The follow words come from a sermon preached at the First Presbyterian Church in Hinton, West Virginia. My friend Ann Wells, who lives in both Hinton and Murray, KY (though not at the same time) shared this with me. It suggests a way for us to live incarnationally.
“Eternal life can be experienced, here and now. In the Gospel of Luke 17: 20-21, there is a conversation between the Pharisees and Jesus. The Pharisees ask Jesus, ‘when the kingdom of God would come.’ Jesus replied, ‘The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.’ . . . The word ‘kingdom; in Greek is ‘basileia’ and it means rule, reign, or dominion. When we believe in Jesus as our Savior and Lord, God’s rule and God’s reign starts in us. And if we are under God’s reign, we can experience eternal life, here and now. We are not able to fully experience eternal life in our earthly lives because our sinful nature remains in us and is constantly blocking us from having an intimate fellowship with God. But we can still enjoy and experience eternal life on earth when we haves a personal relationship with God because we are united with Christ through faith and Christ lives in us.”
To this I would only add that “personal relationship” is only evident to ourselves and to others when we live incarnationally (draw upon the divinity within us) to reach out to and love others—all others, without exception—even those we don’t like.