JESUS IS THE LIFE

Sometimes we read a verse or hear a verse preached so often that the depth of that verse by-passes our understanding. Since Jesus Christ is the spiritual image of God, the Father, revealed in human form, we have a tendency to define Him by the human form rather than by Image and Likeness! To make some abstraction from the reality of His human form is also error. The problem is how to define God as incarnate man.

JOHN 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. [4] In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. JOHN 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1 JOHN 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life-- [2] and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- [3] what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

It may seem an abstraction to call Jesus Christ “the Word of God” made flesh. Or again as “the Life” that was with the Father and was manifested to us. Or how can we explain that He is “the Life” that is “the Light” of men. How can men’s hands “handle the Word of Life”.

Unfortunately for man this dilemma is repeated several times in scripture and involves several different doctrines. For example have we really died with Him at Calvary and are we really buried with Him in baptism and have we already resurrected with Him into a whole new life and are we truly seated with Him in heavenly places? Is the Man Christ Jesus really seated at the right hand of the Father? Are these facts of reality or are they just Christian idealism?

Jesus said in John 17:22] "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; [23] I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.

If we are really New Covenant believers are we supposed to actively believe these things even as incredible as they sound? Can we testify, “Yes! I have received the same glory that Jesus had and manifested!” Can we testify to the Divine fact that He is in the Father, the Father is in Him, He is in us and we are in Him as the scripture declares? Are these merely “Christian abstractions” , or cliches or theoretical doctrines that we may or may not believe as optional?

When we try to define exactly what salvation really is we are faced with many verses that we may not have experienced. We quickly lay aside those things as abstractions and declare that salvation is wholly based upon what I believe about Jesus Christ and Calvary and His bodily resurrection. We take safety in Romans 10:9-10 and ignore hundreds of other scriptures that are just as clear. If John 14-15-16 &17 and it’s various experiences are what salvation really is then we would have to conclude that we are in the process of being saved.

While many of these things don’t have a practical answer at this time, it should be clear that there is much more available to us that what we are experiencing at the present time. For example: GAL 2:20] "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. Is it really essential that this become our testimony or is this just another option that is available to us but not essential?

If we died when He died at Calvary and we were included in His death and if we were resurrected with Him when He was resurrected, it places us in a whole new dimension of existence that was unknown to man before. If we are now glorified with Him, it places us in a new dimension that most Christians are totally ignorant ( except by doctrine). The doctrine part can be easily taught but the experience part must be lived as reality. This raises the question of ; Is salvation some “belief system” that varies from church to church or is it a “life system” that must be lived in our experience?

The scriptures says that His Life is the Light of Men. Outside of His Life there is darkness, confusion and no revelation. 1 JOHN 5:11] And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. [12] He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. Eternal salvation involves having His life as a personal reality in our experience. God has ordained that eternal life can only be found in His Son and we can only experience that Life as we have His Son within us. Outside of Christ there is no life.

JOHN 14:6] Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.

JOHN 11:25] Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies,

Jesus doesn’t just give us a thing called “life” or a thing called “resurrection”. He is THE life and THE resurrection! He doesn’t impart to us a “truth” but He IS THE Truth! Since we are investigating this “truth” that “Jesus Christ IS THE LIFE, let us see the end of that eternal fact.

Since He is “THE LIFE” any definition of life outside of Jesus Christ is already in error. Therefore, no psychological or philosophical definition of life can be trusted. Since He is also the resurrection any thought of resurrection outside of Jesus Christ is in error. Life then can only be understood by it’s end which is death. However, death can only be evaluated by time and eternity because in Adam all die. However, in Christ all shall be made alive. Death then can only be defined by resurrection. But resurrection must be evaluated by “unto eternal life” or resurrection unto “eternal separation from God” (from the source of life) which is called “eternal death”.

Jesus Christ doesn’t just “have” life He “IS” Life. That means that we cannot separate life from Him or Him from life and Life can only be experienced “in Him” and “by Him” and “through Him”. This presents a problem. If “He” is my life then I can no longer “live by my life”. If that is true, and the scripture confirms it, then “I” can claim no existence outside of Christ or independently from Him.

“I am the Life” then is “THE WORD” in revelation, in proclamation and in embodiment. If HE is our life then Life is from outside of ourselves. It does not originate with us but with Him. Even if it is “His life in us” it is still “His life” and not our life. How can that be? We must have died and now our new life is hid with Christ in God. If we “fall away” from His life in us do we fall back into “our old life” which has been crucified, dead and buried?

If our being and our identity is through His Life in us then we cannot be our own we must be His in every aspect of our identity. The fact is that God cannot “give us this life” as a substance apart from Christ. Therefore, He must give us Christ if we are to have His Life. We cannot give this Life to ourselves or to anyone else and it is never available outside of Jesus Christ.

The logical conclusion then is that it is ridiculous for us to refuse to give ourselves wholly to Him since He has given Himself wholly to us. This “Life” of heaven must come down to us as a gift from above because we cannot generate this “Life” ourselves. Now this “Life” from above is the eternal Word of God that was made flesh in human form in Christ. 1 PET 1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, [23] for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.

