List of Eternal Life Scriptures

This is a list of verses about the gift of eternal life one receives upon believing on Jesus, which often get ignored by Lordship Salvationists and others.

1. Mark 10:30   But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
2. John 3:15   That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
3. John 3:16   For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
4. John 3:36   He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
5. John 4:14   But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
6. John 4:36   And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
7. John 5:24   Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
8. John 6:40   And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
9. John 6:47   Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
10. John 6:54   Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

11. John 10:28   And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
12. John 12:25   He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
13. John 17:2   As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
14. John 17:3   And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
15. Acts 13:48   And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
16. Romans 2:7   To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
17. Romans 5:21   That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
18. Romans 6:22   But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
19. Romans 6:23   For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
20. 1 Timothy 1:16   Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
21. 1 Timothy 6:12   Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
22. 1 Timothy 6:19   Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
23. Titus 1:2   In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
24. Titus 3:7   That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
25. 1 John 1:2   (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
26. 1 John 2:25   And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
27. 1 John 5:11   And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
28. 1 John 5:13   These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
29. 1 John 5:20   And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
30. Jude 1:21   Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

There are more verses that mention the words “eternal/everlasting life,” but these are in particular about believing on Jesus and receiving eternal life as a result of that.

Can You Lose Your Salvation?

John 5:24

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

This verse should be enough to answer that question. 

But, because some people still are in doubt, or convinced that you can lose your salvation, I'll elaborate, using scripture.

Let's start with the defenition of eternal (or everlasting):

John 10:28

28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Some people think Jesus is talking about others, but in fact, this includes you. Not even you can pluck yourself out of Jesus's hand.

John 6:37

37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Jesus is saying here that if any person comes to him, which is believing on Him and receiving his sacrifice and free gift of salvation, He will in no wise cast them out; whatever they do. No wise means no wise, whatsoever. He is not speaing hypothetically here, He is speaking the cold hard truth. Once you're His, He will not cast you out. When you get saved you become part of His body, casting you out would be as if Jesus cut off his own limb (2 Timothy 2:13).

Aside from these two scriptures, there are 30 scriptures mentioning the gift of eternal or everlasting life alone! The list can be found here.


So.. what if I do sin?

Jesus died for all our sins. That means our sins past, present, and future. He already took the punishment for all of them, so there shouldn't be a reason to think He will still account those to you by taking away your salvation. 

And even if you do sin, and you feel horrible about it, you can ask God for forgiveness and He will forgive you:

1 John 1:9

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

He is faithful, because He said He would forgive us if we ask, and just, because Jesus already paid for our sin, and there's no reason for him to still hold our sins against us.

Aside from that, nothing in existence can take us away from God once we are His:

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can seperate us from Him. Not even us.

Now, there are some scriptures that seems to suggest that we do need to work to "keep" ourselves saved. But I will show you that this most certainly isn't the case. These are, what I would call, "scripture pairs," of which Lordship Salvationists use only the first half to prove that we have to work to keep our salvation. 


1. Doing the will of the Father

Matthew 12:50

For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

+

John 6:39-40

39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

2. Overcoming the world

Revelation 21:7

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

+

1 John 5:5

Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

3. Keeping His commandments

Revelation 14:12

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

+

1 John 3:22-24

22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

Here we can see how important it is to allow scripture to interpret scripture, and to never take just one scripture by itself without a clear biblical defenition or explanation. But, as we know Lordship Salvationists, they just want to prove to God (actually themselves) how committed they are to being a good saint, showing "good behavior," which will only send you to hell. They are appealing to their own pride and using works, and God is very clear about how He feels about that:

Ephesians 2:8-9

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Let's compare Jesus to a lifeguard. You are drowing at sea, and the lifeguard comes to rescue you. He saves you and pulls you on his raft, but only on one condition. You need to keep still and be completely quiet for the whole journey back, and the moment you say something or make any sound, he will throw you back in the water to drown. How cruel is that? Do you really think God treats us this way? Sitting up there in heaven, eagerly waiting for a reason to throw us in hell? 

If you truly believe that, I have to tell you that you're wrong. 

Exodus 34:6-7

6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, (...)

God is a good, loving God, whoms will it is that nobody perishes, because He loves us. He created us to be loved by Him, and for us to love Him back. he sacrificed Himself so we can do that. By making salvation completely about belief and not at all about our behavior, He shows how much He wants us to be with Him. He made it as easy as possible for us to choose Him, without the ability to go back into damnation, even if we wanted to. And all that without taking away our free will. 

