Jesus and his mission

Introduction

Jesus, the eternal logos, was sent by God to the earth with the mission to share the Divine life with fallen man, image of God. Jesus is the source of life (John 1:4), the divine life. “The divine life brought by Christ knows in itself neither shadow nor limit. It is eternal life, perpetually springing up and infinitely superabundant.”[1] In dying on the Cross and rising from death Jesus brought perpetual salvation that is eternal life, as He was claiming about his mission “I have come so that all may have life and life abundantly.”  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). “Life is the most prominent term used by John to convey the work and mission of Jesus in the world. Although the Father is the ultimate source of life and the Spirit gives life, it is the Son who is portrayed in the Fourth Gospel as the source of life for those who believe in him. The whole purpose of the Son’s coming into the world is to give life.”[2] The life given by Christ is not the life of the world but eternal life.

The aim of this paper is to present Jesus as giver of eternal life to the earth fulfilling his mission in his incarnation. My procedure in the paper will be as follows. In the first chapter I will talk on mission in general and in the biblical view. The second chapter will deal with the mission of Jesus to give life, life abundant. In the next chapter the mission of Jesus according to John 10:10 will be examined; here I will try to analyze the main words. The final chapter will speak about the ways of attaining eternal life following the instruction of Jesus.  

Chapter One: Mission

1.1 Definition

Generally ‘Mission’ means aim, end, objective, goal, job, intention, etc. There are various meanings for the word ‘mission’ also. It may mean military task, ministry, a commission by a religious organization to propagate its faith or carry on humanitarian work, a local church or parish, the sending of a person, to perform a service or carry on an activity, the sending to a foreign country to conduct diplomatic or political tasks. Synonyms for mission could be assignment, commission, expedition, journey, trip, errand, undertaking, operation, calling, pursuit, goal, aim, quest, purpose, function, vocation etc.

1.1.1 Etymological Meaning

“Mission” is an English word, which means aim, goal of a subject or person. The Latin word “missio” means “sending”. It comes from the verb mittere. The Latin word mittere is translated from Greek apostello. And apostello is translated from Hebrew salah.  Luckily there are over 800 uses of it in Hebrew Bible. Among these, over 200 have God as subject and in LXX salah is translated by apostello for almost one third of its total use.[3]

1.1.2. Meaning Given in Dictionaries

According to Webster Dictionary: Mission is “the special duty or function on which someone is sent as a messenger or representative”; the special task or purpose for which a person is apparently destined in life.”

According to Oxford Dictionary: It is “a particular task or goal to a person or group; a person’s vocation, a person sent.”

So finally we can say that mission depends on the will of someone having authority and power who sends someone to fulfill his determination. Jesus is sent to fulfill the will of the Father and that is to give life abundantly.

We may add that mission is a responsibility entrusted upon someone in order to fulfill the will of the sender. Here mission gives us the aim of Jesus’ incarnation, suffering, death and resurrection which is for human beings to attain eternal life.

1.2 Elements for Mission

Mission has five elements; they are 1) Sender: Person who is authoritative to send someone; 2) Authorization: one must have authority and power to send someone with some responsibilities and power; 3) One sent: person who is sent with a goal or intension;           4) Mission or goal: person is beings sent with a certain goal or intension and 5) Ability to actualize the Mission: The person needs to be able to fulfill the sender’s will. Here God is the sender who sent Jesus with the authority to save human beings from death to life and Jesus did it dying on the cross and raising from death on the third day. [4]

1.3 Jesus and His Mission

The mission of Jesus Christ to bring eternal life is very clear in the gospel of John. “Life is a mystery and it is the divine mystery par excellence; that is why it is the privileged manifestation of God. Before all other things, it is life that Christ has come to bring to men. The gift of life contains all other gifts.”[5] Jesus had much to say about His own understanding of His mission. He saw his purpose as being sent by God his Father to proclaim and accomplish eternal life, spiritual deliverance for humankind (John 3:34 ; 8:42 ; 10:36 ). Jesus’ mission is characterized, authenticated and sustained by the Father who sent him (John 5:37; 6:57; 8:18; 8:29 ). More than that Jesus comes with the full authorization of God, so that he fully, even interchangeably, represents him (John 12:44-45) God is life. Jesus has been incorporated into a human body to reveal God the Father who sent him from above to give life back to humankind in its full stream (John 3:16). The mission of Jesus is to give eternal life; this is mentioned all over the gospel. It is mentioned specially both in the introduction (John 3:16) and in the conclusion (John 20:31); at the same time it is mentioned in middle (10:10). So it constitutes an inclusion for the whole gospel.[6]

