0806. The Life Defined
The Life Defined
"And this is the record, that God hath given to as eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1Jn_5:11-12).
According to our key verse the New Life which we have in Christ Jesus, is Christ Jesus Himself. It is not our own natural life patched up and made over. The Word is plain–in order to have life we must have Christ. If we have not Christ, no matter what else we may have, we have not life.
Let us examine a few passages which give light on this Life.
1. Joh_5:26 : "For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself."
Jesus Christ has life within Himself even as the Father has life within Himself. He is Life. We are made partakers of the Life which is in Christ. In our regeneration, Christ enters in, and becomes our life.
2. Joh_11:25-26 : "I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."
In this passage Christ plainly pronounces Himself the life. Christ is teaching that physical death, in no wise affects the life which we have in Christ Jesus. So far as life is concerned it is a matter of no consequence whether we "wake or sleep," whether we live or are dead, when the Lord comes again.
Christ is the Life, and He also is the Resurrection. The man who has not Christ has not life, neither can he ever enter into Life. Christ said, "I am the * * Life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (Joh_14:6).
3. Joh_6:57 : "As the Living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me."
It is useless to cavil. There is no life apart from Christ Jesus. He who has not Christ is dead in trespasses and sins. If a man refuse to "eat of Christ," the Living Word, he has no life abiding in him.
This seemed a hard saying to the Jews, and many of them, because of it, turned back from following Christ. And yet, this saying is the very heart of the Gospel.
The manna which fell in the wilderness was a type of this Divine life. The broken bread at the Lord's table is a type of this same sustaining life. Our key text is plain and final in its statement. "He that hath the Son hath life."
4. Col_3:3-4 : "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life."
How assuring these words! The life of the Lord and the life of the believer is one life. His life is our life. The very mystery of all mysteries is this one–"Christ in us the hope of glory." There can be no "blessed hope" to those in whom Christ does not live and dwell.
Let no one be satisfied with anything short of Christ. Our first need is not a system of theology, or a creed; it is not good morals, or a form of living; it is not great attainments in scholasticism, or a development of the mind. What we need is life; it is the Christlife.
Christianity is summed up in one word–Christ. Form and ceremonies, creeds and ordinances are only the dress–the vital heart of Christianity is Christ. To possess the outward form without the inward life, is no more than possessing a dressed-up skeleton; it is no more than possessing a whitened sepulcher.
5. 1Jn_5:20 : "This is the True God, and eternal life."
What is eternal life? No more, no less than the Son of God. Christ is our life and our life is eternal, because Christ is eternal life. The life of the physical body is in the blood. All scientists will grant this. If the old man and the physical body has a basis of life; so also the spiritual man and the resurrection body, has a basis of life. And this basis of life is in His Son. "In Him was life" (Joh_1:4).
6. Joh_6:53-54 : "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life."
God's "bills of exception" are always worth our consideration. Here is one that is all important. "Except * * no life in you." How professors in school, in college and in seminary need to stop and see if they are possessors. Jesus Christ is our life and apart from Him there is eternal death–an existence apart from God and from Christ and from Heaven.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR