Praying to Yahweh ("the Father"), Jesus gives a brief, partial description of what he means by eternal life in John 17:3, where he says the following--"'Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.'" While the standard linguistic meaning of eternal life is fairly obvious, this is the closest thing to a Biblical "definition" of sorts for the phrase itself, though it is clear from other passages that eternal life is to literally live forever as a spirit that is to be reunited with a body after the resurrection of the dead and perpetually roam a sinless cosmos. The contrasted general outcome for slaves to sin is death on first a biological level and eventually on an ultimate level (Matthew 10:28).
Aside from its blatant denial of evangelical Trinitarianism, this verse in John indeed provides a very loose summary, or an incomplete "definition," of what it means to have the eternal life offered by Yahweh and Christ. Paul talks elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrected bodies of the saved that they will inhabit in their eternal life, and Revelation describes details about the city of New Jerusalem that eternal life grants access to, but John 17:3 is the only verse (that I am familiar with, at least!) that clarifies the phrase "eternal life." Clearly, eternal life would mean in colloquial usage biological or spiritual life that does not end, but the context of this gift is what Jesus emphasizes here.
The context of eternal life in Christianity is one of being sustained by God forever to enjoy a sinless, painless existence of bliss. John 17 might make it initially seem like the Bible is saying eternal life is something other than simply existing forever, but since in Biblical theology eternal life is a gift specifically to the saved, to personally know God forever is to exist without end after the resurrection of the dead, free to pursue any nonsinful pleasure and bask in the love and splendor of God. It is impossible to know God or think about or perceive anything at all without conscious existence, and undying consciousness is not the default for all humans after human sin and human death came to be (Ezekiel 18:4, Romans 2:7, Romans 6:23).
The description of eternal life in John 17:3 does not contradict any part of annihilationism and conditional immortality, for the general unsaved are still denied eternal life--eternal, conscious existence--of any kind and the saved still experience the divine presence directly in paradise. Theirs is the second death in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15). From Genesis to Revelation, the ultimate contrast of destinies for humanity is one of life in submission to God or death in defiance of him. Jesus says he came so that fallen humans might live (John 5:24), and he is not merely speaking of an emotionally heightened or spiritually fulfilling kind of life on Earth. He offers eternal life, something that cannot be given to us if we already possess it.
To live forever in God's presence and all that this would entail is in part to know God. Because of this, eternal life on the Christian worldview is still reserved for those who voluntarily reconcile themselves to God through repentance and personal commitment. John 17:3 in no way suggests the philosophy of eternal conscious torment in its popular form, where all unsaved beings are said to be endlessly tormented in what is a terrible distortion of Yahweh's justice. Eternal life in New Jerusalem involves knowing God, and other verses very explicitly clarify that eternal life is a gift for those who seek redemption. To live forever, except seemingly in the case of demons and select humans eschatologically associated with them (Revelation 20:10), is offered to all but accepted by few.
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