What is Everlasting Life?

What do we mean by everlasting life?¹

By everlasting life, we mean a new existence, in which we are united with all the people of God, in the joy of fully knowing and loving God and each other.

To whom does God give eternal life?²

God gives eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

• Eternal life is a present possession (John 17:3; John 3:16; Romans 10:9; John 3:36).
• At the time of death, the soul of a believer is immediately with Christ in heaven (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Luke 23:43; John 17:24; Philippians 1:23-24; Revelation 14:13).
• At the Last Day the believers, in both body and soul, will begin the full enjoyment of being with Christ forever (1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Matthew 25:34; Psalms 16:11; Romans 8:18; 1 John 3:2).

Are you sure that you have eternal life?³

Even as I now believe in Christ my Savior, I also know that I have been chosen to eternal life out of pure grace in Christ without any merit of my own and that no one can pluck me out of His hand (eternal election of grace or predestination) (John 10:27-28; Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:3-6).

What comfort do you receive from the article about the life everlasting?⁴

Since I now already feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy (John 17:3; Romans 14:17; 2 Corinthians 5:2-3), I shall after this life possess perfect blessedness, such as no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived – a blessedness in which to praise God forever (John 17:24; 1 Corinthians 2:9).

As the day of judgment is not to be before the end of the world, how do you say that some men will then be alive, seeing it is appointed unto all men once to die (Hebrews 9:27)?⁵

Paul answers this question when he says, that those who then survive will undergo a sudden change, so that the corruption of the flesh being abolished, they will put on in-corruption. (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians. 4:17.)

Footnotes

1. Episcopal Catechism (1789), Question 121.
2. Luther’s Small Catechism (1529), Question 190.
3. Luther’s Small Catechism (1529), Question 191.
4. Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Question 58.
5. Geneva Catachism (1545), Question 84.