A)    “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him ... may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

B)    “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

C)    “These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the messiah ...you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

In John’s Gospel Jesus understands and interprets his mission of salvation in terms of eternal life or fullness of life; “God loves the world so much that he gave his only Son, that everyone who has faith in him may not die but have eternal life” (3:16); and I have come that men may have life, and may have it in all its fullness” (John 10:10).” [7] “Life,” in terms of mission, is not just to be present in the world. It is to realize in oneself the full potentiality for good”[8] who is God himself. To have life in abundantly means to have the share of Divine life. The Gospel of St. John is full of imagery. By different images the author projected Jesus as savior of the world, who is sent with a concrete aim – to give eternal life. “The Gospel of John is known as “The Gospel of life”.[9]

The word Mission in the Gospel of John is rendered by different words but all are ultimately the same. The main theme is to have eternal life, union with God through faith in Jesus. It also may be described as Life in abundance (10:10), Truth (1:16), Grace (1:16), New life (3:7), Salvation (3:17), Water of Life (4:14), Bread of Life (6:27), Light of the World (8:12), Resurrection (11:25), etc..    

Chapter Two: The Mission of Jesus­­

            2.1 In the Words of Jesus

About his mission Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance” (John 10:10). His “Mission has a twofold purpose, namely with reference to God and to human beings.”[10] In reference to God Jesus was sent to let the name and love of God the Father be known to humanity and in reference to human beings to bring salvation which comes through knowing the name and love of God and responding to it. Ultimately Jesus had only one mission that is “to save the world by sharing God’s own love and life with the men and women who would welcome in faith.”[11] “The ultimate purpose of Jesus’ mission is that the world may have life. Life was the beginning of the world and will be its end; “all that came to be was alive with his life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).”[12] Jesus, the word of God, was with God. All things came into being through his and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life (John 1:2-4). The word became flesh (John 1:14) so that all who receive him ... may have the power to become the children of God (John 1:12) in other words to have eternal life. Jesus is full of the grace and truth of God, and from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:16-17). In order to accomplish his mission Jesus gave his life on the cross. To fulfill his mission Jesus was obedient unto the death on cross and on the third day when he raised from death, his mission was successful. Afterward he shared his mission to his disciples to transmit the same salvation to every soul in every corner of the earth. It is being continued till today through the Church. “The whole mission of the Son is, therefore, summed up in this gift of eternal life. The wonder is that he “came into his own home, and his own people received him not” (1:11), that he came into the world and yet the world persisted and still persists in knowing him not (1:10). That those who desire life above all else in creation, the life without which creation itself would be nothing to them, should reject the eternal life the Revealer brings them, and turn away from him who has “the word of eternal life” (6:68), is the abiding mystery of the first part of the fourth gospel.”[13]

2.2 Life is Transmitted by Christ

“The express will of the Father is “eternal life.” It is the will of a God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). Everything God does, he does with this end in view: to give life. He sends his only Son into the world for no other reason except that “they may have life, and have it abundantly” (10:10).”[14]Jesus is the incarnate word, who transmits life, the life of God, the Divine life. “The mystery of life in God is a purely spiritual reality in the bosom of which reality “life” and “word” are identified. By the very fact that God utters or expresses His Word, the divine life is in infinite and eternal act. But when it is a question of being life ourselves, God can no longer be content with expressing Himself, in order that life be communicated to these beings. It is further necessary that the Word come to us, this creative, illuminating, and all-powerful Word. Then, giving us his word he gives us life in him.”[15] Incarnation is eternal life or salvation oriented. “It is necessary that this life be manifested to us under a form that we can understand. That is why God makes our own nature the channel that the divine life borrows to communicate itself to us. It is a nature, totally like our own, that the word assumes to come to us and give life. And this life is now however a life of the same nature as our own, but His own, viz, the divine life.”[16]

“However, Christ’s human nature has as its function the revealing of this divine life to us before communicating it. It is in seeing Christ actually living a life similar to ours under our very eyes that the mystery of the divine life will be unraveled to us, drawn from that fountain eternally springing up.

