This morning
I am feeling the impact of Jesus' words, “I
came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”[1] What
I realize is that, without THIS life, the world is not alive. All the commotion
in the world is not life. The cliché, “like a chicken with its head cut off,”
certainly applies.
Jesus the
Christ knows what life is. He is the one who formed dust together to make a
human body that was flesh and bones. He designed the tissues and organs of the
body, and then created them all out of dust (anyone who doesn’t believe that Jesus
made this amazing human body out of dirt and dust just needs to watch what
happens to the physical body when the soul-life is removed).
Jesus' work
of creation is described like this:
"then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the BREATH OF LIFE, and the man became a LIVING creature.”[2]
Jesus
breathed into Adam's corpse "the
breath of life." This "life"
was not just an animated corpse, but the living fellowship of being in the
image and likeness of Jesus.[3] To
be fully alive is to be like Jesus, in fellowship with Jesus.
Why, then,
does the world not have THAT life? Why are so many people intent to have
something that is NOT life? Why do people believe they are so satisfied in a
sin-cursed, sin-marinated world, when they are cut-off from Jesus, the one who
breathed life into us in the beginning?
The answer is
that, sin brought death, and cut off our fellowship with Jesus. The Garden of
Eden was closed.[4]
No more walking with God in the cool of the day.[5] God
said that if we ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we would
surely die,[6]
and die we have done ever since.[7]
However, God’s
word tells us that people now have two options, death and life. He makes very
clear that, “as in Adam all die, so also
in Christ shall all be made alive.”[8]
Everyone dies because of our heritage in Adam (the first man). But now there is
also this option that people can come to Jesus and “be made alive.”
When Jesus
came so that we could have life, and clarified that the life he was talking
about was of the abundant variety, he was once again coming to breathe life
into dead people. As God’s book makes abundantly clear, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”[9]
What this
comes down to is that any existence apart from this life that is in Jesus is
not truly life. Jesus knows what life is because he has it, he breathed it into
us in the Garden, we lost it because of sin, and he came so that we could have
it back. A world full of animated sinners is not life.
There is no
sense doing anything that is not in fellowship with Jesus when it is only in
fellowship with Jesus that he breathes abundant life into our souls. Even going
through the valley of the shadow of death with Jesus[10]
is preferable to a happily meaningless existence for the simple reason that wherever
we go with Jesus, we are truly alive.
As our older
brother Paul expressed, “For to me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain.”[11]
This is why Christians are choosing to accept beheading instead of denying
Christ. It is why they would rather be crucified than join evil marauders. To
live is Christ. To die is gain because we get to live with Christ without the
infectious death of sin all around.
Jesus came to
give abundant life. No matter how it changes your present earthly life, to have
life in Jesus is the only way to have life indeed. Come to him.
A long time
ago, God spoke words of invitation that are still open to this day: “I call heaven and earth to witness against
you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.
Therefore choose life.”[12]
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
John 10:10
[2]
Genesis 2:7. For anyone who believes that Jesus is not God the Son, consider
that, "the LORD God" can
only mean Jehovah, or Yahweh, the “I AM”
of God’s word. However, Scripture is clear that, "All things were made through him (Jesus, the Word), and without
him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3) which means that
Jesus made man the way it is described in Genesis 2. Scripture adds, "For by him (Jesus) all things were
created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for
him" (Colossians 1:16). All things were created “by” Jesus, “through”
Jesus (since the Father was creating in intimate fellowship with his Son), and “for” Jesus. That is a huge determinant
of what is really life!
[3]
Genesis 1:26-27
[4]
Genesis 3:22-24
[5]
Genesis 3:8
[6]
Genesis 2:16-17
[7]
Ephesians 2:1-3, while describing the past life of the believer in Jesus Christ,
it is the description of life for every human being prior to anyone coming to
faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23 tells us that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and Romans
6:23 tells us that, “the wages of sin is
death.” All have sinned, all have died.
[8]
I Corinthians 15:22
[9]
John 1:4
[10]
Psalm 23:4
[11]
Philippians 1:21
[12]
Deuteronomy 30:19
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