And we write these things to you, that our joy may be fulfilled.
No disagreement whatever is felt with regard to Roberts' analysis; but it seems appropriate to guard against any misunderstanding of it.  The Christian's possession of eternal life now and here must be understood in the sense of his enjoying the blessed promise of it.  The earnest of it  (Ephesians 1:13) which he now sheds forth in his heart many qualities of the ultimate eternal life that shall crown the efforts of the faithful in heaven; and, in that possession of the earnest, the Christian certainly enjoys qualitatively the eternal life yet to come; but it should always be remembered that in no sense should the earnest (which of the whole is only a very small part) ever be equated with the entirety of that eternal life, which according to the blessed promise of the Christ himself is the ultimate reward of the faithful in Christ.  Nor can it be thought even of those qualities of eternal life enjoyed in the present time, that they are in any sense to be equated completely with the ultimate "eternal life." The very term earnest forbids this.  Not all the joys of eternal life are ours now; nor can it be thought, even of those fruits of the Spirit  (Galatians 5:22f) which we already possess, that they have the same fullness, quality, and intensity of the eternal life to come.  Thus, in Roberts' statement about having eternal life qualitatively, it would be wrong to understand it as totally so.  It is more accurate to view the present possession of eternal life as prospective.  It is ours in the sense of our possession of the blessed promise and the confident expectation of receiving the fulfillment of it at "the last day."