Christ’s person is then the whole revelation of God and the communication of life. the epiphany of the Word made flesh is a theophany incomparably more revealing than all those of the OT, for it is supremely personal, without any intermediary, total, immediate, and both interior and exterior. But the revelation of life demands that Christ be living in us personally in order to be realized. And his teaching will progress in us to the same degree as our union with Him. The mystery of the divine life cannot be received except from Christ and it cannot be perceived except through Him, We shall know god is life in direct proportion to Christ’s having become our life.”[17]

2.3 Mission of Jesus is to Give Eternal Life

Eternal Life is a gift that God has given humankind through his Son Jesus Christ. “God gave us eternal life in his Son. Whoever has the Son has the life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (I John 5:11-12). Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life, those who believes in me even though they die have life” (John 11:25), that life is everlasting, eternal. By nature life is divine and eternal. God is life and life comes from God. Jesus is the Christ, sent from God to transmit God’s life into human being. Whoever receives Jesus, the word of God, in faith and admits him as savior is enabled to share the divine or eternal life and to become one of the children of God. Jesus Christ himself is the eternal life- “life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (I John 1:2). “The fullness of life which he gives consists in a mutual, intimate knowledge of him and the believers (the sheep), which is patterned on the mutual, loving knowledge of God, the Father and Jesus, the Son. During the prayer of the hour Jesus describes eternal life in terms of knowing him and the Father, which is a loving communion of life with Christ and through him with the Father. This life is fellowship with the Father and the Son is effected especially in and through the glorification of Jesus through his death-resurrection.”[18] Jesus Christ mediates life; temporally during in his ministry and finally on the cross by death and resurrection. “Jesus not only mediates eternal life but also sustains it because he is the bread of life (6:35, 48), the bread from heaven which “gives life to the world” (6:33).”[19] Jesus promised the Samaritan woman of living water (4:10), which would become “a spring of water welling up to eternal life (4:14), which is a reference to the life fiving Holy Spirit which will be bestowed by the glorified Jesus.

Jesus, in his ministerial life, has taught many things, done many things, all are oriented to salvation, liberation mainly from earthly shame, blame or shortcomings. In and through his Passion, death and resurrection he won upon death, which is a common final stage of every human being, and gave mankind the taste of everlasting life. “Jesus gives “eternal life” through being lifted up on the cross. Human beings are called to respond the revelation of God’s life, death and resurrection of the Jesus by believing in him so that they may have eternal life” (3:15-16).[20] That was the final goal of his life. Jesus himself states the purpose of his life giving mission: “I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance” (10:10).[21] Jesus was sent to manifest the Father’s glory, which is that people have life: “through this faith you may possess life by his name” (Jn. 20:31). In his ministry “Jesus proclaimed God’s will to be not human obedience but human life, present and eternal.”[22] God raised Jesus Christ from the dead opening a way of salvation for all who believe in God and Jesus Christ, the Messiah – that by associating ourselves with Christ in believing in the gospel, we can have our sins forgiven and we too can be raised from the dead and given the gift of eternal life.  

2.4 Eternal Life: Centre of Jesus’ Mission

The focus of Jesus’ mission is eternal life. Jesus is the incarnate word and the logos is life. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5). He came to his own people and to those who receive him and believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, not from natural drive but being born of God (John 1: 9-13) and that is eternal life. In the beginning of the Gospel of John Jesus is presented as logos, life giving word. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given” (John 1:14, 16).

Eternal life lasts beyond the grave, for Jesus assures Martha “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). Fullness of life consists not simply in the fulfillment of material and physical needs, liberation from sickness and death, but also in salvation from the slavery of  sin (John 5:14, 8:34-36) and the darkness of ignorance (John 8:12). Furthermore it is a participation in God’s own life.”[23] Life is the essence of the gospel message, distinguishing it from all other religion.[24] Jesus himself declared the goal of his mission: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10)[25]. We also find these at the conclusion of the Gospel of John in 20:31.[26] In his public life Jesus teaches, preaches, and heals in order to share the love of God to human beings. Jesus transmitted the message of salvation in the physical world through signs which mean eternal salvation. Jesus did not proclaim himself, but  the Father who sent him. Jesus is sent with authority and he who listens and follows him will have the eternal gift from whom Jesus sent. “Anyone who gives heed to what I say and puts his trust in him who sent me has hold of eternal life, and does not come up for judgment, but already passed from death to life” (John 5:24). Jesus is the author of eternal life he has the living water which gives eternal water “I give them . . . a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Eternal life is not a mere future hope but a present reality. "Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death into life" (John 5:24).

