"What is your life?"
James asked the question rhetorically, with temporal, physical matters in mind - "What is your life? It is even a vapor, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14). However, an answer that more addresses the substance and essence of our being involves Moses' and Paul's joint affirmation of one fundamental definition of life:
"He is thy life" (Deuteronomy 30:20).
"To live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).
Had Adam and Eve partaken of the tree of life in the midst of Eden's garden (literally, the tree of eternal life - Genesis 3:22) rather than the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would have entered into a forever in which they would have known the true Source of life. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Instead, they blinded themselves to truth and reality, and set forth on the futile search for life by their own devices. Thereafter, to live became a matter of biology, survival, happiness, contentment, people, vocation, possession, place, and freedom. We hear it all the time. "My family is my life… My job is my life… my hobby is my life… Fun is my life… Freedom is my life," and so on. Such imposters all disappoint, if not now, then some day all too soon. Indeed, if we perceive or believe anything other than the Lord Jesus as our life, we set ourselves up for inevitable disappointment and heart-rending disillusionment.
Salvation through Christ institutes and constitutes the newness of life that births the Spirit of the Lord Jesus in the manger, as it were, of our own spirits. Just as no one else could rightly have graced the holy crib of Bethlehem so long ago, so can no one other than the Savior dwell within us as life. "He is thy life" declared Moses. "To live is Christ" echoed Paul. Most importantly, the Lord Jesus Himself proclaimed, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly… I am the life" (John 10:10; 14:6). All the imposters must go, that is, anything or anyone else we view as the Life of our lives must be sacrificed upon the altar we build within our hearts. That which remains? Christ only, Christ always, Christ forever! Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.
"This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
(I John 5:11)
Weekly Memory Verse
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
(John 3:6)
4365
"Only, Always, Forever!"
"What is your life?"
James asked the question rhetorically, with temporal, physical matters in mind - "What is your life? It is even a vapor, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14). However, an answer that more addresses the substance and essence of our being involves Moses' and Paul's joint affirmation of one fundamental definition of life:
"He is thy life" (Deuteronomy 30:20).
"To live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).
Had Adam and Eve partaken of the tree of life in the midst of Eden's garden (literally, the tree of eternal life - Genesis 3:22) rather than the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would have entered into a forever in which they would have known the true Source of life. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Instead, they blinded themselves to truth and reality, and set forth on the futile search for life by their own devices. Thereafter, to live became a matter of biology, survival, happiness, contentment, people, vocation, possession, place, and freedom. We hear it all the time. "My family is my life… My job is my life… my hobby is my life… Fun is my life… Freedom is my life," and so on. Such imposters all disappoint, if not now, then some day all too soon. Indeed, if we perceive or believe that anything other than the Lord Jesus as our life, we set ourselves up for inevitable disappointment and heart-rending disillusionment.
Salvation through Christ institutes and constitutes the newness of life that births the Spirit of the Lord Jesus in the manger, as it were, of our own spirits. Just as no one else could rightly have graced the holy crib of Bethlehem so long ago, so can no one other than the Savior dwell within us as life. "He is thy life" declared Moses. "To live is Christ" echoed Paul. Most importantly, the Lord Jesus Himself proclaimed, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). All the imposters must go, that is, anything or anyone else we view as the Life of our lives must be sacrificed upon the altar we build within our hearts. That which remains? Christ only, Christ always, Christ forever! Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.
"This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
(I John 5:11)
Weekly Memory Verse
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
(John 3:6)
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