What the Bible says ♦ Human condition

Eternal life

God created humans “in his image”. One of the things implied by this statement is that humans are created with an eternal soul. No matter how incredible it may look, each human has a physical body and a spiritual soul.

When someone dies, he does not disappear and he also is not born again in another body. When someone dies, the body decays, but the soul (or the spirit) continues to live and gets in the presence of the living God. So, death is not “the final station”, but instead it is rather a “gate” from the earthly life to the eternal life that follows.

So, each human starts to live in the moment when it is conceived in his mother’s womb. The soul receives a body and it begins the first part of his existence, which is the earthly life. For some it is a very short one, for others it is longer, but no matter how many days are in a person's life, the earthly life is still limited and can’t be compared in length with the eternal one that follows after death.

The falling of humankind into sin, didn’t change the fact that human life is eternal. But because of the sin, the destination after death is hell. Although God intended to live eternally with humans in a perfect harmony, falling into sin meant a fatal destruction of the relation between God and human. Because of the sin, humans are bound to receive the punishment of hell. The life in hell is also eternal, but because it is an awfully painful life, it is rather called “eternal death” than “eternal life”.

The only escape from this eternal destiny is to trust in Jesus Christ while you are still alive on Earth, and repent of your sins. Jesus can forgive you because he died for your sins. This is the only way to change the destiny and to get with God in eternal life instead of being thrown into hell for eternity.