You obtain eternal life by degrees
The purpose of life isn’t just to live forever, but to live forever as a better person than you were before.1 Eternal life is an outcome, but it is reached through the process of learning more about Jesus and living up to what you learn.2
All people who obtain eternal life are saved from their sins, as you cannot enter into eternal life without sincerely living as you believe he would in your place.3 However, while you can’t enter into eternal life without fully reconciling to how you understand Jesus to be, doing so does not entitle you to a degree of eternal life beyond the limits of how well you know and live like God.
The measure of eternal life that you receive will equal the measure of the character of Christ you acquire and live in mortal life. The degree of eternal life you obtain is a function of how similar to Jesus you become. The more similar you are to Jesus, the more your eternal life resembles his. Eternal life is something that exists by degrees, corresponding to the accuracy, depth, and breadth of the individual’s understanding of Jesus to which they are reconciled. The more you know about and live like God, the more of eternal life you will receive, because the more like him you are, the more your life will resemble his.4
Everyone with eternal life is fully reconciled to everything they know about Jesus, but they differ in how much they know about him. Each will have a different portion of eternal life depending on how accurate and complete their understanding of Jesus is. The extent to which people learn about and live like Jesus will create severe distinctions between people, even among those who live like Jesus, as far as they understand him to be.
The fullest degree of eternal life is to be as God actually is and to live as God actually does. It is to act like God would in your situation at all times and in all places; to do as he does and to feel as he does, all of the time; to see the world as he does, see yourself as he does, and see others as he does. You can’t live like God does or have what God has beyond the extent to which you are actually as God is.138 This is the only way possible to receive everything he has, which he only has because of how he is.
Footnotes
- 1. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10) ↩
- 2. Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life. (Romans 2:6-7) ↩
- 3. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-23) ↩
- 4. For your sake I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, From whom every good thing flows through and to every family in heaven and on earth to the extent they know him and live as he would in their place, That he might give you according to the riches of his glory, with power, to be strengthened by his Spirit in your inner man, For this is the way through which Christ inhabits your hearts, and how you come to be founded upon and rooted in love, Until you can fully comprehend, with all the saints, the true breadth and length and height and depth, knowing the transcendent love of Christ, being filled with the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, Author’s Reflection) ↩