GOD’S VIEW VS MAN’S VIEW
Most people don’t realize it, but there is a big, big difference between their human understanding of spiritual matters and God’s view. The matter of eternity and eternal life is an issue for which man could not be more wrong.

STUDY TIP: There are two important facts to know before understanding eternal life. The first is to know what God means by the term “life”. This critical understanding is embodied in the scriptures in this link where we learn that God’s spoken word is the source of spiritual life. In order to understand life, however, it is necessary to understand the symbolism of spiritual food found in this link.

It will be helpful to read SALVATION, ETERNAL LIFE, HEAVEN AND FORGIVENESS.

The second fact to know is how God sees time. He does not see it like man sees it. Furthermore, the Bible is written from God’s point of view. Reading Time: Hours, Days, Weeks and Ages will help understand what God means by eternity.

Jews and Christians think of eternal life as spiritual life that religious people enjoy in heaven with God, friends and family, after they die physically. For Jews, eternal life is the future reward for obeying God’s commandments. For Christians, it is the after-life reward for trusting Jesus for their salvation. Both religions are wrong.

For both religions, eternal life is exclusively a future event. Neither religion understands God’s view of eternal life/salvation as a “here and now” event that occurs in their hearts after they put their religious life to death. Again, both religions are wrong.

STUDY TIP: See Two Deaths for more about dying to religion. Also see Death, Resurrection, New Life, Salvation, Forgiveness, Heaven and Hell.

Jews and Christians will be shocked to learn that God’s view of eternal life is not at all what they have been taught. That is sort of a “good news/bad news” revelation. The bad news is that their efforts to attain eternal life for themselves and others have all been in vain. The bad news is that everything they have been working for through their religious practices leads to spiritual death — not life.

The good news is that they do not have to work at being religious to attain eternal life after they die physically. They can begin their eternal life with God today.

Religious people will not easily accept these statements because they are not at all in agreement with what their religions have taught them. Perhaps the following scriptures will convince them that they and the religious leaders that taught them are wrong:

John 12:50  “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

COMMENTARY: God’s commandment is contained in his spiritual laws written on the heart. In the Old Testament, his commandment is called the law which is also called the New Covenant.

One element of God’s spiritual law is that it is shared with people who are in bondage to religion. We see this truth when we look at Jesus’ ministry functions. Often, what Jesus is doing when he speaks, is reinterpret God’s written laws. Other times he gives specific instructions about how his followers should live. Examples include the following:

Jesus is one example of a messiah who is anointed to speak for God. In that capacity, he is a servant of God and a shepherd of his sheep. They are all true prophets sent by God to speak truth to his people.

The Bible also calls those who speak for God angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors. These characters all had the same ministry functions represented in Jesus. They all speak God’s words/commands.

The things that Jesus and other true prophets say should be considered to be equal to God’s voice because God sends them to speak for him. God’s commandments/words spoken through Jesus and other true prophets are eternal. People who have ears to hear and understand what they say have received eternal life. Eternal life, therefore, is a here and now reality — not something that happens in the future after they die physically. Eternal life is now.

John 17:1-3  Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

COMMENTARY: Son’s of God (i.e. Jesus and other New Covenant disciples who are born by the spirit of God) are glorified when their hearts are filled with God’s word (i.e. his glory).

God makes himself known when he writes his laws on hearts.  Sons of God (i.e. Jesus and his New Covenant followers) glorify God when they speak his words. God’s glory (i.e. his presence) is embodied in his spoken word.

Thus it can be said that son’s of God amplify and increase God’s presence (i.e. Epiginosko knowledge of God) every time they speak for God to people who are limited to Ginosko knowledge acquired by interpreting the Bible literally — not symbolically. In other words, they learn to know God and experience eternal life when they hear sons of God speak with God’s voice. This is true because knowing God and knowing his voice are one experience.

People who cannot hear God’s voice directly are religious people who are accustomed to listening to the voices of false prophets. Lacking spiritual eyes and ears, they need mediator/messiahs to interpret God’s voice and report what God says in human language.

When people hear God’s voice spoken through messiahs, the words they hear are life-giving because God’s words are the only source of spiritual life which is eternal life because, just as God is eternal, God’s word is eternal.

