mclaren on eternal life & kingdom of God

[going through John 3]...John almost never uses the term "kingdom of God" (which is at the heart of Jesus' message for Matthew, Mark, and Luke). There are two exceptions, both of which occur in this unique conversation. Instead, John normally translates "kingdom of God" into another phrase that is notoriously hard to render in English. Most commonly, John's translation of Jesus' original phrase is rendered "eternal life" in English. Unfortunately, the phrase eternal life is often misinterpreted to mean "life in heaven after you die" - as are kingdom of God and its synonym, kingdom of heaven - so I think we need to find a better rendering.

If "eternal life" doesn't mean "life after death," what does it mean? Later in John's Gospel, Jesus reduces the phrase simply to "life," or "life to the full." Near the end of John's account, Jesus makes a particular fascinating statement in a prayer, and it is as close as we get to a definition: "This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [God has] sent" (John 17: 3). So here, "eternal life" means knowing, and knowing means an interactive relationship. In other words, "This is eternal life, to have an interactive relationship with the only true God and with Jesus Christ, his messenger." Interestingly, that's what a kingdom is too: an interactive relationship one has with a king, the king's other subjects, and so on.

from "the secret message of Jesus"

Comments

[Greg Hazelrig]

It's interesting that this same conversation came up last night during my confirmation class. The kids were thinking that Kingdom of Heaven was when we die and I explained that wasnt the case. I wish I'd read this before because I would have liked to use that verse from John. I'd not thought about that. I may share it with them next week.

[pastorjoe]

i am actually commenting on the comment. i am a 31 year old youth pastor and as of 6 months ago, i would have thought that the kingdom of heaven is when i die or when jesus comes back on a white horse. God is opening my eyes.