1 John 5:13, "My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion." (MSB)

N. B.: Please pray in the Holy Ghost as led while reading this.

The Scriptures always reiterate this truth that if we believe in Jesus, that we are saved and have eternal life. This is because we need to know and be confident that we truly have it.
There's something what we're confident about do to us. It builds us up so as to live the way we should live, to live according to our true nature.

What is eternal life?

Most of us always envision eternal life as afterlife i.e. the enjoyment after life.
We're right though. But there's more.

We also see it as a state of living forever.
As much as we're right, it's still an understatement.

I would encourage us not to interpret the scriptures with human's limited scope of knowledge, but with the knowledge of the One Who inspired it. This is because right understanding of a  thing doesn't come from the meaning the readers give it but how well we understand the mind of the writer. In the same vein, to grasp God's word accurately, we must understand the mind of God through His Spirit so as to avoid misinterpretation and watering down what He's telling us.

Let's move on.

Truly, eternal life is talking about the life that lasts forever.

But who is the one that has this kind of life that lasts forever?

It's God right?
Yeah.

Having eternal life is having God, having His kind of life (ZOE).
God's life lasts forever in HIS FULLNESS.

We can also put John 3:16 as: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have God's life".

Did you see that?
You have God's life the moment you believed in Him. God gave you Himself. (Blessed be the Lord Who gave us Himself).

If we have been seeing it this way, we wouldn't have watered down the meaning. And believe me, our experiences stem how we see/know the scriptures. Lack of knowledge is what makes people perish, you know? Limited knowledge makes people perish as well.

I repeat, eternal life is not only talking about a glorious afterlife or a life that lasts forever, but it talks of God's life.
And you wouldn't tell me that it's after we leave this world that we'll start living God's type of life.

Nay, it starts here and now!

You have God's kind of life, start manifesting it.

I'll leave us with this scripture for now.
"Matt.5:16 - Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven." (AMP)

to be continued...

Peace!