eternal life'? Is he not going dead in the teeth of his
own teaching, 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by
His mercy He saved us'? I think not. Let us see what he does say.

I. First, then, he says that the real life is the future life.

Those of you who use the Revised Version will see that it makes an
alteration in the last clause of our text, and instead of 'eternal
life' it reads 'the life which is life indeed,' the true life; not
simply designating it as eternal, but designating it as being the only
thing that is worth calling by the august name of life.

Now it is quite clear that Paul here is approximating very closely to
the language of his brother John, and using this great word 'life' as
being, in substance, equivalent to his own favourite word of
'salvation,' as including in one magnificent generalisation all that is
necessary for the satisfaction of man's needs, the perfection of his
blessedness, and the glorifying of his nature. Paul's notion of life,
like John's, is that it is the one all-comprehensive good which men need
and seek.

And here he seems to relegate that 'life which is life indeed' to the
region of the future, because he contemplates it as being realised 'in
the time to come,' and as being the result of the conduct which is here
enjoined. But you will find that substantially the same exhortation is
given in the 12th verse of this chapter, 'Fight the good fight of faith;
lay hold on the life eternal'--where the process of grasping this
'life,' and therefore the possession of it, are evidently regarded as
possible here, and the duty of every Christian man in this present
world. That is to say, there is a double aspect of this august
conception of the 'life which is life indeed.' In one aspect it is
present, may be and ought to be ours, here and now; in another aspect it
lies beyond the flood, and is the inheritance reserved in the heavens.
That double aspect is parallel with the way in which the New Testament
deals with the other cognate conception of salvation, which it sometimes
regards as past, sometimes as present, sometimes as future. The complete
idea is that the life of the Christian soul here and yonder, away out
into the furthest extremities of eternity, and up to the loftiest climax
of perfectness, is in essence one, whilst yet the differences between
the degree in which its germinal possession here and its full-fruited
enjoyment hereafter differ is so great as