Chapter Three: The Mission of Jesus in John according to 10:10

3.1 Text Analysis (10:10): Key words

3.1.1 “I Came”

I-sayings are very dominative and authoritative in the biblical tradition. It represents the divinity. In the ancient east I-style is solidly established in divine proclamations. The meaning and purpose is the representation.[27] In the NT it has three different senses; first, proclamation of God, second, self witness of Christ and finally, the self utterances of the Christian. In the Bible ‘the I-style acquires a specific ring in the mouth of the true and only God who reveals Himself in Israel.’[28] “I am who I am” (Ex. 3:14). God’s revelation in this style is common to OT and to NT. Christ’s I-sayings are more distinctive in the NT. “It is in the I-speeches of Christ that έγώ takes on its decisive significance in the NT.”[29] “In the lips of the Synoptic Jesus the emphatic έγώ is relatively infrequent. It is found in warnings, promises and commands uttered by Jesus with the sense of divine power and authority.”[30] John takes this thought a stage further; the έγώ acquires a greater conceptual fullness and significance.

 “Jesus’ Perspective on the task entrusted to him is revealed in his statements introduced by the phrase “I came” (ēlthon) or its equivalent. These statements ascribe to Jesus “a special status as one who comes with a particular mission. They also relate Jesus’ mission to past, present, and future periods of salvation history and make it clear that a proper understanding of that mission must reckon with its relation to the OT, its salvific purpose, and its potential for causing division”.[31]

3.1.2 “Life”

Life denotes the physical vitality of organic beings, animals, men and also plants. Life is understood as the nature or manner which characterizes all living creatures as such. It is expressed in the fact that living creatures rise up and move and have distinctive work. It is self movement as distinct from mechanical movement.[32] “ ‘Life’ is a translation of two different Greek words Psychē and Zōē. The former normally refers to natural/physical life (e.g. 10:11, 15, 17) and the latter to the qualitatively different divine life (e.g. 3, 36; 10:10; 20:31).”[33] In Greek thought life is defined in terms of what man himself regards as his supreme and characteristic possibility.[34] In “the Jewish usage, we may distinguish three forms of expression which might lie behind the Christian use of the terms ζωή and  ζωή αἰώνιος  a) Life as contrasted with death, b) life of the age, as contrasted with the life of time and c) life of the age to come as contrasted with the life of  this age. In all three cases there is reference to life beyond the grave.”[35] The biblical idea of life is more inclusive than the philosophical or biological concept and fuller than the connotation which the word has in popular usage. It is a pregnant term, rich with meaning, giving the idea of fullness both in the quantitative and qualitative sense. Life does not just imply duration but also health, good estate and happiness”.[36] According to Palestinian Judaism life is a blessing and as life is desired it is delivered. Long life is desired in the call for salvation. To live means to be or to become healthy, or to be delivered. Long life is the reward for good conduct.[37] Even life goes beyond all the qualities when life is seen in the light of faith in relation to God. “Existence is not sufficient for life”[38] it is beyond that. Human life is natural and it is also divine since God is the life giver. Life comes from life; God is the life and Life giver (John 1:3-4). For the Hebrews, life can never be experienced apart from God. God is both source and sustaining force of all life. God breathes new life into the old (Ezekiel 37:1-14).”[39] “Life can be described as a state of blessedness in which the redeemed sees God and praises him in the dance of heavenly δυνάμεις”[40] (power). Jesus represents the divine power to transmit life in fuller meaning. In the connotation of John 10:10 life has double meaning life in full stream in the early matter and also life abundant which is eternal life, Life in God.

