How long is forever? Well, if you think about it, it is a pretty long time. Forever is infinity related to time—after a million years, you have just begun.
Forever is indeed a long time and that is how long eternal life will last… forever. That is the promise of God in Romans 6:23 which says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In this verse God says that for those who receive Jesus Christ our Lord for their savior, He will give them a free gift and that gift is eternal life.
Now notice that He doesn’t just give you life. Some people think that you can get God’s life or lose God’s life, depending upon whether or not you remain committed to Christ. In other words, if you are not careful you can lose your salvation. But actually, that is not possible because Romans 6:23 says “the gift of God is eternal life.”
The word “eternal” is a word that means forever. You see, eternal life lasts forever which is why it is everlasting life. Actually, this word “eternal” comes from the Greek word aiōn which has the idea of duration. We have it in our English word eon, an indefinitely long period of time. So, eternal has the idea of lasting for an indefinitely long period of time. It goes on and on and never ends.
When you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, God gives you the gift of eternal life and the moment you have it, it is eternal. It is life from God that will never end. So if you get eternal life you can never lose it. The life God gives lasts forever—it is everlasting life. Otherwise, eternal doesn’t mean eternal.
Now you know the real meaning of the word.
Hey, eternal life is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Only Jesus can give you eternal life.