Gift of life: promise of eternal life

God created man in His own image, after His likeness, to live eternally. He emptied Himself into man, it was God's desire for man to have eternal life. But this life was lost when the first man sinned in the garden of Eden.

Genesis 1:26-31

Then God said, "Let us make a man --someone like ourselves, to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas."
27 So God made man like his Maker. Like God did God make man; Man and maid did he make them.
28 And God blessed them and told them, "Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals.
29 And look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.
30 And I've given all the grass and plants to the animals and birds for their food."
31 Then God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way. This ended the sixth day.

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Man fell short of the glory of God (Romans 5:3-23). Because of God's interest in man, He sent Jesus Christ, His son, into the world to for for man's sin and to give this "eternal life" to ad many as would believe and accept Him as Lord and personal savior (John 1:12-13).
Had many as received Him to them had He given His life. You receive eternal life as a stamp of your redemption in Christ Jesus. That is a life that never dues, even when the physical body dies, your spirit goes back to God to live forever. So if you are not saved, you are cut off from this great privilege to participate in this beautiful and glorious life of God.
Jesus is not a way but the way to eternal life.