Do we need to believe in eternal life to be saved?

from the old testament

• Death is the penalty of sin. God warned Adam to not eat from a particular tree or else he would die (Genesis 2:17). Adam and Eve disobeyed, with God ending His curse on them by saying, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). This was God’s judgment on humanity: a difficult life followed by death.
• Because the first two humans sinned, death is universal; it “is the end of all mankind” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). From the moment of conception, every human is a sinner by nature (Psalm 51:5) and under condemnation as a sinner.
• However, death is not the end. Daniel 12:2 reads, “Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” There will be a future resurrection, when everyone will be judged for what they did in this life.

from the new testament

• Salvation is defined as the attainment of eternal life. We read that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). While “the wages of sin is death … the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Since we are all sinful (Romans 3:23), we are all headed toward eternal death. Salvation is the change from that trajectory.
• There is coming a day when God will resurrect the dead and judge them (Revelation 20:11–15), which is known as the day of God’s wrath. Salvation means being saved on that day. Paul said, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:8–9). Salvation is post-death and the beginning of eternal life with God and Jesus (Revelation 21:3–4).
• Jesus came to provide salvation through His death. He “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). In so doing, God made Jesus a propitiation, a sacrifice that appeased God’s wrath (Romans 5:25).
• To obtain salvation, one must acknowledge that he or she is sinful and repent of that sin. Those who “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9–10). Jesus can provide salvation because He has conquered death through His death (1 Corinthians 15:54–57; 2 Timothy 1:10) and now has authority over it (Revelation 1:18). Since it was Jesus’ death that opened the way for eternal life, He is the only way to salvation (John 14:6).
• Denying eternal life is the denial of the reason for salvation and thus is inherently nonsensical. Rather, Scripture’s passages about salvation are “to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

implications for today

If we don’t believe in eternal life, then we don’t have salvation. That is because salvation is eternal life. It’s the future escape from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9; Revelation 20:11–15) and living eternally with God (Revelation 21:1–4).

Indeed, we were created for eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and what’s unusual is not the eternal life part; it’s the fact that there’s death at all. Death is the consequence of sin (Genesis 3:19), and thus it’s unnatural, as it’s not part of God’s original design.

However, because of sin, there are now two eternal realities. In both cases, people continue to exist after death. The first is eternal condemnation and all who are not saved will find that as their eternal reality. Scripture refers to that as the second death (Revelation 20:15). The other reality is eternal life.

Since everyone is heading toward eternity, how can you be certain yours includes eternal life? It starts with understanding that you are a sinner (Romans 3:23). You were born as one (Psalm 51:5) and will die because you are one (Romans 6:23). God is holy and cannot allow your sin to go unchecked. Therefore, your sin must be punished. Yet, God is also love, and He made the way for us to not have to face that eternal reality. He sent Jesus to die in the place of sinful humanity. All who trust in His life, death, and resurrection have their sin paid for by Him and will thus face no future judgment (Romans 8:1). Rather than facing God’s eternal wrath, those who are called His children (John 1:12) will have eternal life.

Ask yourself which eternity is before you. If you can’t yet answer “eternal life,” stop right now and express genuine belief in Jesus. If you do, you can be assured that you will be saved and have eternal life (Romans 10:9–10).