What is Eternal Life? The Bible teaches that Eternal Life is Knowing Jesus. Jesus said in John 17:3,

"And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

In this passage Jesus tells us that just having an intellectual knowledge about who He is and what He did does not save us. He said that we must know Him personally to be saved. Jesus does not just want you to know about Him, He wants you to know Him personally.

What does it mean to know Jesus? It means two things: first, it means to confess Jesus as Lord; and, secondly, to believe that God the Father raised Him physically from the dead. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:9-10,

"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

What is the Significance of Jesus’ Physical resurrection? It is God proving to us ABSOLUTELY!

1. That HE DOES EXIST.
2. That the Bible IS His ONLY WRITTEN Word to Man.
3. That Jesus REALLY IS His ONLY Son He sent into the World.
4. That Death, eternal separation from God, IS Sin’s penalty.
5. That God ACCEPTS Jesus’ death in our place for our sins.
6. And that He WILL GIVE Eternal Life to anyone who receives His Son as Savior and Lord of their lives.

The Bible tells us that over  512 PEOPLE WITNESSED  the fact of Jesus’ Physical Resurrection; not one or two drunks’ hallucination, but a well established historical fact. The Apostle Paul wrote,

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also." (1 Cor 15:3-8)

Jesus’ Physical Resurrection Proves Absolutely that the Judeo-Christian Bible is His ONLY written Word to man. Jesus said: "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" (John 5:46-47). In this passage Jesus states absolutely that Moses is the author of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible; that Moses was writing about Jesus Christ:  our God  and Creator. He further states that if we do not believe what Moses wrote about  CREATION  in  SIX DAYS, the creation of the first men: Adam & Eve, Man’s Fall, God’s Judgment of man through the Flood and all other recorded events in the Bible that we will not believe His Words either. We won’t believe what Jesus said about Himself that He is God in the flesh. We won’t believe what He taught about Salvation, that He is the only way to God and Salvation. We won’t believe His words either. Jesus made it plain that what Moses wrote is as absolutely true as His own spoken words. Jesus took it further than that. He said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away." (Matt 24:35; 5:17-19). Jesus taught us that  His words  are  ABSOLUTE   eternal truths  that will never change or pass away.

Even Jesus’ disciples were skeptical about taking all events in the Old Testament literally.

Come on! You don’t really believe Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt do You? And a man being swallowed and living in the belly of a fish for three days and then living to tell about the experience? And the Genesis flood? Haven’t scientists proven that the fossil layers rather than being the result of a cataclysmic world wide flood are the result of millions of years of gradual fossilization?

After men like ourselves laughed in Jesus’ face concerning the things He claimed about Himself and Moses, that He and Moses were to be taken absolutely literally true, just as we would have done, they asked Jesus to give them absolute proof. Jesus told them in response, Okay! I will give you proof: kill me! I will stay dead for three days and then I will rise from the dead to prove to you that I am the Creator, God in the flesh, the resurrection and life itself, that I did come from heaven and that everything I tell you about Myself and Moses are absolutely true truth. They did kill Him on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Nisan 15 (April). Three days later on Nisan 17—The Feast of First Fruits—He did rise from the dead with more than 512 witnesses to that fact. What was the end result? The Apostle John tells us in John 2:22,

"When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they BELIEVED the SCRIPTURE [Old Testament], and the WORD which JESUS HAD SPOKEN [New Testament]." (John 2:19, 22; Luke 24:36-48)

You see, even Jesus’ disciples had doubts about the literal historical reliability of the Old Testament and especially Genesis. Nothing new under the sun. They also had doubts about taking literally what Jesus was claiming about Himself. But after Jesus rose from the dead, John tells us they no longer had a problem believing the literal teaching of Moses in the Old Testament or anything Jesus said or taught about Himself and man. They believed the Old Testament and the Words, New Testament, that Jesus had spoken. They came to realize that what Jesus Claimed about Himself was absolutely true truth.

What did Jesus claim about Himself? Jesus claimed to be God the Son, God’s ONLY Son. The Apostle Paul wrote,

"Who was declared the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead." (Romans 1:4).

Jesus was not just a son of God, a created creature of God, or Michael the archangel as Jehovah Witnesses teach. Hebrews Chapter one makes plain that Jesus was not an angel. Jesus tells us in John 3:16 that He is the ONLY Son of God, meaning that He is of the essence of God, God Himself. When we accept Jesus as Savior and Lord the Apostle John and Paul tell us that God adopts us as sons and daughters (John 1:12, Eph 1:5). God, however, only has one Son that is of His essence: Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Jesus claimed to be our Creator, the person that Moses was writing about in Genesis. Being that this was true He would know if what Moses wrote was true. It is true: Jesus did create the heavens and the earth in six literal twenty-four-hour days. It is true that man’s beginning started with Adam and Eve. The fossil layers of the earth are the result of God's judgment of man through the world wide cataclysmic flood recorded in Genesis. Darwin died, he is still in the grave. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus proved that what he said and taught is absolutely true. Creation is true. Evolution is false (John 1:1, 3:16; John 1:3, 10; Heb 1:2; Col 1:16-17).