This is why we don't need to worry anymore, as soon as we get saved. We can't be good enough to earn it, or bad enough to lose it. We can rest, because keeping our salvation has nothing to do with us:

Hebrews 4:9-11

9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The reason we have to labour to enter into that rest, is because resting in Jesus' finished work on the cross is against our nature. We are used to working for something we want to earn, but salvation is not something you earn. And if you can't lose it, you can't earn it, because salvation doesn't depend on you. It is something you receive freely through faith. And to God, faith is not about the one who believes, but about the one who is believed in. 

Jesus was and is fully capable of taking care of your sins and washing them away, so what's stopping you from putting your trust in Him? He did it 2000 years ago, long before you were born. Nonetheless, He did it with you in mind. 

Rest in that, and you will receive everlasting life.

Why Few Will Find Salvation

Matthew 7:13-14

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

What did Jesus mean by a narrow way? Did He mean that few find it because it’s too hard? Is it hidden somewhere, or do we need to make an effort to get it?

No, it's because of pride.

Here’s why.

“Salvation is too easy.”

We sin, and God offers us a way to get rid of it, free or charge. Sounds suspicious? That’s because when we hear the word “free”, we don’t think it really means “free”. Because we grew up in a society and economy where “free” means “free (if you do this)”, we are reluctant to trust God when He says salvation is a free gift. We have grown accustomed to always expecting a catch, a condition or a requirement to get something for free.

Once one understands that salvation really is free, the guilt (because the grave sins God may have forgiven) or the suspicion will cause them to try to change the gospel. They say “you have to stop sinning to be saved”, or, “You will lose your salvation if you sin.”

What these people don’t realize, is that it’s their pride telling them to do that. It sounds logical and righteous, to stop sinning in order to get saved, for example. But this is not how God wants it to be. Our works for salvation are, to God, at best filthy rags, as we can read in Isaiah:

Isaiah 64:6

6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

We are all born sinners. It’s not our sin that makes us sinners, it is our sin-being that makes us sin. We lie, steal, cheat, because we are sinners. The lying, stealing and cheating doesn’t make us sinners, but rather it shows that we are sinners. It is because of the essence of sin in us, that we inherited from Adam, that God can not accept our own works of righteousness for the payment of sin. That is why He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect, sinless life, and to give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. All we have to do is accept His payment in our place.

God can’t save us by His grace if we insist that we need to give him something in return, i.e. our works, as Paul said in Romans:

Romans 11:6

6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

If we could add our works to salvation, it would not be of grace anymore. And if grace could be applied to your works, our works wouldn’t be works anymore. Salvation is either of our works by the law, or by the grace of God, it can’t be both.

In fact, you offering your own works for salvation is an insult to God. God brought His own, holy, sufficient sacrifice for the remission of sins, and some try to add their own works to it. They don’t realize that in essence they are saying that God’s sacrifice is not enough. They are saying God is not enough. They need some of their own efforts in the mix to feel satisfied. How prideful does that sound?

Romans 10:3

3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Ephesians 2:8, 9

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

This is the reason why so many mock the true gospel as “easy believism.” Not realizing that they are working against God, they actually think they are righteous for doing all these good deeds.

“Salvation is too hard.”

What salvation really comes down to, is wether you choose for yourself or for God.

In order to get saved, you must realize and accept that you are a sinner, worthy of eternal damnation in hell. You need to have an objective view of yourself from God’s perspective. He is the Creator of our universe, He is the Creator of us, of every human being that walks on this earth. He makes the rules. This means that, if we want to be saved, it has to be done His way.

Some people find this too hard though. They don’t want to be confronted with their own sinfulness. They don’t want to deal with how much they have wronged God throughout their life, mainly because they don’t want to feel bad about themselves.

Romans 3:4, 23

4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

It is human nature to resist this fact. We move away from pain, and towards pleasure. The thing is though, that we need to go against this nature if we want to receive salvation. We need to be willing to admit that we are sinners, bound to go to hell -- otherwise, why would we need a Savior?

1 John 1:8, 10

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

We need to be willing to see our sin for what it is, and allow God to fix it for us. We need to humble ourselves before Him, so He can lift us up. And this is a harsh reality to face for many.

This is why some people choose to postpone salvation. They will deal with their sin “later,” and get saved “later,” out of fear. Pride disguised as fear, that is. Why, you ask? Because you don't know when you're going to die. You don't know wether there is a "later" for you or not. You could be walking down the street one second and be gone the next. This postponing attitude is what sends many to hell, for the mere fact that they waited with choosing.

Salvation is a free gift from God. We can receive it, but it has to be according to His rules. We can't change it or try to bypass it by establishing our own righteouness by any means. God offers Himself to us as He is, and it is up to us wether we believe Him or not.

Letting pride overtake you is exactly what Satan did. He did not want to submit himself to God's rules, and instead go about his own way - and look where that got him. Do you want to go Satan's way, or God's way? Or do you want to sleep on it? 

John 3:16-18

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Choose wisely, before it's too late.