Eternal Life & Oranges

There is perhaps nothing so uniquely Christian as eternal life.  It is one of those features of Christian theology that, in so many ways, sets it apart from every other religious or philosophical system.  This distinction comes, at least in part, from the method of receiving this eternal life; namely, through faith in Christ Jesus.  It is not about doing something or even knowing something; it is about having a real, personal relationship with the Holy Lord through His Son.

But this, the manner through which eternal life is received by the individual, is not the definition of eternal life; it is only a description of how it is obtained.  In truth, so much of Christian theology is consumed, and rightly so, with understanding the initiation of eternal life that comes through faith in Christ.  However, we would do well not to neglect that eternal life has, at its core, a content that is quite spectacular.

Understanding eternal life deserves its own consideration, its own description aside form merely talking about how to receive it.  That is what I hope to convey here.  For this an analogy might serve the best course.

Imagine, for a moment, that your only experience with an orange was with those inedible decorative oranges that some people put in bowls in there homes.  But you had never actually tasted an orange. You may, by deduction, understand that the orange is something to eat and maybe even that it has a taste unique to itself.  If you are particularly clever you may, through studying what others have said about the orange, begin to ascribe to the orange features it possesses: citric, sweet, juicy, etc.

And while each of those ascriptions would be accurate you yourself would never be speaking of an actual orange, you would only be talking about the orange hypothetically, neither from experience or with any applied knowledge; only theoretical musings.  At best you could only say what the orange of your description might be like if you could pick its inedible shape off of the table and eat it, though you'd always be thinking of the same dull decorative orange-thing while you're attempting to describe what the orange may be like (it is very much so akin to describing a particular color to someone who has been born blind).

In the end, however, only upon actually eating the orange would you thus possess true knowledge of the orange itself.  It is, in a sense, through tasting the orange that the reality of the orange and its orange-ness become of any real value or accuracy.

Eternal life is sort of like this in that until we possess it through Christ we can only describe it in terms of hypotheticals, never speaking anything accept what might conjecture in ascribing to eternal life what we have reasoned or what has been told us.  But in Christ we receive eternal life, meaning that the life possessed in Him is one that is uniquely eternal.  Moreover, this life will possess certain 'tastes' unique to it that cannot be sufficiently understood or even communicated by anyone except for those who have tasted it.

Theologically speaking, this comes down to the presence of the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer and initiates a new life.  And like tasting an orange for the first time will bring with it a newness of perspective that will inform every other taste, the new life in Christ will influence every facet of the believer's life with a newness, a new taste (keep in mind this is an inadequate analogy for the supreme holiness that is the new birth but the limits of language should never dissuade us from attempting to understand that for which comprehension stands just outside of our grasp).

This is but a scratch in the surface of eternal life, a single droplet into a seas worth of theology. However, I hope that it has at least sparked an internal dialogue within you that you might consider what eternal life 'tastes' like to you.  And if you cannot say with any authority or conviction what eternal life is then I urge you to ask a Christ-follower and, even more so, to find out for yourself with a sincere step of faith in your own life.  You will be as amazed as the man whose never tasted an orange.