What did Jesus do? The Fourth Gospel tells us that he came to bring Life Everlasting, Eternal Life if we are Born Again, so this lies beyond death.
Also that Jesus enabled Men to become Sons of God.
Also that Jesus ´baptised´with the Holy Ghost, in contrast to John who baptised with water.
What does all this mean?
If we understand repentance to mean a change of thinking, a new way of thinking, then we could see John´s baptism as a ritual transformation (an initiation) by which Men received correct knowledge and understanding - but (signified by water) knowledge subject to mortal life, and only knowledge but not a change in possibility.
The ´baptism´of Jesus was the change he brought-about in Men´s condition - a permanent, objective change in Men´s thinking, because it was a permanent, objective change in Man´s state.
In other words, Jesus enabled Men to become divine, to become gods - this being the meaning of Sons of God´ - these are lowercase-g gods, like Jesus himself - Men who have become divine.
Therefore to receive Life Eternal or Everlasting means to become divine, because only the divine is ever-lasting, only the divine is eternal. Life Eternal or Everlasting is thus a poetic term, a kenning or trope, meaning divine, the term for being a god.
It is the change from being a mortal Man to a Son of God.
The Baptist could not offer this, but only knowledge of it (of water), but Jesus brought the reality for those who chose to believe-on him (baptism of the Holy Ghost, of the ascended Jesus).
So the message of the Fourth Gospel is that Men can become Gods by following Jesus. Jesus was a Man who became a god, and we can do the same by following him (as sheep follow the Good Shepherd) - from mortal life, through death, to divinity as gods.
To do this, we must love (have faith in, trust) Jesus, then he will show us the way.
