Is the Gift of Eternal Life Really Available to Everyone?

The message of the Bible is clear and consistent: the Gift of Eternal Life is available to every person—freely, fully, and without limit. This promise is not restricted by race, background, or merit.

“Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13Romans 10:13 commentary). God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:41 Timothy 2:4 commentary), and He has made provision for that desire through Jesus Christ. The offer is not abstract or symbolic—it is concrete, personal, and eternally significant. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23Romans 6:23 commentary).

The Gift of Eternal Life, though costly to God, is without cost to us—and is universally and inexhaustibly offered to everyone in the entire world.

From the beginning, God created humanity in His image to live in relationship with Him and reflect His glory (Genesis 1:26-27Genesis 1:26-27 commentary). Humanity was designed for fellowship with the Creator, to enjoy His presence and serve Him in love and harmony (Genesis 1:28-30Genesis 1:28-30 commentary, 2:152:15 commentary, Ephesians 2:10Ephesians 2:10 commentary). God's design was never for death or alienation, but for eternal communion.

Ecclesiastes 3:11Ecclesiastes 3:11 commentary affirms that God “has also set eternity in their heart,” revealing a divine intent that we live forever in His presence. Our origin and purpose was and still is to delight in the God who made us as we live and partner with Him in obedience to His good will in perpetual relationship. To live in His ways is to live in our design, which leads to our fulfillment.

Yet all have turned away from this good design. Sin entered the world through human disobedience, and with it came separation from God and the curse of death. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23Romans 3:23 commentary). In God’s original design, humans were “crowned” or appointed with the “glory and honor” of reigning over the earth in harmony with God, nature, and one another (Hebrews 2:5-8Hebrews 2:5-8 commentary). But we fell from this, and chose to go our own way.

Death is separation, and our choice to live apart from God’s ways separated us from the glory for which God designed us. Jesus has restored humanity’s right to reign “through the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9Hebrews 2:9 commentary). His death on the cross paid the penalty for all sins (Colossians 2:14Colossians 2:14 commentary). We can gain the gift of eternal life simply through faith. We can then experience the fulfillment of that life through following His example of obedience; we can enter the narrow gate and follow the difficult path that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14Matthew 7:13-14 commentary).

We cannot earn our way to God, or live holy enough to justify ourselves in God’s sight. Only faith in Jesus can justify us in God’s sight. The Law, which is holy and good, shows us God’s design. But since humans all choose to live outside our design at some point, it also exposes our guilt and condemns us.

“By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
(Romans 3:20Romans 3:20 commentary)

This rebellion against God has consequences: “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God” (Isaiah 59:2Isaiah 59:2 commentary). Left to ourselves, we are “dead in [our] trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1Ephesians 2:1 commentary), unable to restore the relationship we were made for. The judgment of God is just and inescapable without divine intervention.

That intervention came in the person of Jesus Christ. He lived the perfect life we could not live, fulfilling the Law in every way. “He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:221 Peter 2:22 commentary). He bore our punishment on the cross: “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities… by His scourging we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5Isaiah 53:5 commentary).

Through His death, the penalty was paid; through His resurrection, death was conquered (John 11:25John 11:25 commentary). Eternal life is not achieved—it is freely given by God’s grace and it is only received through faith. “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:111 John 5:11 commentary). “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9Ephesians 2:8-9 commentary).

The offer of Eternal Life’s Gift stands for all who will believe in the name of Jesus. Jesus explained the simplicity of gaining the Gift of Eternal Life using the example of the bronze snake in the wilderness (Numbers 21:6-9Numbers 21:6-9 commentary). The Israelites bitten by venomous snakes could be delivered from physical death if they believed sufficiently to look upon a bronze snake lifted up on a pole by Moses.

Jesus said He would also be lifted up, and all who believed in Him would have eternal life (John 3:14-15John 3:14-15 commentary). The analogy is that humans have the poisonous venom of sin that leads to spiritual death, separation from God. The Gift of Eternal Life is received simply by believing God sufficiently to look upon Jesus lifted up on that cross, hoping for healing.

God’s amazing Gift of Eternal Life meets humanity’s most desperate needs (salvation from sin and its penalty of separation from God) (John 3:14-16John 3:14-16 commentary). It is given by His grace alone (not earned) on account of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. And it is received through faith in Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior (Ephesians 2:8-9Ephesians 2:8-9 commentary).

