This is Your Life…or Not
Jesus Christ is all in all. From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. He is Lord of all. Apart from Him you can do nothing, but all things are possible with Him because He is our life. He made us alive in Himself, granting us new life when we were dead in trespasses and sins. In other words, He lives, and because He lives we can face more than tomorrow. How about eternity?
The apostle Paul wrote, “The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal 2:20).” So, the Christian life is a life of faith. Faith is the gift of life given to us when we received the living Spirit of God.
Christ’s life, the life of the Holy Spirit, is a permanent resident in the true Christian. This life is as intimate as a branch’s attachment to a vine. It is to be as indistinguishable as one soldier in an army’s marching formation, or one sheep among many on a distant hill.
The Christian claims, “Christ is in me, and I am in Christ.” This is called, “Union with Christ,” and it is what makes the Christian who he is, “If you have the Son, you have life, but if you do not have the Son, you do not have life.” This is the life of Christ, the Son of God, which comes to us with the Spirit, who is the Lord, the giver of life.
The world does not recognize this life because it is hidden with Christ, who sits in the heavens. Still, the prince of life has given us a token of His abundant life, by giving us the Spirit, who is our pledge of life eternal, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Eternal life is Christ’s indestructible life, living in those chosen to life before creation.
God’s abundant life, replete with all the spiritual blessings, is in the heavens, and it is in our hearts, too. His blessings are not rewards for Christian performance; rather, they are the Christian’s permanent possession. Blessings all mine and ten thousand beside!
Jesus said, “I am…the life (Jn 14:6).” There is no other life but Him. The world promotes death as life; but the body of death, the fleshly body, is in decay. The biological animation is departing, and when men give up the ghost, that is, when their soul returns to God, there is no more life in the body.
Jesus also said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Resurrection life is already in the regenerated soul. Resurrection life is new life for the Christian’s soul. This is why the habit of reserving “resurrection talk,” for one Sunday per year, is a bit tragic. Every born again believer is a walking testimony for resurrection life. He is privy; an eye-witness; a survivor of death, burial, and resurrection (Rom 6).
The light of life shines in the darkness of other elect, yet unregenerate souls, to see Jesus, the way of life, and its only destination. Christians choose life because there is no choice. They were ordained for this life. Life came to each one by grace, not by choice.
To be void of Christ is to be devoid of life. The abundant, indestructible and eternal life enjoyed by those who have received this life, given to them by grace, is not enjoyed by those who do not have it. It is true that those still dead in sin, and who will remain in sin until death, do not want this life.
The will, enslaved to sin, is also a slave to death. Thoughts of death, words of death, actions of death encompass the walking dead. These people claim they are alive, but they are dead to spiritual things (1 Cor 2:14), meaning they are dead to God, who is Spirit.
What can make a dead man live? Only the Spirit of Christ can give life to the dead. What can make a dead body live? Only Christ, when He comes on the last day, and the dead shall be raised, some to life and others to judgment.
This is your life, so crucify the world and your sinful flesh because Christ is your life…unless, He is not.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
August 17, 2021
