Everlasting Life

What is meant by “everlasting life” (John 17:3)?
“Everlasting life” involves but does not equal everlasting existence, which takes place also in hell. “Everlasting life” in the Bible refers to life that begins at salvation and lasts forever in heaven with God.

Is everlasting life the same as eternal life?
Everlasting life has a beginning but no end. Eternal life has no beginning and no end. Only God has no beginning and no end, so only God is eternal. Christians have a beginning but no end, so Christians have everlasting life, which lasts for the rest of eternity.

What leads to everlasting life?
“Know ... the only true God” (John 17:3). Jesus isn’t praying for people to know ‘about’ God, but to “know” God in a personal relationship with Him. The root of the original Greek word translated “know” is γινωσκω (ginosko), which connotes deep intimacy in this context. In fact, the alternate meaning of this word, when in the context of a relationship between a man and a woman, even indicates the intimacy of a sexual relationship. For example, Mary asked the angel how she could be pregnant when she doesn't “know” a man: “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34).

What is meant by “και Jesus Christ whom you have sent”?
The most common word in the Greek New Testament is the article translated “the” in English. The second most common word in the Greek New Testament is “kai,” a conjunction that usually is a marker to join (“and”), but depending on the context, can be a marker to join and continue (“and then”), a marker to join and add something else (“also”), a marker to emphasize or elaborate (“even,” “namely”), etc. “Namely” is the sense in which kai is being used in John 17:3, which is the only place in the four gospels that quotes anyone saying “Jesus Christ,” let alone Jesus, who never called Himself even “Jesus” before or after this occasion, saying it.

So why is Jesus suddenly calling Himself “Jesus Christ”?
He is naming the name by which people “may know” God the Father and have “everlasting life” (John 17:3). And after this gospel, the rest of the New Testament quotes His disciples saying or writing “Jesus Christ” no fewer than 172 times, including six times as “the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38, 3:6, 4:10, 8:12, 16:18, 1 Corinthians 1:2), and another six times as “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 15:26, 1 Corinthians 1:10, 5:4, Ephesians 5:20, 2 Thessalonians 1:12, 3:6).

If God the Father is “the only true God,” does that mean Jesus isn’t?
A creature cannot give everlasting life to anyone, but the Co-Creator can. A creature also cannot tell the Creator to “glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5 below), but the Co-Creator can. Jesus' own deity as God the Son is embodied in His words to God the Father. Moreover, John who wrote this gospel also wrote the book of 1 John, in which he outright declared that Jesus Christ “is the true God” (1 John 5:20). The “only true” in “the only true God” (John 17:3) excludes the false ‘gods’ of all other religions.

How has Jesus "glorified ... on the earth" (John 17:4) God the Father?
He said, "I have accomplished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4).

Is that the "glory" Jesus is praying about in John 17:5?
No, that glory is what He has always had with God the Father in heaven even before creating the universe: "glory which I had with You before the world was" (John 17:5).

Why does Jesus say He “had” that glory?
To come in the flesh to mankind, Jesus had set aside that glory, which He was about to take up again after ascending to heaven (see "Glorified" meaning).

Is Jesus praying for everyone in the world in this passage?
No: "I do not pray for the world" (John 17:9).

Whom is Jesus praying for?
In the previous passage, He prayed primarily for Himself and the Father. In this passage, He is praying for His eleven apostles.

Who had chosen Jesus' apostles: Jesus or God the Father?
Before choosing His apostles, Jesus prayed to the Father, and then picked out the ones whom the Father "gave" (John 17:6) Him: "Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles" (Luke 6:12-13).

Did Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross pay for the sins of all human beings?
If so, unrepentant sinners who don't believe in Jesus would go to heaven as well, which isn’t true: "Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:40-42). Jesus' sacrifice on the cross paid the death penalty due for all sins - past, present and future - of only those who believe He paid that penalty for them.

What does Jesus say the apostles believed about Him?
"They... have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me" (John 17:8).

Does Jesus say that they believe He is the Messiah who will die for their sins and then be resurrected?
No, they will understand that only after His resurrection. At this point, they understand Him to be someone who doesn’t fit their notion of a militaristic Messiah, but a Messiah from God the Father nonetheless.