For the believer, God’s Gift of Eternal Life includes:

• The Forgiveness of all their sins (past, present, and future)
  (Colossians 2:13Colossians 2:13 commentary, commentary Hebrews 10:14Hebrews 10:14 commentary)

• Avoiding the eternal penalty of sin in the Lake of Fire
  (John 5:24John 5:24 commentary, commentary Revelation 20:15Revelation 20:15 commentary)

• Life forever with God in the New Heaven and the New Earth
  (John 14:2-3John 14:2-3 commentary, commentary Revelation 21:1-3Revelation 21:1-3 commentary)

• Being Born into God’s forever family as His forever child
  (John 1:12-13John 1:12-13 commentary, commentary Romans 8:15-16Romans 8:15-16 commentary, commentary John 3:1John 3:1 commentary)

• Belonging and Assurance that God will never forsake them
  (John 10:27-29John 10:27-29 commentary, commentary Romans 8:38-39Romans 8:38-39 commentary)

• Having God live inside us and empower us through His Holy Spirit
  (Ephesians 3:16Ephesians 3:16 commentary, commentary Romans 8:11Romans 8:11 commentary)

• The Opportunity to personally know God by Faith now, and Reign with God in His eternal kingdom (The Prize of Eternal Life)
  (John 17:3John 17:3 commentary, commentary 2 Timothy 2:122 Timothy 2:12 commentary)

The Bible teaches that the offer of the Gift of Eternal Life is universally available to everyone and its supply of blessings are inexhaustible. However, this Gift is only received by those who believe, looking to Jesus on the cross to heal the poisonous venom of their sin.

The way we receive Jesus and His Gift of Eternal Life is to believe that Jesus is God and entrust our salvation (deliverance from being relationally separated from God) to His life, death, and resurrection (John 3:16John 3:16 commentary, commentary 1 Corinthians 15:3-41 Corinthians 15:3-4 commentary).

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
(John 1:12-13John 1:12-13 commentary)

The inclusivity of God’s Gift of Eternal Life is made clear from the opening clause of this scripture: “But as many as” (John 1:12aJohn 1:12a commentary).

This clause establishes to whom the Gospel’s invitation is available: everyone. The invitation of the Gospel is both universal and unlimited.

The Gospel’s invitation is universal because it is open to anyone and everyone. The expression “as many as” (John 1:12aJohn 1:12a commentary) means “all” or “everyone.”

The Gospel is available to literally everyone. It is available to:

• every Jew and every Gentile,
• every man and every woman,
• every freeman and every person who is enslaved,
• every civilized person and to every barbarian,
• every religious person and non-religious person
• everyone who is rich and to everyone who is poor.

No one is excluded from its offer. Jesus paid for all sins, so no amount of sin is too much for Him to forgive. Anyone can receive Jesus and join God’s forever family regardless of their ethnicity, race, gender, language, nationality, socio-economic status, prior religious background, sin, or any other factor.

The universality of the Gospel’s offer is repeatedly affirmed throughout the Gospel of John and the New Testament.

• Jesus tells Nicodemus that the Gospel’s Gift of Eternal Life is available to “whoever” in John 3:16John 3:16 commentary.

• Jesus also reveals Himself to the sinful Samaritan woman at the well. Through the symbolism of “living water,” Jesus offers her the renewing transformation of the Gospel (John 4:10John 4:10 commentary) and affirms its universality, telling her:

“whoever drinks of the water [Gospel] that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
(John 4:14John 4:14 commentary)

• In Matthew and again in Acts, after Jesus’s resurrection, He commands His disciples to take the Gospel and make disciples of “all nations” (Matthew 28:19Matthew 28:19 commentary) and to be His witness not only in Jerusalem but “in all Judea, Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8Acts 1:8 commentary)

• In preaching his Gospel message on the day of Pentecost, Peter quotes the prophet Joel and declares: “‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Acts 2:21Acts 2:21 commentary—see also Joel 2:32Joel 2:32 commentary).

• After receiving a heavenly vision and instruction to share the Gospel with Gentiles in the house of Cornelius the Roman Centurion, Peter was amazed at the universality of the Gospel’s offer,

“Opening his mouth, Peter said: ‘I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.’”
(Acts 10:34-35Acts 10:34-35 commentary)

• The Apostles’ Council at Jerusalem prayerfully acknowledged that the Gospel’s offer applied to Gentiles as well as Jews (Acts 15:1-29Acts 15:1-29 commentary).

