And Eternal Life?
“Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die."”
John 11:25-26 (ESV)
The question of eternal life is not asked in the abstract. It is asked at the bedside of a sick parent, in front of a coffin, or on an evening when we realize we are mortal. The Christian faith does not give a precise description of the afterlife; it gives a person.
Jesus did not say "I tell you about the resurrection" — He said "I am the resurrection." Eternal life is not a place you reach later; it is a quality of life that begins now, in Him, and that will not be extinguished with your last breath. Martha, standing before her brother's tomb, heard this promise. You can hear it too, wherever you stand.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (ESV)
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 5:11-12 (ESV)
O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?
1 Corinthians 15:55 (ESV)