Eternal life is not a place but a relationship. Eternal life is not something to be earned but Someone to love.
Eternal life is not a future event but a present reality that extends into the future.
Regrettably we have made eternal life and heaven synonymous but they are not.
Jesus is life, God is the Creator and Sustainer of life, heaven is His current dwelling place though He is among us now too but life is in Him and with Him.
Having eternal life is not a matter of having religion but of having a relationship. Religion is a means for worshiping God and not the ends for appeasing God. This misunderstanding leads to the false belief that all religions have the same destiny.
Religion is the means for knowing God and the wrong religion leads to knowing and serving the wrong god.
Thus religion is important but it is not the final determinant for life: knowing God personally is life both now and for eternity. This was one of the primary messages God wanted us to understand when He lived with us as one of us in Jesus.
God was not interested in creating a new religion per se but in restoring a right relationship between the Creator and the created.
Christianity is the right religion only in so far as it remains helpful in growing the relationship with the only true God. The various nuances within Christianity have both helped people to know and love God better and led to some missing Him completely.
God is a Person and as such He desires a relationship now with the people He has created, people who are free to love Him and worship Him.
Knowing and loving God is the purpose for which we were created and the proper end of our religion.
We mustn’t confuse heaven with God for God is not confined to any one place.
There is only one way to eternal life and that is in Jesus Christ Who is God visible so we can know Him and knowing Him is eternal life.
