By. Nick Napier
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
Imagine different sets of lives. One couple appears successful in every way: steady jobs, a home, cars, enough savings not to worry over little things, and the ability to take Instagram worthy vacations. However, inwardly they are restless and dissatisfied. Nothing satisfies beyond “the newness of it.” They are always one promotion, one new outfit, one new gadget, one new experience away from having it. The reality is that they are alive, but not really living.
Consider another couple. They have little, but they are content. Their expectations are simple and unpretentious. They don’t have padding in savings (a small repair would be a huge setback). They find a deal and escape for a weekend at a creekside cabin. Though simple, it exceeds their expectations. Sitting beside the creek, they are fully satisfied. They only desire to take in the beauty, be present to it, and to each other. They think, “Now THIS is LIVING.” They are alive and living fully.
These lives mirror reality. There is a life that is vanity and striving after the wind. There is a life fully lived (regardless of how much or little one may have): brimming with beauty, wonder, thanksgiving, and contentment. The question of this article is whether that second kind of life truly exists, or whether life is permanent restlessness and dissatisfaction.
Here, the night before His crucifixion, in the High Priestly Prayer, Jesus answers that question as he prays to the Father and defines eternal life in a way that turns the world’s ideas upside down. Eternal life is not merely endless existence. Life, eternal life, is knowing God. He challenges how we define “the good life.” The world defines it variously as achievement, possessions, experiences, relationships, or self-actualization or fulfillment. If every circumstance aligns the way we want and we are comfortable, then obviously, satisfaction must be what follows. But Jesus teaches that our dissatisfaction is not circumstantial; it is relational.
The restless person is not merely failing to achieve enough. They are seeking life where it cannot be found. Jesus is echoing a refrain found throughout the Bible. “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 5:10 ESV). We know that nearly ubiquitous saying of Augustine, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” That restlessness and dissatisfaction is theological. We were created for communion with God, and separation from God is separation from life itself. When communion with God is absent, anything else we turn to become idols burdened with expectations of satisfaction that they cannot deliver.
Careers, relationships, possessions, recognition, and experiences are forced to carry the weight of ultimate meaning, and are crushed and collapse under it.
Jesus goes further and says that the object of eternal life is: “the only true God.” Eternal life does not consist in vague spirituality or generic religious feeling. There is one true God, and life consists in knowing Him. And yet, when we read Romans 1, we see that by nature, we do not seek Him rightly. Instead, men turn to created things and expect from them what only God can provide. The restless person who is obsessed with status or advancement is not religiously neutral; they are worshiping. They are assigning ultimate value to finite things in the hope of receiving ultimate satisfaction.
But as Romans 1 also shows, God is not hidden. All throughout the Scripture, He has revealed Himself, and has finally revealed Himself in and through Jesus Christ: “and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The knowledge of God that constitutes eternal life comes only in Christ. He is not one possible path among many, but the one and only revelation of the Godhead. Throughout John’s Gospel, the Son reveals God fully. To know Christ is to know the Father.
Benefits
Here we see what is of first-order importance: Christ cannot be separated from His benefits. We sometimes speak about the blessings of salvation—forgiveness, peace, justification, adoption, eternal life itself. Yet none of these exist apart from Christ as “things” to be distributed. Every saving benefit is found only in union with Christ – in him.
This keeps us from making idols of his gifts. It is dangerous and possible to desire what Christ gives rather than Jesus himself. A person may want relief from guilt, peace in suffering, purpose in life, or even heaven itself while remaining uninterested in Christ. But Jesus’ definition of eternal life excludes this possibility. Eternal life is not merely receiving gifts from Christ. It is receiving and knowing Christ – being united to him through faith.
By the Holy Spirit, believers are joined to Him so that what belongs to Him becomes theirs. His righteousness becomes theirs before God. His life becomes theirs. His standing before the Father becomes theirs. But these benefits are inseparable from his person. To receive salvation is to receive Christ himself.
Tense
Another important feature of John 17:3 is its tense. Jesus says, “This is eternal life.” Eternal life is not something simply future and durational. It begins now and is qualitative. This distinction is seen only by looking at the Greek New Testament. Scripture uses two different words that can both be translated “life”: βίος (bios) and ζωή (zoe).
βίος refers to simple existence — this kind of existence is the kind that animals have (think of biology). It is the word connected to livelihood, possessions, anxieties, and temporal concerns. It is the “alive, but not really living” word for life – merely existence. The New Testament uses it in phrases such as “the cares of this life,” “the pride of life,” and “the pleasures of life.”
But ζωὴ is different. This is the word Jesus uses in John 17:3. In Scripture, ζωὴ becomes the highest kind of life — the “now THIS is LIVING” sort of life. It is true life, eternal life, life in communion with God. It is not merely existence but participation in the life of God Himself. A person may have βίος yet remain spiritually dead. ζωὴ refers to life as God intends it.
This eternal life is a present reality already possessed by believers. In John 3:16, when Jesus says, “but have eternal life,” it is very literally, “but is having eternal life.” That is, right now, already begun. The Christian life is not merely preparation for a future existence; it is participation in eternal life now, though not yet in its fullness. So then, Christianity is not merely moral improvement or eschatological hope. It is present, vital communion with the living God through Christ now.
To commune with God is to grow in knowing and loving Him. (See 2 Peter 3:18.) This isn’t simply an accumulation of facts about him. It is fellowship with Christ through his Word, prayer, and the sacraments, by the Spirit. The goal is not simply information about Christ but communion with and love for Christ.
As this knowledge deepens, we are changed. The things that once controlled us, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride of life (1 John 2:16), no longer function as ultimate sources of identity or meaning. Contentment emerges (because we have Jesus, we have enough). To know Christ is to be changed by Him.
Transforms
Later in John 17, Jesus prays, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Knowing God transforms us. As people come to know Him more, they are made after His likeness. This transformation isn’t immediate or perfect. Christians will still struggle with sin, doubts, fears, and weakness. But they are being changed. The person who once lived entirely for achievement comes to recognize its emptiness. The person who sought identity through status finds identity in Christ. The endless pursuit of “more” loses its grip because knowing Jesus becomes all.
Paul expresses this clearly in Philippians 3:8. Knowing Christ does not merely add something valuable to life. It reprioritizes life entirely. Every other value is reevaluated in relation to Him.
This brings us back to the opening scenario. The couple at the cabin experienced a glimpse of fullness: peace, presence, beauty, contentment. Yet even experiences like this are temporary. They fade. Circumstances change.
Jesus offers something greater than fleeting experiences. He offers everlasting communion with God. To know and love Christ is to begin living the life we were created for. Our dissatisfaction and restlessness is addressed not by achieving perfect circumstances but by communion with God. In Christ, forgiveness, righteousness, peace, adoption, and eternal life are all given because Jesus himself is given. He is not merely the means to something greater. He is the greater thing. He is the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field (Matthew 13:44-46).
Jesus prays that His people would be with Him and see His glory (John 17:24). What begins now in part will one day be perfected. Believers will know Him fully, without sin, distance, or interruption. Every present experience of joy, peace, beauty, or fullness is only a dim reflection of what eternal life will ultimately become. The fullness of eternal life is unbroken communion with God through Christ by the Spirit forever. (See 1 Corinthians 13:12.)
Seeking fulfillment through “more” disconnects us from the source of life himself. Jesus speaks to our longing: This is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Reverend Nick Napier is the pastor of Huntersville ARP Church in Huntersville, NC.