in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began;
Parallel translations
- KJV In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
- BSB in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
- NKJV in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,
- NASB in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,
- NLT This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God—who does not lie—promised them before the world began.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Our faith and godliness rest on the hope of eternal life promised by a God who cannot lie. It matters because the certainty of salvation depends on God's unchanging truthfulness.
Overview
Paul anchors Christian hope in the character of God, who 'can't lie,' making His promise of eternal life absolutely sure. That this hope was promised 'before time began' shows salvation flows from God's eternal plan, not a later afterthought. This eternal purpose is fulfilled in Christ, in whom God's promises find their yes and amen.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 40
- Num 23:19God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
- 2 Tim 1:9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,
- 1 Jn 2:25This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.
- Heb 6:17–18In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;
- 1 Jn 5:11–13The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
- 2 Tim 1:1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus,
- Titus 2:13looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ;
- 1 Sam 15:29Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.”
- 2 Tim 2:15Give diligence to present yourself approved by God, a workman who doesn’t need to be ashamed, properly handling the Word of Truth.
- 2 Tim 2:13If we are faithless, he remains faithful. For he can’t deny himself.”
- Jude 1:21Keep yourselves in God’s love, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
- Rom 6:23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Titus 3:7that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
- Matt 25:46These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
- 1 Pet 1:20–23who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake,
- 1 Jn 5:20We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
- Titus 2:7in all things showing yourself an example of good works; in your teaching showing integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility,
- John 3:15–16that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- John 5:39“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
- 1 Th 5:8But let us, since we belong to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
- Rom 5:21that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- 1 Pet 1:3–4Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
- John 10:28I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
- Matt 25:34Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
- 2 Tim 2:10Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
- John 17:2even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
- John 6:68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
- 1 Jn 3:2–3Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.
- Rom 5:2through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
- Rom 5:4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope:
- Prov 8:23–31I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed.
- Rev 13:8All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed.
- Rom 1:2which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
- 1 Tim 6:19laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.
- Rev 17:8The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth and whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see that the beast was, and is not, and shall be present.
- Rom 2:7to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;
- Rom 16:25—
- John 17:24Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
- Acts 15:18All of God’s works are known to him from eternity.’
- John 6:54He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
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Christ at the center
We await 'the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us' and purify a people of his own.
How Titus 1:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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