STUDY TIP: See this commentary on spiritual life.

Acts 13:48 When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord ; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

COMMENTARY: To glorify the word of the lord means to speak for God as a true prophet. When true prophets speak for God, people who have ears to hear believe what the prophet says. That means that God’s spoken word has been received in their hearts as truth. It also means that God’s laws have been written on their hearts. And it also means that they have eternal life that is embodied in God’s spoken word.

Romans 5:21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

COMMENTARY: Since religion is sin, religion leads to spiritual death. Spiritual death is a condition that applies to people who do not hear God’s spoken voice. That means that people who practice religion are spiritually dead.

Grace is God’s spoken word. Receiving grace leads to righteousness. And righteousness leads to eternal life. Therefore, God’s spoken word leads to eternal life.

Messsiahs, of which Jesus is an example, speak for God. Therefore, grace is accessed through messiahs (i.e. true prophets, angels, high priests, witnesses,) who speak for God.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

COMMENTARY: Wages are the earnings for work we do. Religion is the work of religious people. Because religion is sin, religious people earn the wage of spiritual death.

God’s spoken word is grace and grace is a free gift that is given freely by true prophets,  angels, messiahs, high priests, and witnesses.

Therefore, eternal life is the free gift of God’s spoken word spoken through those whom he sends to speak for him. Jesus is a model, or example, of someone who speaks for God. There is nothing special or attractive about Jesus or his followers except that they do not practice religion and that they do hear God’s voice and report what they hear to others. New Covenant disciples are followers of Jesus who also speak for God. Eternal life may be accessed through their words because, as Trees of Life, speak for God.

Galatians 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

COMMENTARY: Sowing to the flesh is symbolic language for advancement of religion for self and others. Because religion is sin, this sowing results in the corrupting influence of sin for self and others. This is what religious people do, and they do it through deceptive religious words and by displaying their religion in public. These words lead to death.

Sowing to the spirit means to speak God’s words. This is what New Covenant disciples (i.e. true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors do. These words lead to eternal life.

See COMMENTARY ON THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER. Also see COMMENTARY ON SPIRITUAL WORDS

1 Timothy 1:16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.

COMMENTARY: See Mercy for understanding that mercy is another term for God’s spoken word. This scripture says that the author found (i.e. heard) God’s spoken word, believed that Jesus spoke for God, and received eternal life. The author did not believe “in” Jesus the person, but he did believe “in” the words Jesus spoke.

Christians wrongly believe that eternal life is accessed through the man Jesus. That is why they create lovely, iconic images (i.e. pictures, statues, etc.) of him. In effect, they violate the first commandment by making Jesus into an idol that they can see, touch and worship. They do this without understanding that the only thing about Jesus that made him special was the words he spoke.

In his flesh, Jesus was only a son of man like any other human. In his spirit (i.e. his heart), however, Jesus was different, but he is not totally unique. He is an example of a Son of God who was born again. In that sense, he is like all other Sons of God whom God sends to speak for God. See How to Know if You are Born again.

Believing in Jesus, therefore, means to believe that he speaks for God and believing that the words he spoke on God’s behalf are true. Jesus told his disciples to believe (i.e. trust) that his words were spiritual (i.e God’s words), and Peter said that Jesus had the words of eternal life. Believing in Jesus does not mean believing in the physical person of Jesus as Christians do.

STUDY TIP: See Belief and Trust for understanding that believing and trusting Jesus means to believe and trust that the words he speaks are the words of father God.

Worship of anything physical, including people, is idolatry. That is why God wants people to worship in spirit and truth.

Eternal life is embodied in God’s word spoken through Jesus — not in Jesus himself. Jesus is only a messenger/prophet/messiah sent by God to speak God’s words to people who have hardened their hearts to hearing God’s voice directly.

1 John 1:1-3 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life 

COMMENTARY: Christians wrongly interpret this verse as a reference to the physical, human Jesus because “Word of Life” is capitalized like a proper name. They are mislead to this conclusion because of an editorial decision by the people who transcribed the Bible while being deceived with the erroneous belief that Jesus the man is eternal. This is a very good example of the lying pens of scribes who translate the Bible so that it agrees with their wrong theology. The “word of life,” therefore, is not a person called Jesus! The “word of life,” however, is God’s word spoken through Jesus.

