I believe in the life everlasting

What will follow the resurrection of the dead? The answer is eternal life. This phrase occurs 43 times in the New Testament and was a key part of the early Christian message (Acts 13:46,48). “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23).

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The word eternal in Greek is aionios, meaning an age or aeon – in practice it was used for the age to come. That age has no ending, so it came to have the meaning everlasting (e.g. Matt.25:46; Luke 16:9; John 12:25). But it’s about quality, not just duration. The life of the age to come is the life of God himself. So John writes, “We proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and which has appeared to us... Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 1:2; 5:20).

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Jesus came to bring this life in its fulness i.e. the eternal life of the age to come (John 10:10). So eternal life is already given to believers (John 5:24). It begins now, even before the resurrection! (John 6:40,54). “This is eternal life,” prayed Jesus, “that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). This life in all its glory awaits the last day, but all who have Jesus already know a foretaste of it (1 John 5:11-12).