Eternal life is a gift that a person receives all at once in this life. It's free, paid in full by Jesus' work on the cross. You receive it by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You go from not having it to having it in a moment.
Agreed! Justification is when we are made righteous through the blood of Christ! And, we are justified by faith!
"Therefore, since we have been justifiedthrough faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," Romans 5:1
God gives us the Holy Spirit and makes us alive! And it only takes a moment. No works-totally monergistic! God alone saves us.
But, then we spend the rest of our Christian lives being sanctified, growing into the image of Christ.
"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Romans 5:1
Being confirmed to that image is synergistic. The Holy Spirit leads. Our job is to follow and learn & grow. We are transformed by the power of God!
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Roman's 12:2 ESV
That word "transformed" is metamorphao in Greek, from where we get our word metamorphosis. In Romans 12:2, it is the Imperative passive. That means we are commanded to let God change us! This is the divine instructions, too! The biggest source of this transformation in our lives is reading & studying the Bible. Prayer is right there at the top. We need to know and follow the Bible. But God used circumstances to change our lives, and that includes suffering. But Paul writes we can rejoice in our suffering!
"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
One of my personal lo favourite passsges in the Bible, as I suffer from a severe & debilitating disease. God really has used suffer to change my character. I was a broken, angry and confused young woman when God saved me. Suffering was part of roughing off the old temperament, grudges and hates.
But am I perfect? Not in this life! Anyone who claims we need to be perfect to stay saved, doesn't truly understand the depths of God's love in sending his son, who died because we were sinners. Jesus died in our place- the only perfect lamb! But there will come a time when we will all be perfect.,we will be glorified when Jesus Christ returns at his Second Coming! Or, when we die!
Too many people conflate the Biblical concepts of justification, sanctification & glorification. Some want us glorified the day we are sanctified. But it doesn't work that way. Instead, we are offered the precious gift of faith, and the rest of our lives to follow and grow to be like Christ. Sanctification is very different also than the final stage, when we will be perfect, glorified saints, living with Jesus!