Eternal Life Starts Now

Now this is eternal life – that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. John 17:3

This is eternal life. ...It is not just unending life in the sense of prolonged duration. Rather it is a quality of life, with its quality derived from a relationship with God. Having eternal life is here defined as being in relationship with the Father, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom the Father sent. The use of "Christ" (Χριστός, Cristos) is not characteristically attached to Jesus’ name in John’s Gospel... here in 17:3 enables us to correlate the statement made in 1:18 of the prologue, that Jesus has fully revealed what God is like, with Jesus’ statement in 10:10 that he has come that people might have life, and have it abundantly. These two purposes are really one, according to 17:3, because (abundant) eternal life is defined as knowing (being in relationship with) the Father and the Son. The only way to gain this eternal life, that is, to obtain this knowledge of the Father, is through the Son (cf. 14:6). ...For John this knowledge is not intellectual, but relational. It involves being in relationship. (From the NET Bible)