3.1.3 Life in John

Life is a very important theme in the bible, especially in John. “The importance of “life” (Zōē) in the Gospel of John is evident from the fact that it is mentioned both in the introduction (John 1:4) and in the conclusion John 20:31) and so it forms an inclusion for the whole Gospel.”[41] Life has a different meaning in John. Even without the qualifying adjective aionios, zoe in John does not refer to natural life,[42] rather divine life, Share in God’s life. “Natural life is man’s most treasured possession; “life” is therefore a good symbol to indicate the most precious of divine gifts lying beyond man’s reach. Since man thinks analogically of God, it was appropriate to speak of God’s “life” on the analogy of man’s life; and God’s greatest act of friendship to man was described in terms of man’s receiving s share in God’s life.”[43] When Jesus says “I have came that they may have life, life abundantly”; the term Zōē is used, again when Jesus says “the good shepherd lays down his life” (John 10:11) the term psychē is used. While the latter denotes natural/physical life, the former refers normally to eternal life, even though it is not qualified by the adjective ‘eternal’.[44] “Gospel of John is known as “Gospel of life”[45] Gospel begins speaking about logos. “The prologue presents the logos (word) as the source of life and the life as the “light of human beings”. Those who welcome the Word of God in faith are enabled to share in the divine life and thus became children of God through birth from God. (John 1:12-13).”[46] “In John the life idea achieves its final form; it is, as it were, a passing over from the battlefield to the celebration of victory. In John life is even more firmly rooted in the present”.[47]  In the gospel of John most often “life is spoken about in the present tense and refers to what is operative now through faith and the indwelling of Jesus in the disciples. John presents Jesus as the preexistent word, “through him was life and this life was the light of the human race” (John 1:4). That everyone should have eternal life is the commandment of God (John 12:50) and Jesus has come that “they may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). The reader is made to understand that life is present now to the believer and will continue into eternity: “for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son believes in him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40). The symbols of water and bread are used to highlight this depiction of Jesus as the source of life “the water that I give become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14), and “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger’ (John 6:35). Jesus sustains the life that he offers through the gift of the Eucharist which is life-giving to the believer just as his relationship with the Father is life-giving to Jesus. In the final prayer of Jesus eternal life is defined thus: “thus they should know you, the only true God and the one whom you sent Jesus Christ.”[48] For John life is the all-inclusive concept of salvation. It takes everything which the savior of the World sent by God brings to men.[49] The concept of life is characterized by radical Christocentricity and interiorisation; more over it is more personal and universalized.[50]

3.1.3 Abundant Life

“περισσος” is an adjective form of a Greek word which means beyond measure, exceeding some number or measure or rank or need, pre-eminence, superiority, advantage, more eminent, more remarkable, more excellent. It comes from the Greek word “περι” which is used in the sense of beyond. “In non-biblical usage περιούσιος means ‘having more than enough’, rich, wealthy.”[51] It also means ‘the people which constitutes the crown jewel of God.[52] Outside the NT it means to have superabundance of something, to overflow, to make over-rich etc.[53] “It connects the ‘idea that the time of salvation, as a counterpart of paradise, will bring superabundance in many different ways ... in detail the superabundance is depicted as miraculous fruitfulness, wealth of children, affluence in money and goods”[54] “In the NT περιούσσεύειν is almost always used in contexts which speak of a fullness present and proclaimed in the age of salvation as compared with the old aeon, or of a new standard which required in this age to this extent περιούσσεύειν is an eschatological catchword.”[55] In the text (John 10:10) the word is used “περισσον” and “If “περισσον” be considered the accusative fem. Attic, agreeing with “ζωην”, then it signifies more abundant life; that is, eternal life; or spiritual blessings much greater than had ever yet been communicated to man, preparing for a glorious immortality. Jesus is come that men may have abundance; abundance of grace, peace, love, life, and salvation. “In pagan religious and philosophical writers ζωή αἰώνιος is not found. The simple ζωή is used in the Hermetica for divine life into which man may enter either here and now or after death.”[56]

3.2 The Text in Context

John 10:10 is a statement by Jesus mention in a mini parable. In John 9:1-10:21 we see Jesus meets a man who was born blind and He heals him on the Sabbath by putting mud on his eyes and telling him to wash in the pool of Siloam. What follows is a big debate between the man who was healed from his blindness and the scribes and Pharisees who want to discredit Jesus. Finally the healed man becomes a follower of Jesus. In John 9:39-10:1, Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains. Then Jesus brings the mini parable of good shepherd. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. “Thief and robber” is referring to the Pharisees and the good shepherd is the Jesus Christ who has proven his genuineness dying on the cross. Jesus is the promised messiah who came to give life, life in abundance. Jesus is sent by the Father to grant eternal life to humankind. “Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:9-11) “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”(John 10: 17-18).

