
      As far as I can tell, if a person believes in Jesus for eternal life, He gives it to them. This seems to be His promise all over in the Gospel of John (3:16; 5:24; 6:47, etc). So if someone says they have believed in Jesus for eternal life, I assume they have it, even if their life does not look the way I think it should.
      
      But of course, if someone says, “I went forward at a Crusade and I go to church,” well, this says nothing one way or the other about whether they have eternal life or not. They might have it, and are just confused about how they got it, or they might not have it at all because they have not yet believed in Jesus for eternal life.
      
      It really is a case-by-case basis, and even then, I try to reserve judgment, as determining people’s eternal destiny is God’s prerogative alone.
http://www.facebook.com/aaron.david.wallace Aaron David Wallace

Thank you for this post. I’ve been struggling with assurance lately and this was really helpful.
- http://www.tillhecomes.org/ Jeremy Myers
  
  I really should write more on this topic… thanks for the comment!