Can we do anything to earn eternal life? What could one do to have eternal life. The only guarantee to life is death. All of us will die, but Christ has taken the sting of death away, because we believe it is not the end… Is eternal life a goal to obtain, or something we can earn or request, or do anything to get?
I have been thinking and working over the idea of decision theology. I was baptized in a Baptist church, after I chose Jesus to be my savior. I know now that Jesus chose me long before I made a profession of the faith I had received through grace. I decided to follow Jesus, and use the gift I was given. I made a decision to use the love I was given to help other see the love.
But I still have not answered the question if eternal life is something to be earned, or a goal as Paul tells us to press on towards the goal. In the Genesis reading form this coming weekend we see the story of Jacob with Laben. Laben tells Jacob for 7 years of service he will give Jacob his daughter Rachel in marriage. But after 7 years, Laben gives Leah, Rachel’s older sister. So Jacob works another 7 years for Rachel. And most of us think that is the end of the story. Jacob gave Laben 14 years of worl for the 2 daughters… but that is not it. Jacob works another 7 years for Laben. A total of 21 years, and why is that? Laben is faithful, and Jacob sees the father is faithful. It is not about earning what Jacob thinks he needs, but being with a father who is faithful to a promise. So is eternal life a goal to press on towards, to finish the race, and obtain in the sweet by and by?
Eternal life is here and now. In Christ death has no sting, while the physical body will die, we are a part of the promise, the inheritance, we have eternal life. The choice is not to get eternal life, the choice is to get the abundant life. To live in the light of Christ is to chose to live the abundant life. The life that is not always easy, and is not always what we want. It is the difference between getting what we want and getting what we need. It is not living the life of luxury, or having everything everyone else does, or keeping up with the Jones. It is living in the love that God has given us and being stewards of all creation and all we are given.
Chose to live in Christ and live the abundant life… Eternal life is the gift given to us…
aSacredRebel 
I enjoyed reading you post – very good.Recently I have heard two pretty good analogies regarding <>earning<> eternal life.1) This is a golf analogy. Some current and very popular < HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Warren" REL="nofollow">preachers<> say that when you mess up, Jesus gives you a mulligan so you can take the shot over again and do better. But in reality no matter how many retries, you still fall short. Under Lutheran theology, Jesus shoots a perfect round – and hands you his scorecard to sign as your own.2) The second is mathematical. Earning your way to salvation is like adding bigger and bigger numbers together trying to get to Infinity. No matter how big of a number you achieve, you can never reach infinity (i.e salvation). But once you add Jesus’ infinity to your zero, you are at infinity since infinity + any number = infinity.Hope this makes sense!