The Word of Life (Part Two)
- Jack Selcher
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
God’s Life Is Available Now
Possessing God’s life now is far more worth pursuing than becoming a billionaire. The entryway to that life is easily missed, the path is hard, and most people never obtain it (Matthew 7:14).
It is worth sacrificing everything that hinders righteous living (Matthew 18:8-9). Jesus will repay us one hundredfold for the sacrifices we make for Him and share His life with us (Matthew 19:29).
He paid His life to purchase it for us. Our price is self-denial. Self-denial doesn’t earn God’s life, but those who receive it freely by grace through faith demonstrate it by self-denying love.
Belief in Jesus taps into His life and makes it a present reality and possession for those who pay attention to His message and believe in the God who sent him (John 5:24).
God’s angry judgment punishes all who don’t believe (John 3:36). By faith, we are made right in God’s sight (Romans 1:17).
It feels like we choose to come to Jesus and trust in His atoning sacrifice in our place on the cross to embrace this life (John 5:40, John 6:54), but, mysteriously, Jesus freely chooses all who receive His life (John 5:21). We become God’s friends by grace through faith. Jesus’s resurrection guarantees we will share in His resurrection life (Romans 5:10).
God’s Life Comes Through the Scriptures
God’s life saturates His word. The eternal word imparts eternal spiritual life to those who believe it (1 Peter 1:23). Spiritual life is born in us through the words of the gospel. God’s life is planted in us by grace through faith (Acts 5:20, Philippians 2:16). God’s word points to Jesus, who gives eternal life (John 5:39).
God’s Life Comes Through Jesus
Jesus is God’s life in an audible, visible, and touchable form. He reveals that life to humanity, packaged as a human being (John 1:1). Eternal life is God’s gift to believers drawn from the well of his Son’s life (1 John 5:11). It is the living water of His life, available only to us who belong to Him (1 John 5:12).
Physical bread symbolizes what the True Bread came to accomplish. As bread gives physical life, Jesus, the True Bread, gives spiritual life (John 6:33). He provides self-sustaining spiritual nourishment for all who come to and believe in Him. Coming to Him is the same as believing in Him (John 6:35).
Those who come to Jesus discover His words ooze with eternal life (John 6:68). His ways are true and righteous and provide a lit highway that leads to fully experiencing His life (John 8:12).
Coming to and believing in the Father and experiencing His life happens exclusively through coming to and believing in Jesus (John 14:6). All who experience that life know and have a relationship with God and Jesus Christ (John 17:3).
God’s Life Comes Through the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the agent through whom eternal life comes apart from human effort, using trust in divinely inspired words to accomplish it (John 6:63). The Spirit gives spiritual life to those who have been made right with God, even though they will die physically (Romans 8:10).
God’s Life in Us Produces Various Evidence
With Jesus’s life, we are fully committed to what is right for God’s glory, just as Jesus was (Romans 6:13), and live for Him and His purposes (2 Corinthians 5:15). Self-centered living gives way to God-centered living (2 Corinthians 5:17) despite persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). We don’t make a practice of sinning (1 John 3:9).
Goodness, peace, and joy characterize our lives (Romans 14:17). Jesus’s life in us is evident when the going gets tough (2 Corinthians 4:11).
It produces righteous character to bring glory and praise to God (Philippians 1:11). We pursue righteousness, a godly life, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11). We chase a peaceful, holy life (2 Timothy 1:9, Hebrews 12:14). We are God’s pure, clean instruments to live honorable lives and do good in this world (2 Timothy 2:21, Titus 2:14, James 3:13). See The Word of Life (Part One). See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
See free spiritual growth resources for Christians at https://www.christiangrowthresources.com
God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead more than 3,689 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 10,051 people. I invite you to check it out.
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