Do you want to inherit eternal life?
Of course, you want to inherit eternal life; no sain person wants to end up in hell. The question then is this, how do you inherit eternal life?
Christians will say “faith in Jesus and what He did for you at the cross.” And yes, that is partially true but only partially true. The question is this, who should you listen to find out how to inherit eternal life? If you had cancer, you would not ask a plumber to cure you. You would, of course, go to the doctor and find the best doctor and he or she would tell you what to do. But if you had a backed-up toilet or problems with your plumbing, you would go to a plumber and not a doctor. Why? Because you value your health, you value your possessions.
If you value yourself, you would not only listen to Christians and their opinions on how to inherit eternal life. You would also go to the Bible and see what it has to say. If there were a conflict between what Christians told you and what the Bible said, you would, of course, only listen to the Bible.
So how does the Bible answer your question?
In John 5:42, Yehoshua (Jesus/Yeshua) says, “the one who hears My words and believes in the One who sent Me has eternal life.”
Did you catch that?
Yehoshua is saying listen to Me but believes in the one who sent Me.
So, according to Yehoshua, we are not to believe in Him; we are to obey Him and believe in the one who sent Him.
Who gave us Yehoshua?
John 3:16 says, for so have God loved the world that He gave.
Who is God?
Yehoshua is God, but according to John 3:16, He is not God the Father. God the Father sent His Son, so according to John 5:42, we are to obey Yehoshua but believe in God the Father.
Who is God the Father?
Isaiah 42:8 says His name is Yehovah, so according to Yehoshua, we are to obey His words but believe in Yehovah.
So what does it mean to believe and obey?
We have to remember one crucial thing: Yehoshua was born in Israel as a Jew. In a Hebraic culture, believe and obey is the word, Shema. Shema is never passive; it tells us to listen AND obey.
So what Yehoshua is saying here is this, Shema me and Shema my Father Yehovah, obey me and obey my Father Yehovah.
This is why He says in John 12:44, the one who Shemas (believes and obeys Me) Shemas (believes and obeys) My Father Yehovah.
So, according to the Bible, the answer to your question is this: If you want eternal life, you have to believe AND obey the teachings of Yehoshua. If you do, you are automatically believing and obeying His Father Yehovah.
Most Christians would tell you “have faith in what Yehoshua did for us at the cross.” The cross is essential and one of the greatest gifts Yehovah has ever given us. But as we have just seen, it is not enough to believe in what He did for us at the cross. We also have to obey Him and His Father.
Yehoshua taught His disciples how to obey the Torah, how to live for Yehovah.
Most Christians today believe the Torah is done away with, something we can not obey because that is impossible for us.
Do you see the conflict between what the Bible says and what most Christians would tell you? If you, in a conflict like this, allow the Christian opinion to have precedence, it would be like asking a plumber how to be cured of cancer or a surgeon how to fix your plumbing. They might have some good insight, some good ideas, but if you value your health and your possessions, you will allow the experts to have their final say in the matter.
The Bible is an expert on how to inherit eternal life.
So how can you inherit eternal life by just “believing in what Yehoshua did for you at the cross”?
According to the Bible, that is an impossibility (Matt 7:21-23)