John 17:3 - This is Eternal Life

Today, I would like to touch one verse from the Gospel of John. In chapter 13, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet during the final supper and then starts to explain a lot in detail in the following chapters. Then we come to chapter 17. Let’s get right to it.

John 17

KJV - 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

YLT - 3 and this is the life age-during, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and him whom Thou didst send -- Jesus Christ;

As you’ve read, Jesus is talking about eternal life.

John 17:1 (paraphrasing) Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven and started to pray to the Father. While he was praying to the Father, he said, “this is eternal life.”

What is “eternal life”? That they (he is talking about us) may know thee (Father in heaven) the ONLY true God. And Jesus as the one who was sent by the Father.

Did you notice? Jesus himself said that the Father is the ONLY true God. If Jesus is correct, how can there be 3 gods in one or one god in 3 forms? How can we claim that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are God? If we claim that, then (1) we called Jesus a liar; (2) it's not eternal life according to Jesus as he said, eternal life is this that they know you, Father, as the ONLY true God. Or did Jesus forgot that he is also a true God and said that the Father is the ONLY true God? If Jesus would've said, "know that the Father is God" then this argument doesn't stand a chance. But that's not what Jesus said. He used the words" Only" and "true" in that sentence.

John 14:1

KJV - Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

YLT - Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Also, in me believe;

Jesus is talking to the Jews. To all the Jews, they know that the one who spoke to Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, and many other prophets is God. Jesus was never revealed in the Old Testament, according to Jews (even his own disciples who are Jews); hence, he is saying, trust also in me. If he was revealed as anyone in the Old Testament, then Jesus never had to say, "trust also in me" because his disciples would’ve already known him and trusted him. Jesus is not Methuselah, but he is in the order (line) of the Priesthood of Methuselah. Like how Aaron was one in line of the Priesthood as he was the 1st Jewish priest.

In conclusion: According to Jesus, eternal life is only to those who know that “the Father is the only true God and there is/are no other god other than him”, reinstating the very 1st of the ten commandments. Below verses provide backup to what Jesus said in John 17:3 and 14:1. Anyone who says anything beyond “Father is the only God” will not attain eternal life, according to Jesus (as he said "this is eternal life"), because it breaks the 1st and 2nd commandments. See Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus, throughout the gospel books, never said, “I am God.” He only said, “I am Son of God.” “Assuming” anything else is dangerous and puts eternal life at stake. From the verses below, I hope you can see that the Father is saying, “me” and not “us”, inline to what Jesus said in John 17:3. Believing and proclaiming anything beyond “Jesus is Lord and the King and he was sent by God” is a risk to wellbeing in this life, life, and eternal life. All our life we have struggled so we may attain eternal life. Let us not waste our struggle with this misunderstanding.

Genesis 17:1 I (am) the God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me - original Hebrew text meaning is 'My Face'

Exodus 20:22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23 Do not make any gods to be alongside me;

Exodus 31:13b This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.

Isaiah 44:6. This is what the Lord says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first, and I am the last; apart from me, there is no God.

Isaiah 44:8. Is there any God besides me?

Isaiah 45:5. I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me, there is no God.

Jeremiah 32:27 I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?

Hosea 1:9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

BTW, you may have already taken John 17:3 and accepted it or may question "how it is possible as Christianity's base faith is trinity and for almost 2k years people have been acknowledging trinity?" or may say "but ____". I am encouraging you to search for the root cause as to why this happened because we are talking about eternal life - the whole purpose of our struggle that we go through each day is to attain that. It would be foolish to lose it after a lifelong work. For Jesus did speak about wide and narrow gate. I've done enough study on this and found that the Trinity concept started only in the 3rd century. How or why? If you have the habit of reading bible everyday, you will run into verses that point Jesus as god, I am not going to deny the existence of those verses that says that Jesus is also a God but in reality (the actual meaning of those texts) he really was the Son of God just as he claimed and also give my understanding that I received from the Lord. I believe it was a misunderstanding of the meaning and rejecting the words of Jesus himself spoken in the gospels. How am I not misunderstanding those meanings? Well, John 17:3 denies the trinity meaning of all other texts. Examples are below.

Ex 1

John 20:28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”.

If you read the background, Thomas did not believe that Jesus was risen, though he may have seen Lazarus because of the way Jesus died, how gruesome his death was. So, it resurrection from the dead to be eternal was not possible for him, and he said I needed to see the scars. Well, no one believe until they actually saw Jesus - bible says this. So, Is John writing that as a statement about Jesus, or was Thomas exclaiming? How can we know the emotion and the situation behind it? If we want to know what it really means, we need to go back to John or Thomas and ask, but they are dead. If Thomas was not exclaiming, because they already know that Jesus is god, why did Thomas doubt in the first place? So I believe it was Thomas' utter shock and emotion that God raised Jesus from the dead and eternal life was not just a theory anymore - 1 John 1:2b "we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us." The Word (Eternal Life/Salvation) was with God, and The Word became flesh! John 1. Father is eternal, Father is God.

Ex 2

2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

When we obey God, we also receive God's (his) divine power and divine nature. These (divine power) are the signs that Jesus spoke about in Mark 16 and also said we will be able to do even greater things than Jesus - John 14:12. Gen 1:28 says rule over everything. When we obey, we will be able to command a mountain or a storm, and it will obey us because we've received the divine nature. Jesus is the first to pave that path for us because Adam lost it (Gen 3), and Jesus gained it back because no other human was able to. Adam had the divine power before Gen 3.