What does Tribe teach about eternal life?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on eternal life starts with what Brian Hunter calls an exchange. Drawing from 1 John 5:12 and John 11, Brian makes the point that eternal life is not only a future event waiting on the other side of physical death but a present reality that begins the moment a person enters into relationship with Jesus. Without Jesus, a person may have a pulse but is spiritually dead. With him, something irreversible begins, the same way a seed changes the moment it goes into soil.
The resurrection of Jesus is the anchor for everything the church teaches on this. In the series on first fruits, Brian grounded the hope of eternal life in the physical resurrection of Christ as the firstborn from the dead, the first one raised with a body that never dies again. Because he was raised, everyone who belongs to him shares that same destiny. Brian says, "The resurrection of Jesus gives us great confidence that nothing less than total victory is our destiny." That confidence does not depend on how life is going right now. Brian put it this way: "Don't judge your destiny by the current bounce of your Plinko chip." The difficult and unexpected turns of a life do not change where it is headed for someone whose life belongs to him.
The teaching in 1 John 3 adds another layer. The identity of God's children is already settled, but what that will fully look like has not yet been revealed. When Christ appears, those who belong to him will see him as he truly is, and that seeing will transform them completely. Brian described it as a diamond being turned so that new facets catch the light, and pointed to the glorified body as something with a capacity to perceive God in ways our current bodies simply cannot. Eternal life, in this teaching, is not just unending existence but an ever-deepening revelation of who God is.
Taught from 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 · 1 John 3:1-3 · 1 John 5:12 · 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 · 2 Corinthians 5:17
The passage taught · 1 John 3:1-3
1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
2 Beloved, 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.
3 Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- July 20, 2025 His Name on Your Boot A Jackson Hole pastor walks through 1 John 3:1-3 and asks one question: whose name is written on the sole of your heart's boot?
- May 12, 2025 First Fruits of the Resurrection Brian Hunter uses the Feast of First Fruits and 1 Corinthians 15 to show that resurrection is not a distant idea but a present hope: total victory is every believer's destiny.
- October 24, 2022 Resurrection Series Week 1： New Life Brian Hunter walks through John 3 and John 11 to explore what resurrection really means, starting with the exchange that has to happen before new life can begin.
Mentioned along the way
- December 25, 2022 The Story of Christmas Begins in a Garden A Christmas Eve outdoor service in Jackson Hole where Pastor Brian Hunter traces the story of Christmas from the garden of Eden to a manger in Bethlehem.