 3.3 The Mission of Jesus in John 10:10

God gave his one and only Son, his own Image, to the world to save mankind, so that they may believe in him and be saved. “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:13). “I can do nothing on my own, As I hear, I judge; and my Judgment is just, because I seek to do not my won will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:30). Jesus came so that man may have Jesus’ “joy make complete in themselves” (John 17:13). Athanasius of Alexandria wrote, He became what we are so that he might make us what he is. As a good shepherd Jesus is the only way to be saved. “I am the way” (John 14:6). Jesus said “I am the (true) life” (John 14:6) and “True life must be eternal” [57]. Jesus told that whoever follows me has the light of life (John 8:12). According to John 10:10, the mission of Jesus is very clear, it is to give eternal life. “I have come that they may have life, and have it in fullness” (10:10).

According to the Johannine conception there are no blessings of salvation which are given to the believer in addition to the saving gift of “life”; the remaining gifts of salvation are given and guaranteed along with “life” whether for the present or for the eschatological future. Hence the Johannine Christ can proclaim that he has come “that they may have life, and have it in fullness” (John 10:10), and that the commission laid upon him by the Father is simply “eternal life” (for human beings).[58] “It should be noted that there is a connection between the noun “life” and the Verb “to live” which refers sometimes to natural life and other times to eternal life and at times to both.”[59] “John presents salvation not only as liberation from sickness and blindness, hunger and thirst, discrimination and death, ignorance and sin but more frequently and positively as the possession of (eternal) life (zōe)”[60]. Eternal life is not found in scripture but with Christ as He claimed “you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is there testify about me; and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).

 “Life (eternal) is for John comprehensive concept of salvation which contains everything that the “savior of the world,” sent by God, brings to human beings. To it belongs the transition from death to “life”; preservation from the judgment of death; rescue from apoleia, i.e. eternal ruin; emancipation from the rule of the “prince of this world”; possession of the Spirit who makes alive; becoming a child of God through the “begetting from God”; fellowship with the glorified Christ and through him the Father, now in the earthly life and one day in a perfect manner in the Father’s house; enjoyment of the love of God;  joy and peace; possession of the “light”; the knowledge” of God; participation in the doxa, the glory of Christ, and beholding it in the heavenly world; likeness to the glorified, heavenly Son of Man, and guarantee of the resurrection to life through him on the last day.”[61] God the Father shares eternal life in and through Jesus Christ. Jesus affirms that, "this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3).

Chapter Four: Ways of Attaining Eternal life

“God’s greatest gift to us is life, which we nourish and cherish until the end of our days. We desire ardently and work assiduously to prolong, promote and possess life in its fullness.”[62]  “Life” is “the comprehensive concept of Salvation” and the ultimate purpose of the Fourth Gospel is to enable the readers to “have life in his (Jesus Christ) Name ... John not only presents Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God and mediator of life, but also guides the reader along the path to attain life in its fullness or shows the way to integral salvation.”[63] Eternal life is a gift of God to humankind and humankind needs to accept it. To accept means to say yes to God and this yes can lead man towards salvation. Jesus being the savior showed us the way to attain eternal life. “He who has the Son has the life” (1 John 5:12).  “Whether he is dealing with its birth in us (3:3) its development (4:14), its increase in us through our submission to the word (5:21), through eating the Eucharist (6:54), or through faith (3:16), John always refers to is as a reality given right now. And this life is eternal life.”[64]  

4.1 Baptism

The Bible teaches that Jesus becomes the “mediator” between God and sinful man. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous” (I John 2:1).  God is willing to impute righteousness to man if man associate with him through baptism, through which we receive the forgiveness of sins. “Through faith and baptism the Christian comes into newness of life. After having died with Christ, Christ lives in him and he has a share in Christ’s eternal life which will know no end. The flesh and blood of Christ is not only nourishment but pledge of life.”[65] “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born from water and Spirit (John 3:5). Having faith in Jesus as Savior leads to baptism, which is also known as new birth. “Whoever believes has eternal life” (John 6:47). Through Christ’s flesh, through the mystery of incarnation, John united himself to the Word through faith, so we understands that the sacraments have the mission, in uniting us to Christ’s body, of uniting us to God through faith.

