The Biblical View
Read 1 John 5:3–12. Why does the apostle John limit “eternal life”
only to those who are in Christ?
The biblical doctrine of conditional immortality of the human
being—in contrast to the nonbiblical theory of the natural immortality
of the soul—is made explicit in 1 John 5:11, 12. To grasp the meaning
of this significant passage, we have to remember that only the Godhead
“has immortality” (1 Tim. 6:15, 16, NKJV) and is the only Source of life
(Ps. 36:9, Col. 1:15–17, Heb. 1:2).
When sin entered the world through the fall of Adam and Eve
(Genesis 3), they and all their descendants (including us) came under
the curse of physical death and lost the gift of eternal life. But our lov-
ing God implemented the plan of salvation for human beings to regain
eternal life, the life that was to have been theirs from the start. As Paul
wrote: “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph.
1:4, NKJV; emphasis supplied).
The apostle Paul explains that “just as through one man [Adam] sin
entered the world, and death through sin,” so through “the one Man, Jesus
Christ,” the gracious gift of eternal life became available to all human
beings (Rom. 5:12–21, NKJV). Paul here is making an unambiguous ref-
erence to a literal Adam who brought sin and death into this world. One
cannot make sense of anything in the Bible without a literal Adam who,
through transgression, brought sin and death into our world.
Thus, the apostle John adds, “God gave us eternal life, and this life
is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the
Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11, 12, NRSV).
The whole picture becomes clearer in light of Jesus’ statements:
“ ‘Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have
eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day’ ” (John 6:40,
NIV), and “ ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in
me, even though they die, will live’ ” (John 11:25, NRSV).
This means that eternal life is a gift of God through Christ, which is
secured in the present but fully enjoyed only after the final resurrection
of the righteous. The conclusion is very simple: if everlasting life is
granted only to those who are in Christ, then those who are not in Him
do not have everlasting life (1 John 5:11, 12). By contrast, the theory
of the natural immortality of the soul grants everlasting life—whether
in Paradise or in hell—to all human beings, even to those who are not
in Christ. However popular this teaching, it is not biblical.
