present age, age to come, eternal life
By the time of Jesus many Jewish thinkers divided history into two periods: “the present age” and “the age to come”—the latter being the time when YHWH would at last act decisively to judge evil, to rescue Israel, and to create a new world of justice and peace. The early Christians believed that, though the full blessings of the coming age lay still in the future, it had already begun with Jesus, particularly with his death and resurrection, and that by faith and baptism they were able to enter it already. “Eternal life” does not mean simply “existence continuing without end”, but “the life of the age to come.”
Wright, Tom. (2004). Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians (172–173). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
