John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Of course we all know what life eternal is, it is heaven.  We have been taught that in Christianity ever since we embraced Christianity.  Yet, come with me into a world where I too am a stranger and just trying to find my way.  It is the world of Judaism, our spiritual ancestors, our heritage and the very people who were the first Christians and tried in figure out their new faith as it related to their Judaic faith. By the third century AD Constantine had kicked all the Jews out of the church because they refused to compromise with pagan religions. They were kicked out along with their Oral Traditions aka Traditions of the Father aka (in later years) The Talmud.  For the past thirty years I have journeyed into the Talmud to practice my Aramaic, but what I found were treasures of wisdom and knowledge of God that opened my eyes to many of the mysteries of the Word of God.

This past weekend my study partner and I had the opportunity to share with a couple other believers from out of town and one directed our attention to John 17.  Since I began my journeys into the Talmud I have pretty much found myself in the  Old Testament and spent far too little time in the New Testament. I actually do not believe I ever made a study of John 17 anytime in my life. I have read it, heard it preached over and over, but never really sat down and meditated on it. When I read John 17:3 after  years of studying Jewish literature suddenly all sorts of bells, alarms and whistles went off.

Look at it, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Life eternal is not heaven, it is knowing  God and Jesus Christ. That word for know in the Greek is ginosko which is the very same word that Mary used in Luke 1:34 when she said: “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” She has just been told she is going to have a child and she wonders how this can happen since she knows no man. Hey, she knew Joseph, in fact they betrothed.  In my new book I explain this betrothal and in it I show how a man and woman who are betrothed are actually legally married. They just do not have a sexual relationship.  It is obvious when she refers to knowing a man it is saying she had no sexual relationship or intimacy with a man. The Aramaic Bible uses the word yada’ which is identical to the Greek work ginosko. Yada’ is also rendered as knowing and is also used to indicate a sexual relationship or intimacy. In my new book I talk about how the Bible seems to indicate that while here on earth after we accept Jesus as our Savior we become betrothed to him.  The He will return on day to take us as his bride where our betrothal will be consummated.  Jesus is saying in John 17:3 that eternal life isn’t heaven.  True heaven is a fringe benefit of eternal life, but that is not what Jesus is saying makes up eternal life. Eternal life is entering into a knowing or an intimacy with God.

Whenever I sense the Spirit of God is seeking to reveal something to me, I will lay back, close my eyes and just enter into a time of enjoying a closeness to God.  As I did that this evening I was taken back many many years.  A vision, a hypnotic state, I don’t know what to call it.  But there is level in your consciousness where you can return to a period of time in your life and it is almost as if you are really there, you can hear the sounds, even smell the smells of the place.  For a moment I was twelve year old standing in the crowded McCormick place for a Billy Graham crusade.  Those times were a very a happy time in my life and I just relived the joy and thrill of that experience as if it were actually happening.  I looked up at the platform where Cliff Barrows was leading a 3,000 voice choir and over the choir I saw a banner which read: “I am the way, the truth, and the life:” John 14:6.  I recalled puzzling over that verse wondering what it truly meant and then I heard an inner voice at that moment. I had not thought of it in all these years until now,  it said; “Remember this verse for one day you will understand.”

I jumped up, grabbed my Kindle and turned to the Talmud Abodah Zarah 16-17 where I read an account of Rabbi Eliezer who lived in the second century AD, around 109 AD to be precise. He gave this account of having been arrested for heresy. This heresy was believing that Jesus was the Messiah. He was taken before a tribunal and the judge asked how he, a sage, could occupy such thoughts. He replied: “I acknowledge the Judge as right.”  The Judge said that since he agreed, he would be acquitted. Actually when Rabbi Eliezer said the Judge he was referring to, and these are the exact words from the Aramaic in the Talmud, His Father in Heaven. One of his disciples upon hearing this story from Rabbi Eliezer, suggested that perhaps he had heard this heresy and had really approved of it which is why he was suspected and thus arrested.  Rabbi Eliezer responded: “Akiba, thou has reminded me,’ I was once walking in the upper market of Sepphoris when I came across one of the disciples of Jesus the Nazarene, Jacob of Kear-Sekaniah, who said to me, ‘Thus was I taught by Jesus the Nazarene…,” The words that followed so pleased Rabbi Eliezer that he was convinced it was the reason he was arrested for apostasy.”  Talmud Abodah Zarah 17a. He was so moved and convicted by the words of Jesus that people actually thought he was embracing this new religion and he had to admit that maybe he did.  Like you and I, he craved and longed for eternal life, an intimacy with God. It was what he said further that caught my attention, “One may acquire eternal life after many years (that is while on earth), one may acquire it in an hour (in the life hereafter).” Abodah Zarah 17a.  You see the Talmud is telling us that eternal life is not a time or place but a relationship and a way of life. This was first century thought. Jesus only confirmed what Judaism was teaching that eternal life was an intimate relationship with God and a way of life only he added and Jesus Christ whom God sent. Jesus further said that He is the way, the truth and the life. The word way in Aramaic is ‘aurcha which is a way or path of life.

For seven years I have been on this journey, a quest similar to Rabbi Eliezer, to discover and know  (be intimate) with the heart of God, or he put it eternal life. I now understand what God was telling me that day so many years ago at the Billy Graham Crusade when I read John 14:6.  He was telling me to remember that verse because I was saved, on my way to heaven, a born again Christian, but one day I would begin a journey, a quest, to know God’s heart.  The Jews called it eternal life, so that is what Jesus called it.

Maybe you have been a Christian for many many years. Maybe you feel your spiritual life is growing stale or cold, or you may even feel backslidden. You know you are saved, you know you are going to heaven and that God has saved you from hell.  But isn’t about time you start seeking eternal life.  Jesus told us what that is, it is being intimate with God.  Too many Christians are just enjoying their salvation, many have no yet began their journey to eternal life.  Do you care to join me in that journey? It is a journey to the inner chambers of God’s heart.  Only when you enter those inner chambers do you experience that intimacy with Him and that is what the Jews of the first century called Eternal Life.