4.2 Eucharist

His flesh and blood are given in the Eucharist as spiritual nourishment (John 6:51-58). “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life and I will raise them up on the last day” (John 6:53-54). Partaking in the Eucharistic celebration we have eternal life.

4.3 Believing In Jesus Christ

The “one who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47). Faith is the act that inaugurates birth into a new life, and it is a defining characteristic of the new life. Jesus is the savior of the world; Salvation comes through the suffering and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is the human manifestation of God.  “If Jesus is human manifestation of the divine life and is the mediator of eternal life, humans have to respond to it positively by believing, following and dying to self. Believing is an essential condition for having eternal life (e.g. 3:16, 36; 6:40, 47; 20:31).”[66] “The eternal life of the Christian has come through the action of the Son of God who became man in time. One can possess this eternal life only if one is a branch on the vine which is Jesus (John 15:5). Even the most “Gnostic” statement in the gospel, “eternal life consists in this that they know you are only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ (John 12:3), is rooted in a historic event ... .  Here “know” means to be in a vital and intimate relationship with the Father and Jesus and such a relationship through faith in Jesus and hearing his words.”[67] To believe in the Son of God whom God sent, is the means of attaining eternal life. “What must we do to perform the works of God? Jesus answered them, ‘this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:28-29). “Whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath” (John 3:36). “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God” (I John 4:15). “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).

4.4 Self Denial

            The one who loves his own self most is unworthy of attaining eternal life. “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (12:25). Jesus is the one who offers his life for the sin of the world and restores us in God’s love.  

4.5 Following Jesus

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6) and “the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (5:26). So those who follow Jesus will have life. “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor” (12:26). “To whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (6:68) Jesus asked Peter about John the beloved disciple “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (John 21:22). “Whoever obeys his word, truly in this person, the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him, whoever says I abide in him, ought to walk just as he walked” (I John 2:5-6).

4.6 Love and Service

 God is love; His love is expressed through Jesus Christ.  “Let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows Go whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I John 4:7-9). “Everyone who does right has been born of him.” (I John 2:29) Love implies service, when Jesus asks Peter “do you love me, he adds feed my sheep” (John 21:17).

4.7 Loving Neighbor and God

“Life is the overflow of the love of God and we have passed from death to life because we love brethren, even to the point of being ready to lay down our lives for them. In the last resort discipleship of Christ implies giving up this life in order to win eternal life.”[68]  “Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling but whoever hates another believer is in the darkness in the the darkness and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.” (John 2:10-11). ““Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in my love. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. “These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:9-11).

4.8 Offering of One’s Life

Offering of one’s life is another condition for fruitfulness and fullness of life (12:24-25). “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (12:25). “The discipleship of Christ implies giving up this life in order to win eternal life.”[69] “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends” (John 15:13). “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Jesus is the vivid example of offering his life for friends. He lay down his life on the cross for the salvation of the world.

Conclusion

The Father has life in him and gives it to the Son, and the Son like the Father, gives to whom he will (cf. John chapter 5). In the letters of Paul we find also “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Christ himself is our life (Gal 2:20). This is the whole point of his mission, the purpose of his coming, that we should have life and have it more abundantly. “Time is coming, indeed it is already here, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and all who hear shall come to life (5:25). Eternal life is already a present reality. It does not just imply a duration without limit but the fullness of salvation which has yet to be revealed. “I am the bread of life … if anyone eats this bread he shall live forever” (John 6:48-51). Christ was a gift to humankind, he bore our sin and brought to all of us eternal life.

Jesus was sent (John 3:16) with a mission and he was successful in his mission to give eternal life. “While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them was lost” (John 17:12). Jesus offered his life in order to grant eternal life and to enable the disciples to keep it.

---

[1] Paul Marie de la Croix: The Biblical Spirituality of St. John. Alba House, New York, 1966, p. 133.

[2] Evarist Pinto: Jesus the Son and Giver of Life in the Fourth Gospel. Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana, Rome, 1981, p. 45.

