In 1 Timothy 6:12 Paul said, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
Timothy, like all believers, already had everlasting life. So why would Paul command him to lay hold on it? And what would that even mean?
Paul was calling upon him to grasp the potential fullness of eternal life that is possible. Compare verse 19, where Timothy was instructed to tell rich believers to “[store] up a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” The good foundation for the time to come refers to an abundant eternal experience.
We must cling to the promise of eternal rewards if we want to have them.
In their commentary on Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus, Arichea and Hatton write:
Winning the contest is described in terms of “taking hold” of the reward that is eternal life (for which see 1:16). The picture here is that of the victor in a contest who is handed the champion’s trophy. To take hold of eternal life may simply be one way of saying “win eternal life as the prize of your victory” (p. 154).
I do not know whether they understand the reward to be fullness of life forever or as simply being in the kingdom forever. They may believe in Lordship Salvation. But the Apostle Paul clearly believed that the present possession of everlasting life is simply and solely by faith (1 Tim 1:16) and that fullness of eternal life is a reward.
Litfin comments:
Timothy was to give his best effort to this most worthwhile of struggles, the struggle to further the faith. This would involve the complete appropriation (cf. “take hold” in v. 19) at all times of the fact that he possessed eternal life. (Paul’s words, Take hold of … eternal life in no way suggest that Timothy could gain eternal life by his own efforts) (“1 Timothy,” in TBKC, p. 747).i
Larson’s comment is helpful:
The eternal life which believers enter is not simply a future hope; it is also a present reality. We take hold of this eternal life when we live in the power and values of God’s eternal kingdom. We will not experience the fullness of Christ’s dominion until the future when he reigns over all the earth. But the eternal kind of life is still accessible at the present time. We touch upon it when we order our daily lives in harmony with God and his Spirit (1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, & Philemon, p. 247).
This is one of a handful of passages that speak of eternal life as a possible future reward for perseverance in faithful service. For example, see Matt 19:29 and Gal 6:7-9. How full our experience of eternal life is now and will be forever is conditioned on our laying hold on eternal life, which means living in a manner consistent with the values of the life to come (1 Tim 6:19).
Lay hold on eternal life by keeping grace in focus.
i While I understand Litfin’s desire to defend the message of John 3:16, those words do suggest that Timothy could gain eternal life by his efforts, but not in the sense of the mere possession of that life. Paul was speaking of the need to take hold of eternal life in order to have it more abundantly.