Response to:
1. But we (saved believers) don't yet
fully have eternal life
. What we do have is surety of promised eternal (spiritual) life.
2. Fully possessed eternal (spiritual) life is immortality which (believers) do not have.
Both are FALSE!
Man has an immortal spirit at conception. Eccl. 12
Genesis 1:26 (NASB)-
Then God said,
“Let Us make man in Our (SPIRITUAL) image, according to Our (CHARACTER) likeness;
SALVATION offered by Jesus: PAST completed TENSE! (AORIST!)
God does not take back nor allow man to give back His SALVATION...PAST completed TENSE! (AORIST!)
John 5:24 (all NASB)
“Truly, truly, I (Jesus) say to you,
he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, HAS eternal life,
and does not come into judgment, but
HAS PASSED out of death into life.
Ephesians 2:4-10
(by grace you HAVE BEEN saved),
Luke 19:1-10...[ Zaccheus Converted ]
9 And Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man "
has come" to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Mark 2:17
And hearing this, Jesus said to them,
“It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick;
I did not "
come to call" the righteous, but sinners.”
John 3
17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world,
but that the world might "be saved" through Him.
18 He who believes in Him is not judged;
he who does not believe has been judged already,
because he "
has not believed" in the name of the ONLY begotten Son of God.
John 6
35 Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
he who COMES to Me WILL not hunger,
and he who BELIEVES in Me WILL never thirst.
36 But I said to you that you have SEEN Me, and yet do not BELIEVE.
40 For this is the will of My Father,
that everyone who beholds the Son and BELIEVES in Him "WILL (is certain to) have "eternal life"",
and I Myself will raise him up "on the last day".”
John 10
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
28 and I "
GIVE eternal life to them", and they will never perish;
and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
29 My Father, who
HAS GIVEN them to Me, is greater than all;
and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
30 I and the Father are one.” (IN SPIRITUAL ESSENCE AND NATURE!)
John 17:2-3 ...
Jesus' High Priestly Prayer to the Father about Jesus' followers
even as You gave Him authority over all flesh,
that to all whom You "
have given" Him,
He MAY GIVE "eternal life".
This is "eternal life",
that they MAY KNOW You, the only true God, and
(KNOW) Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 1:12,14 (NIV)
Yet to all who "
RECEIVED" him,
to those who "
BELIEVED" in His name, (Jesus the Christ)
He gave the right to become CHILDREN of God...
Ecclesiastes 12...Remember God in Your Youth: AT DEATH...
7 then the dust (body/soul combo) will return to the earth as it was, (SEE: Genesis 2:7)
and the spirit (breath of life) will return to God who gave it. (SEE: Genesis 1:26 SPIRITUAL image)
8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity!
Jesus the God-Man's SPIRIT was "committed" to heaven by Him.
His "spirit body" ascended.
Man's SPIRIT either dwells with or is separated from God...
....eternal life in the heavenly realms for believers.
....eternal existence in the "lake of fire" for UN-believers.
Job 33:4
“The Spirit of God has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Isaiah 42:5
Thus says God the Lord,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and its offspring,
Who gives breath to the people on it
And spirit to those who walk in it,
John 6:63...Jesus
It is the Spirit who gives life;
the flesh profits nothing;
the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
John 4:24...Jesus:
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”