[3] Joel F. Williams, and William J. Darkin, ed: Mission in the New Testament. Orbis Books, New York, 1998, p. 11

[4] cf. Mission in the New Testament. op. cit., pp 3-4

[5] Paul Marie de la Croix: op. cit., p. 126.

[6] cf. George Mlakuzhyil: Path to Abundant Life. Media House, Delhi, 2005, p. 331.

[7] George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life. Academy Press, Nodia, 2007, p. 5

[8] Ibid, p. 76

[9] Ibid, p. 4

[10] Gergge Malkuzhyil: “Mission in the Gospel of John” Vidyajyoti, V. LVII, 1993, p. 259

[11] Ibid, p. 260

[12] George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life. p. 75

[13] Stanley B. Marrow: The Gospel of John, Paulist Press, NY, 1995, p. 221

[14] Stanley B. Marrow: op. cit., p. 221.

[15] Paul Marie de la Croix: op. cit, p. 128

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid,  pp. 128-129

[18] George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life. p. 323

[19] Ibid.

[20] George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life. p. 331.

[21] R. Schnackenburg: The Gospel According to St. John. II, p. 331.

[22] George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life. p. 77.

[23] Gergge Malkuzhyil: art. cit., Vidyajyoti, p. 265.

[24] George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life, p. 77.

[25] Ibid, p. 4.

[26] George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life, p. 3.

[27] The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. V. II, s.v.“έγώ” by E. Stauffer,  p. 343.

[28] Ibid.

[29] Ibid, p. 345.

[30] Ibid, p. 348.

[31] William J. Larkin Jr. and Joel F. WIlliams ed.: Mission in the New Testament. “Mission in the John’s Gospel and Letters” by Martin Erdmann, Orbis Books, New York, 1998. p 34.

[32] The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. V. II, art. cit., pp. 832-833.

[33] R. Schnackenburg: The Gospel according to st. John. V. II, P. 331.

[34]  The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, V. II, art. cit., P. 834.

[35] C. H Dodd: The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel. CUP, Cambridge, 1958, p. 146.

[36] Johannes B. Bauer: Encyclopedia of Biblical Theology. “Life” by Ernst Schmitt, Sheed and Ward, London, 1982. p. 499.

[37] The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. V. II, art. cit, p. 855.

[38] Johannes B. Bauer, art. cit., p. 499.

[39] The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology, “Life” by Sean Goan, TPI, Bangalore, 2005, p. 558.

[40] The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, V. II, art. cit., p. 842.

[41] R. Schnackenburg: The Gospel according to St. John. II, p. 331.

[42] Raymond E. Brown: The Gospel according to John (i-xii), Doubleday, Garden city, NY, 1966, p. 506.

[43] Ibid.

[44] George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life. op. cit., p. 4.

[45] George Mlakuzhyil: op. cit., p. 4.

[46] George Mlakuzhyil: Path to Abundant life. p. 331.

[47] Johannes B. Bauer: art. cit., p. 501.

[48] The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology. op. cit., p. 560.

[49] Johannes B. Bauer: art. cit., p. 501.

[50] Ibid.

[51] The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. V. VI, art. cit., p. 57.

[52] Ibid.

[53] Ibid,  pp. 58-59.

[54] Ibid,  p. 59.

[55] Ibid, p 59.

[56] C. H Dodd: op. cit., p. 146.

[57] Gerhard Friedrich, ed: The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. V. II, op. cit., p. 856.

[58] R. Schnackenburg: The Gospel According to St. John. II, p. 331.

[59] George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life. op. cit, p. 4.

[60] Gergge Malkuzhyil: Mission in the Gospel of John. op. cit., p. 266.

[61]  George Mlakuzhyil: Abundant Life. op. cit, p 5.

[62] George Mlakuzhyil: Initiation to the Gospel of Life. St. Pauls, Bandra, 2008. p. 11.

[63] George Mlakuzhyil: Path to Abundant Life. p.18.

[64] Paul Marie de la Croix: op. cit., p. 129.

[65] Johannes B. Bauer: art. cit., p. 503.

[66] George Mlakuzhyil: Path to Abundant Life. p. 333.

[67] Raymond E. Brown: op, cit., p. 507-508.

[68] Johannes B. Bauer: art. cit., p. 503.

[69] Johannes B. Bauer: art. cit., p. 503.