My understanding from A Course In Miracles, which Jesus authored would suggest we are all dead and that we recycle death because we believe we are separated from God and as such, ourselves.

Eternal life is available here and now but only through releasing oneself of attachments to the false dynamic of separation from God, self, and all the rest of creation.

It is only the forgiving of that original belief in separation and heeding the inner voice of the Holy Spirit that allows us to conduct the light that emanates from each component of creation and makes us whole.