When we are born again this “eternal Word of God” comes into us as seed which is imperishable. He comes into us as Life. We cannot separate the Word of God from His Life. If His Life is in us then the Word is in us. This is not the problem! The problem is whether we can or will live according to this Word and manifest His Life.

Another problem is that “ this Life” seems to be our natural and our normal daily life which is common to all men. We fail to recognize that “we no longer live but Christ lives in us”. This is not some Christian idealism but a biblical fact if we are truly converted and He is in us and we are in Him.

2 COR 5:18] Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, [19] namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. [20] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Now Christ is in us reconciling the world to Himself. Therefore, our ministry is not to condemn the world to hell but to reconcile the world to God. Our ministry is not to overthrow the world and demonstrate against it and it’s perversions but to reconcile the world to God. Conversion takes place when the world receives His Life and then lives by it.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son! According to many “messages” it appears that we are supposed to hate the world. However, if He is Love and He is in us and we are living by His Life then we also will love the world and want to see the world reconciled to God. We love it NOT to join it but to redeem it!

COL 1:15] And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. [16] For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created by Him and for Him. [17] And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [18] He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. [19] For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, [20] and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Since all things were created BY Him and FOR Him we cannot define “creation” apart from Christ. Trying to understand the creation outside of Jesus Christ is the source of all the confusing explanations of secular scientists. HEB 11:3] By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. PSALMS 33:6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host.

In Genesis we read that God created man from the dust of the earth and that God formed man with His own hands and then breathed into man the breath of life. Lifeless man had bodily contact with the Creator and his existence began. Everything that man possesses is from God and man can claim NO existence apart from God. However, man in his fallen arrogance rejects any claim that God has upon man. The reason is because “researchers” have tried to define creation of the earth or the creation of man apart from Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

JOHN 1:3] All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

If we leave this fact out of creation or our understanding we begin in error and can only come to a wrong conclusion. If we think that man evolved or came into existence by himself then we could rationally declare that God has no claims upon man. However, if we acknowledge that we were created by God and for God and only have our being in Him then we must agree that we are obligated to live for Him.

Even though God’s hand created man, God did not hold so tightly to man that man is in bondage to God. No! God created man and immediately withdrew His hand and gave him freedom to choose whom he would serve. Man even has his own breath of life and existence from God but has the freedom to totally reject the God who created man. Not only has man, in his arrogance, tried to push God out of His creation but the world system has declared that there is NO God! Even fallen religion has declared that God is out of the realm of man’s experience. Now certain religious movements are trying to smuggle God into the schools secretly as some have smuggled Bibles into China. Can you imagine that the Creator has to visit His creation incognito. The arrogance of man is unbelievable.

The “Word of the Lord” doesn’t originate with man but must come to us from God. God gave men commandments but God gave man the freedom to ignore His commandments. The violence and crime today is the evidence that man is unconcerned about the commandments of God. Still the commandments of God are nonnegotiable and stand against everyone who breaks them. Just the fact that God gave men the commandments make man responsible to keep them even if he doesn’t know it or care about it.

Built within the creation is a burning desire to know the God of creation. Built within man is the ability to know the God Who created man. Man has a built in hunger to experience God personally. Since this seems too difficult or impossible, man creates poor substitutes and counterfeit “gods” that he can more easily know. This is the reason for all the idolatry of the world.

After we are truly born into the Kingdom we have a desire to fellowship with the living “body of Christ” on earth. When we discover it is not easy we seek for some substitute or counterfeit “body” that is easier and puts no demands upon us. The “electronic church” meets this need in the lukewarm. However, this is just religious fantasy!

Man living by his own fallen life will seek out all kinds of substitutes. This is the reason for all the cults. When we take “Christ out of Christianity” it is no longer Christian. The “Christian” must have his existence, his life, in Christ and Christ must be in the Christian by His Life or a counterfeit religion is produced. But if all things were created FOR HIM then His Lordship over our life must be an experiential fact or we are living in a “Christian fantasy”. To do our own thing while declaring the name of Jesus and living for ourselves is not known in scripture as “Christian”. Then it must be counterfeit!

GAL 4:19] My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you--

While His Life is in us at regeneration and we may be living by His life in us, Christ may not yet be formed in us. In other words there should be a manifestation of His Life that is visible to others. For Christ to be formed in us means all that Christ, Himself, is. That is His personality, His character, His disposition, His integrity, His steadfastness and perseverance, His cross and all the other attributes of Christ. Until all old things pass away and all new things come we cannot say that Christ has been formed in us.

EPH 2:15] by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, [16] and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

This “ONE NEW MAN” is Christ. He is not making many new men but many into ONE new man. Until Christ is really formed in us, ONE new man seems to be a fantasy. The scriptures say that Christ has reconciled us in ONE BODY TO GOD. It seems clear that One New Man would only have ONE body. Does He mean that the CHURCH is this ONE NEW MAN? Lord, increase our faith!