Some cults try to say that Jesus had a beginning, that He was the first of God’s creation. They will site from the King James version of Revelation 3:14 which states about Jesus that he is "the beginning of the creation of God." By itself it appears to say this, but Revelation 3:14 is not the Bible but a verse they take out of the context of the Bible. The Total teaching of the Word of God does not support this assertion. The Bible tells us plainly that Jesus is from eternity past, that in fact He is the Father of eternity. The prophets Isaiah and Micah wrote about Jesus,

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, God-Almighty, Father-of-Eternity, Prince-of-Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)

"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity." (Micah 5:2).

Jesus claimed about Himself in John 8:58, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born I AM;" I AM is the Greek Septuagint formula for Yehovah: "Ego Eimi".¹⁵⁶ Jesus said that he is Yehovah the God of the Israelites in the flesh. Jesus said in John 8:24 "I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins." Jesus said unless we believe that He is Yehovah God in the flesh, we cannot be saved. God had no beginning, He is from eternity past. The word "beginning" in Revelation 3:14 is the Greek word ajrchv which means the origin or Active-cause.¹⁵⁷ It also means ruler, thus the NIV translates it "Ruler of the Creation of God." Jesus was the origin, active-cause of Creation. Creation began through Jesus’ and by Jesus. This is consistent with Colossians 1:16-17 which tells us plainly that nothing came into being apart from Jesus.

"For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." (Colossians 1:16-17; John 1:3, 10; Heb 1:2-3)

Jesus claimed that He existed from eternity past as the second person of the Triune God and that by His Father’s wishes He came down from heaven and did not put on man or possess a man, but that He became man through Holy Spirit conception of the Virgin Mary. Chapter 1 in this Section explains the significance of why his becoming man had to be through Holy Spirit conception rather than a man’s conception.

Jesus claimed that He came to die on the cross for our sins. (Rom 5:8-10, Eph 1:7, 1 John 1:7, Rev 1:5, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 Cor 15:3-4)

Jesus claimed that He rose from the dead physically alive three days later as Absolute Proof to these claims. (Jn 2:18-22; Acts 1:3; Rom 1:3-4; 1 Cor 15)

Jesus claimed that forty days later, in the presence of His disciples while they watched on, at least 120, that He ascended to heaven and that He would return in the same manner in which He left to judge the living and the dead. He claimed that judgment of our lives and actions will take place in a future time. His resurrection proves it is true and will take place. Count on it and prepare for it. (Acts 1:9-11, 17:30-31; 1 Peter 3)

"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31)

Will we be judged for our sins if we do not repent of our sins and turn to Jesus? Yes! How do we know God will one day judge the world through Jesus? He gave us absolute proof: He brought Jesus Christ back from the dead PHYSICALLY ALIVE!

Finally, Jesus claimed not just to be a way to salvation and God, but to be the ONLY WAY to salvation and God. In so doing He excluded all other religions and all other ways and gave absolute proof to this claim by coming back Physically Alive! from the dead with more than 512 witnesses to that fact. No other religious founder can make this claim. Jesus said concerning His being the ONLY way to God,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.... I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." (John 10:1, 9)

Why would a person be a thief and a robber if he were to go to God through any other means other than Jesus? Because no other way will lead a man to God and salvation. To attempt to go to God through any other means is to rob yourself of life itself. To encourage a man or woman to go to God through any other way other than Jesus is to assure they will not be saved. It is to rob them of salvation and life itself: Jesus! Jesus said "I-AM^1473a (ejgwv eijmi) the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me" (John 14:6).

Jesus’ physical resurrection Proves Absolutely that Death, eternal separation from God, is sin’s penalty. The Apostle Paul wrote: For the wages of sin is death. (Rom 6:23). Jesus defining death said,

"It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." (Mark 9:47-48)

The Apostle Paul wrote concerning the Bible's meaning of death,

"And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." (2 Thess 1:9)

Jesus and the Apostle Paul tell us plainly that the Bible’s definition of death is not nonexistence, but separation from God and being condemned to a living fiery hell forever where the worm, man’s soul, does not die and where the fire will never go out, will never ever be quenched forever! How do we know that this is true? Because Jesus came back from the dead to prove to us that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is an after life beyond the grave. I encourage you to read A Divine Revelation of Hell by Mary K. Baxter.¹⁵⁸

That is not very good news. The only way sin’s penalty can be paid is by eternal separation from God in a fiery furnace? Isn’t there any way out of this? Yes! Again, that is the significance of Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead. His Physical Resurrection proves to us not only is sin’s penalty eternal separation from God in a fiery furnace forever, but it also proves to us Absolutely! that God accepts Jesus’ death for our sins in our place. The Apostle Paul wrote concerning the significance of Jesus’ Physical Resurrection: "He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification," (Rom 4:25; Acts 13:28-31, 37-39). Paul explains to us that Jesus’ Physical Resurrection is God the Father giving us  Absolute Proof   that He accepts Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins in our place.