Only in Jesus Can One Have Eternal Life
In this end-time age, what must a person do to receive eternal life in Jesus?
The Bible reveals that eternal life is not something that can be earned through human good works, religious zeal, or human wisdom. Rather, it is a free gift of grace given by God through Jesus Christ.
However, those who receive this grace are not without response. The Bible clearly teaches how a person should continue to live in Jesus Christ and ultimately receive the eternal life promised by God. The following sections, based on the teachings of Jesus, will explain step by step how a person abides in Christ, follows God’s will, and remains faithful to the end of life.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
From this verse, we understand that eternal life is a gift from God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, if a person desires to receive eternal life, they must be in Christ Jesus. How then can a person be in Christ?
John 14:23
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
From this passage, we see that whoever loves Jesus will keep His word; and those who keep His word abide in Christ. Therefore, only by keeping the words of Jesus can a person remain in Him and receive eternal life. How then should one keep the words of Jesus?
John 15:12–13
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
From this passage, we see that Jesus commands His disciples to love one another as He has loved the world. How, then, did Jesus love the world?
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever continues to believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
From this verse, we understand that God sent Jesus into the world so that people might receive eternal life through faith in Him. Therefore, the essence of Jesus’ love for humanity is to bring God’s salvation to the world—leading people to know the truth, receive salvation, and obtain eternal life.
Thus, the command of Jesus to “love one another” is not limited to caring for or helping one another in daily life. It also includes earnestly helping others come to know the truth, receive the gospel, and obtain the eternal life given by God.
Matthew 22:34–40
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
From this passage, we see that a person must first love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind. Only those who truly love God can, according to His will, love their neighbor as themselves.
Therefore, loving one’s neighbor as oneself is not merely about meeting physical or material needs. More importantly, it is about helping others know the truth, receive the gospel, and obtain God’s salvation, so that they may ultimately receive eternal life.
Conclusion
Eternal life is the most precious gift given by God in Christ Jesus, and it is the hope and promise that every believer longs to receive throughout their life.
The Bible clearly teaches that whoever loves Jesus will keep His word; whoever keeps His word abides in Him; and whoever abides in Him has the hope of eternal life.
Therefore, a person must persist until death in loving the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind, and in loving their neighbor as themselves according to God’s will—actively helping those in need to know the truth, receive the gospel, and obtain God’s salvation.
Only by continually obeying the commandments of Jesus, abiding in Christ, and remaining faithful to the end is a person truly loving, serving, and glorifying God with all their heart, soul, and mind. In this way, they will inherit the eternal life promised by God in Christ Jesus.
Amen!
