Friday, August 17, 2018

"The Who Of Life"


"The Who Of Life"

    What is life, as defined by God and His Word, the Bible?  Scripture plainly states the answer.

    "He is thy life… Christ is our life… To live is Christ" (Deuteronomy 30:20; Colossians 3:4; Philippians 1:21).  

    Life is a "Who" rather than a "what."  This constitutes both good and bad news.  First, it is the most encouraging of messages to know we can be truly alive through the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to live in the experience and expression of  "the hope of glory, which is Christ in you" (Colossians 1:27).  God made us to be His spiritual temple, "the habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22).  He alone provides the Life of our lives.  The bad news, at least to our flesh, is that nothing else can substitute.  Perceiving anything other than Christ as our life is actually death to our hearts, and hopeless delusion regarding our behaviors and doings.  Of such wisdom, Solomon declared, "he that findeth me findeth life," and "all they that hate me love death" (Proverbs 8:35-36).

    I once spoke to a young lady whose difficulties in circumstance, situation, and condition led her to cry in forlorn despair, "I don't have a life!"  The girl was a born again believer, which led me to gently but unequivocally explain to her that she failed to realize what - Who - life actually is.  Indeed, if we wait for acceptable circumstance, situation, and condition to perceive ourselves as alive and living, we wait for that which will never come.  As the Lord Jesus said, "A man's life consisteth not in abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15).  People, places, possessions, health, career, family, friends and opportunities to do what we desire - none of these can rightly be viewed as our life.  Such things become idols when viewed as the substance and satisfaction of our living.  They become a deadly trap.  "They served their idols, which were a snare unto them" (Psalm 106:36).

    The young lady did have a life.  Christ Himself served that role.  He is the Life of our lives.  Nothing else qualifies.    We could lose every thing, but if Christ remained, we would still be alive and capable of truly living.  This is the most blessed truth to our spirits, but hard to our flesh that longs for substitutes.  There are none.  Again, "He is thy life… Christ is our life… To live is Christ."  We must build the altar within our hearts whereupon we sacrifice all imposters in order that Christ only remains in our awareness and affirmation as the Life of our lives.  Yes, life is a "Who" rather than a "what."

"God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."
(I John 4:9)
"Reckon ye also yourselves to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
(Romans 6:11)

Weekly Memory Verse
   Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me."
(John 5:39)

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