Eternal: Without beginning or end.
Life: A characteristic state or mode of living
Salvation: beatification, adoption, regeneration, conversion, justification, sanctification, salvation, inspiration, bread of life; Body and Blood of Christ.

I feel that the way I choose to live my life determines MY outcome. I believe that through Jesus Christ God made me perfect. God gave me freedom to live my life the way I see fit. Now, I have learned that what feels good to me is to grow spiritually as a human and understand this perfect love and for me that means coming back to the world until I have grown as much as I can or until I have completely accepted my perfection that God made for me.

However, if the outcome of redemption is eternal life (the opposite of perishing) and the outcome of salvation is being made whole, doesn’t the verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” seem to indicate a requirement for personal belief in order to be redeemed?

Back to Strong’s (it is an amazing asset, I tell you! ;))…

Two Greek words are translated as “redeem” in the King James: exagorazo and lutroo; I’m focusing on the former. “Exagorazo” means, in a figurative sense, “to rescue from loss”. All of us were lost at some point. In the Gospels, there were two parables that dealt with lost things: the parable of the lost sheep, and the parable of the lost coin. In the first one, the shepherd left his 99 sheep behind to look for one that was lost; and he didn’t stop looking for it until he found it. In the latter, a woman lost a coin, and didn’t stop looking for it until she found it. I believe both parables are representative of the same thing: The shepherd and the woman represent Christ; the lost sheep and coin represent the world. At the cross, all became rescued from loss, or redeemed.

The predominant Greek word for “save(d)” is “sozo”, which means “to heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be made whole”. It doesn’t just have to do with the spiritual condition; it’s also to do with one’s physical and mental condition.

While I believe all were redeemed at the cross, I don’t believe everyone is saved, though I believe all WILL be saved. (See 1 Timothy 2:4.) To me, salvation comes when one accepts the fact their sin was redeemed at the cross, that it really IS finished. Their mind and spirit are healed from the sin of unbelief; they receive God’s mercy and grace.

Here is the whole text:
John 3:10-21
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?
11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man.
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

1st—Who was he talking about that would not believe? Wasn’t it the religious people who thought they were OK with God based on their self righteous performance?

2nd—People who think they can do something to be OK with God will always stand in their own condemnation because they will never measure up to what they KNOW is right. On the other hand people who believe that that Christ truly did what he said he would do (save the world) will have eternal life.

3rd—Wasn’t he talking about HAVING ETERNAL LIFE RIGHT NOW IN THIS MOMENT? And just what is eteranl life? John 17:3
3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Here is the best definition of all concerning eternal life and you have it when you truly KNOW the only true God and his son Jesus Christ and when you know you are loved perfectly by this God of PERFECT love demonstrated in his son Jesus and HIS PERFORMANCE not yours.

4th—The people that Jesus was talking to in the text of our concern were very religious people who THOUGHT they knew God but the reality was they didn’t have a clue. They didn’t have a clue because they were trying to know God by keeping the law and performing their acts of righteousness. The church does the same thing today. They teach people to know God by keeping the law and performing acts of righteousness. The problem is they will always find themselves coming up short which always leads to a life of condemnation rather then knowing the God of uncondtional love.

5th—Will all people eventually KNOW (believe) God? Thankfully the answer to that is YES, YES, YES. Every knee will bow and every tonque will give PRAISE TO GOD, and all will know that they had been loved from the beginning to the end of their life on earth.

6TH—People always quote verse 16 but rarely quote the verse right after it. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. DID HE ACCOMPLISH WHAT HE CAME TO DO? Well, all I can say is I’M A BELIEVER.

There is much more but I hope this answers your question.

In this conversation Jesus said that those that do not believe woud be under judgement. As I understand that when Jesus died on the cross he took all judgement for the world. So even if someone does not believe they do not come under judgement but are redeemed. If you believe, you know how great the love of God is for us. If you don’t believe, God still does not judge you but you don’t know it.

Bob

Read the Gospel stories of Jesus’ reconciliation with the apostles after the resurrection. There seems to be almost zero time spent in “healing the relationship”, “repentance” or any of the things we would associate with linking belief and salvation. Jesus just told Peter to “feed my sheep” and he gave them all the Great Commission. Basically, he said to get to work.

If belief is the fine line separating heaven and hell, the apostles were all on the wrong side. Yet when Jesus reappeared and they were still doubting, he apparently didn’t spend time making sure their faith was strong. He just said to get busy making a difference in the community.