What exists from the beginning is God’s spoken word — not Jesus. Jesus was only a man. Being a man, he did not have eternal qualities like God and his word. He, like other true prophets, had the words of eternal life, but, because he was only flesh, Jesus was not eternal. He had no inherent power or authority in his human body to convey eternal life to anyone else. The only power and authority he had was to speak God’s words which convey eternal life. Jesus could speak for God because, being born again spiritually, he was an anointed messiah. But, God did not suspend his natural laws to make Jesus live forever. The only thing about Jesus that was eternal was God’s eternal words he spoke.

John, the author of this scripture, was a New Covenant disciple who heard God’s spoken word. He could not have seen it or touched God’s word it because it is spiritual (i.e. invisible). Therefore, when John says he has seen and touched what existed from the beginning, he is saying symbolically that he saw it with spiritual eyes and touched it with spiritual hands — not physically.

2 and the life was  manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us- 

COMMENTARY: The “word of life” (i.e. God’s spoken word) was manifested (i.e. made known, made real) through hearing — not through seeing with natural eyes. It is the word of life embodied in faith that comes through hearing God’s spoken word.

John proclaimed (i.e. taught/shared) God’s spoken words with others (i.e. through his writings). This is what true prophets (e.g. John, Jesus, Paul, Peter, etc.) do. They teach others what they hear God telling them to say.

3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

COMMENTARY: See commentary above about proclaiming (i.e. teaching) what we hear God saying to others.

The reason for proclaiming God’s spoken word is so that others who have eyes to see and ears to hear can enjoy intimacy (i.e. fellowship) with father God. This intimacy involves an ongoing (i.e. eternal) practice of heart-to-heart communication (i.e. hearing and speaking) between God and his children (i.e. born again disciples who are created in God’s image).

Fellowship with Jesus does not mean the physical Jesus. Heart-to-heart fellowship does occur, however, between all people who are born again. They are hated outsiders with respect to the world of religion, but they are alike in the respect that they are created in God’s image.

John 6:35-40 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. 

COMMENTARY: When Jesus said he was the bread of life, he was not talking about his physical body. This is symbolic language referring to God’s words, spoken through him, are the bread of life. See Bread, Food and Wine for understanding of bread. Religious people who come to Jesus come because they are hungry for good spiritual food. 

Similarly, Jesus’ reference to thirst is not for natural water. It is thirst for spiritual water that flows from the mouth of God.

Belief here is not about belief in the person of Jesus. It is about belief that the words that Jesus speaks are actually God’s words. People who believe that Jesus speaks for God, therefore, will never hunger or thirst for God’s spoken voice.

COMMENTARY: Christians wrongly believe that it is God’s will that everyone goes to heaven after they die physically. They do not understand that God’s emphasis is on today.

The act of “beholding” is purely spiritual. It is not just a matter of seeing and hearing with physical eyes and ears. Many who saw and heard Jesus did not believe his words.

The act of believing in Jesus is not about believing in the physical Jesus as Christianity teaches. Belief in the person of Jesus is only religion because it depends on the physical man Jesus — not on his words. Whatever power and authority Jesus had existed only because he spoke for God. His physical flesh, like all flesh, counts for nothing. The only thing that matters is God’s spoken word which Jesus and his followers give.

Eternal life is accessed by people who have spiritual ears to hear God’s voice spoken through people like Jesus and his followers.

Eternal life, therefore, is God’s voice because God is eternal. God and his voice are the same thing.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

COMMENTARY: See commentary above. Also see Blood

John 5:24-25 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 

COMMENTARY: The primary point to consider here is this: People who hear Jesus’ word and believe that God sent  Jesus to speak for God have eternal life. There are two conditions here receiving eternal life:

In other words, eternal life is accessed by listening to (i.e. hearing and obeying) Jesus words. Hearing and obeying Jesus’ words is the equivalent of listening to God’s voice.

God’s voice is the same thing as eternal life. God’s voice and eternal life are not two different, separate things. They are one in the same thing because man lives (i.e. has spiritual life) when he hears God’s spoken voice.

Passing from death to life does not refer to life in heaven after we die physically. Passing from death to life refers to spiritual life and spiritual death — not physical life and death. Passing from death to life is another way of saying we are “born again“.

