I think the “eternal” in “eternal life” is more of a quality than a quantity. It is an absolute. It is that which we all long for, we all strive for — that which God offers to us for free even as we try to grasp or earn it ourselves. What do people desire? Money, toys, power, fame, love from others, knowledge… Yet running after these is like trying to fill an infinitely deep hole with buckets of water. We know we want water, but we can’t get enough.

Jesus used water as an analogy for eternal life, calling it “living water.” The woman at the well he met in Samaria was looking for ordinary water when she met Jesus.

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

Relationship and belief in God make up eternal life. Eternal life is not a harp and wings after we die. Eternal life is not even a description of a timeframe. Eternal life is the spirit God gives us through his Son, something which does not, cannot, stand on its own, but rather informs and enriches everything we are and do. And the death of our bodies does not mean the death of this spirit. On the contrary, we are “dead” until we know Jesus.

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.” (John 5:24-27)

Our eternal life begins and ends with God’s spirit within us, made possible through Jesus’ life and death. It’s a present reality, and physical death will only result in being free of the bonds of this limited body.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21)

Our relationship with God is something that will last forever. In fact, it is the only thing we have that is guaranteed to last forever. And praise God, we need not “work” at it with some kind of ultimate delayed gratification in mind. We are citizens of heaven when we believe, and His rewards are bountiful in this life as well as after it. Does being a follower of Jesus require sacrifice? Yes and no. When we believe, when we really seek Him, our values change. We become willing to give up what the world deems success for what God wants for us. A rich man asked Jesus for a shortcut — a managable “chunk” of goodness that he could add to his life to experience what he knew he was missing, though he was rich (Matthew 19:16-26). Eternal life doesn’t work that way. Believing Jesus means accepting who he says he is - Lord. And accepting Him as Lord means displacing yourself in that position. So yes, we must give up our right to be in control. But in return we “have life, and have it to the full.”

Martyred missionary Jim Elliot summed up this exchange of fleeting life for eternal life: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”