• Throughout his epistles, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, repeats the universality of the Gospel’s offer over and over again. Here are two such statements:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
(Galatians 3:28Galatians 3:28 commentary)

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.”
(Titus 2:11Titus 2:11 commentary)

See also: Romans 1:6Romans 1:6 commentary, 3:223:22 commentary, 10:12-1310:12-13 commentary, 1 Corinthians 12:131 Corinthians 12:13 commentary, commentary Ephesians 2:11Ephesians 2:11 commentary, and commentary Colossians 1:28Colossians 1:28 commentary.

• Finally, in Revelation, when John is given a vision of the great and countless multitude standing before the throne of the Lamb, he sees people “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues” (Revelation 7:9Revelation 7:9 commentary).
  
  Near the end of Revelation, Jesus says, “And the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” (Revelation 22:17bRevelation 22:17b commentary). The only requirement to receive the gift of “the water of life without cost” is to desire it and to “take” or receive.

The Gospel’s invitation is universally offered to everyone as these verses emphatically indicate. But it is received only by “as many as receive” Jesus by faith (John 1:12John 1:12 commentary).

The Gospel’s invitation is also unlimited.

God’s supply of grace will never run out or empty. It is impossible for too many people to receive Jesus and experience His mercy and grace. His grace is infinite. Jesus already paid for all sins that have ever or will ever be committed (Colossians 2:14Colossians 2:14 commentary). All and as many people who do receive Him will experience the Gospel’s blessings.

“For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”
(John 1:16John 1:16 commentary)

Among other things, this means the fullness of Jesus never decreases. The expression “grace upon grace” (John 1:16John 1:16 commentary) can also be translated “grace in place of grace.” Like the waves of an ocean, the grace of God is relentless and unending. In His fullness we receive grace after grace after grace after grace after grace…into eternity. The Gospel’s supply of grace is infinite and unlimited. Infinite grace is part of what makes the Gospel such good news.

The Greek word translated “grace” is χάρις (G5485 - pronounced: “charis”) and it means “favor.”

John 1:12John 1:12 commentary speaks of God’s favor coming upon humans through faith in Jesus (those who believe in His name). Jesus died for the sins of the world, that all who believe might be justified in God’s sight (Romans 3:20-21Romans 3:20-21 commentary).

God’s favor to redeem all who believe upon Jesus into His family is inexhaustible because Jesus’s death on the cross covered the sins of the world (Colossians 2:14Colossians 2:14 commentary). As John asserts in John 3:16John 3:16 commentary, commentary “God so loved the world [everyone], that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This eternal life is the Gift of God to be born into His forever family and receive a royal inheritance from the King of Kings.

The Old Testament also affirms the infinite abundance of the LORD’s mercies and compassions.

• The Psalms bids all to “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting” (Psalm 136:1Psalm 136:1 commentary).

• The prophet Jeremiah comforts Israel with the truth that:

“The LORD’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.”
(Lamentations 3:22-23aLamentations 3:22-23a commentary)

Paul and Peter each speak to the limitless capacity of the Gospel of God’s grace when they reveal how it is God’s desire for everyone to receive the Gospel’s blessings and for none to perish:

“God our Savior…desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
(1 Timothy 2:3-41 Timothy 2:3-4 commentary)

“The Lord…is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
(1 Peter 3:91 Peter 3:9 commentary)

Jesus’s death has the capability to atone for the sins of those who believe in Him, but also for the sins of the entire unsaved world,

“He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”
(1 John 2:21 John 2:2 commentary)

• The power of the Gospel is infinite (Romans 1:6Romans 1:6 commentary), and
• His grace and mercy are inexhaustible (Romans 5:20Romans 5:20 commentary).
• His Gift of Eternal Life is freely offered to everyone (John 3:14-16John 3:14-16 commentary)
• But only those who believe in Jesus and receive Him by faith receive God’s incredible offer (Ephesians 2:8-9Ephesians 2:8-9 commentary).

Is the Gift of Eternal Life really available to everyone? Yes! The only question is “Will you receive it?”

Then the next question is, “Once you have received it, will you now gain the fulness of the experience of that Gift?” To do that requires gaining the Prize of Eternal Life. To learn about the Prize, please visit the TTE article that explains the difference between the Gift of Life and the experience or Prize of Life.