God is the only one who has power to create a new heart. That is what happens when he changes an evil, impure heart into a clean, pure heart. That is a miracle that only God can do.

Not even Jesus could change a heart. Jesus could only speak God’s words to people who have evil, impure hearts. God is the one who gives them ears to hear what he (i.e. God) spoke through Jesus. And it is only after they have heard God’s voice that they experience eternal life.

It is critical to understand that believing Jesus’ words is very different from believing in him as a human person. Belief in Jesus’ words is the equivalent of believing that God is speaking.

Belief in the person of Jesus is idolatry because Jesus was only a human. Belief that Jesus performed physical miracles of healing misses the symbolism of disease as the condition that afflicts people who do not listen to God’s spoken voice.

Jesus also makes it very clear that eternal life depends on belief that God sent him (i.e. Jesus) to speak for God as a prophet/messiah. It is important to recognize here that Jesus is an example of what a New Covenant disciple should do. Followers of Jesus also speak for God as  true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors. Thus, belief that these characters speak for God is the equivalent of belief that God speaks through them. Like Jesus, they have the words of eternal life.

At no time does Jesus ever tell his followers to believe in him as a human person. He understood that the only power/authority he had was to speak for God. He knew that trusting in him as a person went against the very idea of faith being the substance of things not seen. People who see Jesus and trust in him as a human person only have religion — not faith. That is why Jesus always put God ahead of himself and never sought any glory for himself.

Jesus did not think that equality with God was something that could be attained. He was only a servant who spoke God’s words. He always defers to his heavenly father and his father’s spoken word.

25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

COMMENTARY: The dead are those who are spiritually dead (i.e. they do not hear God’s spoken voice). The voice of the Son of God is not unique to Jesus. All people who are born again are sons of God. Thus, it can be said that anyone who hears the voice of someone who is born again hears God’s voice and will become spiritually alive.

John 12:49-50 For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.  50 “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

COMMENTARY: Jesus understands his initiative to speak and the actual words that he speaks come from God. In Jesus’ mind, and in his heart, whatever he hears God telling him to say has the weight and force of a commandment. For Jesus, refusing to say what God commands is unthinkable.

Even though Jesus understands that speaking what God tells him to speak will create division between him and religious people, he speaks it anyway. He would not even consider changing or holding back on anything that God commands him to say — even though it will eventually result in death for him.

Because he did not waver in the face of adversity, Jesus gives us the perfect example of New Covenant disciples who do not shrink from ministry even in the face of death. He persists in his confrontations with religious leaders because that is what God commands him to do. And he does it despite the personal costs because he knows that the few people who hear God’s words spoken through him will gain eternal life when those words are received in their hearts. This is the Joy set before him.

John 5:11-13 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

COMMENTARY: This translation is misleading because “his son” is capitalized to suggest that eternal life is available only through Jesus. Anyone who is born again is a son of God. God’s word (i.e. eternal life) exists in all sons of God because God’s laws are written on their hearts.

12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 

COMMENTARY: This scripture can be paraphrased as follows:

Whoever holds onto (i.e. believes) the teachings of a son of God (e.g. true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnessses, warriors and apostles) believes God’s words. Whoever holds onto God’s words has God’s spiritual laws written  in their hearts. Whoever has God’s laws written in their heart has God’s life (i.e. God’s word) in their heart.

It is worth noting that this verse does not connect God’s life exclusively to Jesus. Jesus was indeed a son of God, but he is not the only son of God. True prophets,angels,messiahs, high priests, witnessses, warriors and apostles are also sons of God. They are New Covenant disciples who have God’s life in their hearts. Their teachings should be believed.

13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

COMMENTARY: To believe in the name of a son of God means to believe that the person who speaks for God has God’s character. Their character will agree with the characteristics and behaviors found in New Covenant disciples. Their character will agree with the characteristics of true prophets.

1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

COMMENTARY: This is an example of scripture that has been distorted by Bible translators. To gain the right understanding, it is necessary to recognize that Bible translators have included filler words that are not in the original Greek text. Here is the scripture without the added words:

COMMENTARY:

Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

COMMENTARY:

2 Peter 3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

COMMENTARY:

Mark 10:30 but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.