How exactly does one receive salvation and eternal life? How can one get to the kingdom of heaven?
The concept of salvation and kingdom of heaven seems to be quite vague to me. I've asked many people, how exactly one can receive salvation and eternal life? It's quite surprising that even though this is a fundamental reason why people keep a life of faith, it seems like believers are unsure exactly how it works or there are so many different opinions about it that it leaves one wondering, which explanation makes sense and is according to the scriptures. I'm curious how the people in this forum will tackle and explain this question as I am curious about this as well myself.
Hello and welcome!
The Hebrew word "yada" refers to knowledge that is gained by experience, relationship, or intimacy, such as in Genesis 4:1, where Adam knew (yada) Eve, she conceived, and gave birth to Cain. In Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him His way that he might know (yada) Him and Israel too, and in Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus said that only those who do with will of the Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and that he will tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart from him because he never knew them, and in John 17:3, eternal life is knowing God and Jesus, so the goal of the law is to teach us how to have that experience, which comes through expressing God's nature. In Jeremiah 9:3 and 9:6, they did not know God and refused to know Him because in 9:13, they had forsaken His law, while in 9:24, those who know God know that He delights in practicing steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in all of the earth, so delighting in expressing these and other aspects of God's nature through our obedience to God's law is the way to know God, and the Son, who is the exact expression of God's nature (Hebrews 1:3). Likewise, in 1 John 2:4, those who say that they know Jesus, but don't obey his commands are liars, and in 1 John 3:4-6, those who continue to practice sin in transgression of God's law have neither seen nor known him.
Before eating from either tree, Adam and Eve were at a crossroads between mortality and immortality where they became mortal by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but they would have become immortal if they had eaten from the Tree of Life, so that is the same choice that Moses presented before the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 between life and dead, life and a blessing for obedience to God's law, or death and a curse for living in disobedience to it. In Deuteronomy 32:47, God's law is our very life. In Proverbs 3:18, she is a tree of life for those who take hold of her. In Proverbs 6:23, For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life. In Matthew 19:17, the way to enter eternal life is by obeying God's commandments. In Luke 10:25-28, the way to inherit eternal life is by obeying the greatest two commandments. In Revelation 22:14, those who obey God's commandments will be given access to the tree of life. In Romans 2:6-7, those who persist in doing good will be given eternal life. In Romans 6:19-23, not longer presenting ourselves as slaves to impurity, lawlessness, and sin is contrasted with now presenting ourselves as slaves to God and to righteousness leading to sanctification and the goal of sanctification is eternal life in Christ, so the gift of having the quality of life that is in Christ in accordance with His nature in obedience to God's commands is the type of life that goes on forever.
Salvation and eternal life are not extrinsic results, such as if we do a good enough job obeying certain commands, then we will earn it as a wage, but rather the things that we are doing is intrinsically connected to the content of what salvation and eternal life are, such as being healthier is intrinsically the result of eating healthier. When we express a aspect of God's nature through our obedience to one of His commands, we are expressing our love for that aspect of who God is, which is why there are many verses in both the OT and the NT that connect our love for God with our obedience to His commandments, so it is intrinsically the way to love God, not extrinsically where we need to prove our love for God by doing a list of chores that God wants done. Our salvation is from sin (Matthew 1:21) and sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4), so while we do not extrinsically earn our salvation as a wage by obeying God's law, living in obedience to it is nevertheless intrinsically part of the concept of Jesus saving us from not living in obedience to it.
God's way is the way in which he expresses aspects of His nature, such as justice and righteous, which brings about the promises in accordance with the Gospel (Genesis 18:19, Genesis 26:4-5, Galatians 3:8) and God's law is His instructions for how to be blessed by walking in His way (1 Kings 2:1-3, Psalms 119:1-3), which is also why the Bible often uses the same terms to describe the nature of God as its does to describe the nature of God's law, such as with it being holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12), or with justice, mercy, and faithfulness being weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23). So the Kingdom of Heaven is spread where it citizens are a blessing to others by multiplying the nature of God by teaching others to repent from their wickedness and showing them how to walk in God's way in obedience to His law, which is the way to inherit the promise through faith, and Jesus was sent as the fulfillment of that promise to bless us by turning us from our wickedness (Acts 3:25-26).
