Chapter 9 | Table of Contents | Chapter 11
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in [into] me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in [into] me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26 KJ2000)
"I am the resurrection and the life." What was Jesus saying to this woman of Bethany? He did not say, "I am the life and resurrection afterwards if you believe in me," though in a sense this is true. We are given a new life in trade for the old one, just as Lazarus was given a whole new life. Jesus waited until Lazarus was dead before He came and prayed over him. Why? There was an interesting exchange between Jesus and Lazarus' sister before he died.
Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. (John 11:3-4 KJ2000)
Jesus then stayed where He was another two days waiting for Lazarus to die! Jesus let him die so He could raise him again to accentuate what His mission to mankind is about. Our sin sickness is not unto our death, but by the power of the life of the Son, it is a step along the path to eternal life so our Father might be glorified in the Son.
He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. In what order does that life come? Many a Christian lives his whole life in that old life of Adam while waiting to die and be raised again in Christ at the last resurrection. But is this all that Jesus, the resurrection and the Life, has for us? No wonder the visible church is racked with sin and scandal if that is what it believes! Jesus came that we might have life and that more abundantly, not some "hang in there" existence in our flesh.
In Christ, the Life and the Resurrection, there is so much more to our reality here on earth than just going through the motions of our old Adamic life. Jesus told Nicode'mus, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God... Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:3-6 KJ2000) These words set this leader of the Pharisees on his heels and it went right over his head. To this Jesus said, "If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" (John 3:12 KJ2000)
Being born of the flesh and of the Spirit speaks of earthly things! These things must happen here on earth if we are to move on to the heavenly things. A person must first be born of water, born of a woman, and then he must be born of the Spirit or he will never see the kingdom of God. He will never have spiritual eyes and move with the wind of the Spirit in this life unless he is born from heaven. Once we are born from above we will then be given spiritual sight and then we can start to see and understand heavenly things. We not only are resurrected from the dead in Christ, but live in Him by being born into Him here on earth.
Yes, He is the Life we live and not only that, He is the Light of Life by which we see our Father and His kingdom. (see John 8:12) Nicode'mus had a vast knowledge of the Old Testament like most Pharisees, but Jesus' light exposed his darkness. Head knowledge of the Bible is not enough. We must have the Light of Life or we are doomed to walk in spiritual darkness. None are so blind as those who falsely think they see. The Bible scholars of 2000 years ago, the fundamentalists of the Jews, had knowledge of the scriptures but they were blind and dead. To them Jesus said, "And you have not his word abiding in you: for whom he has sent, him you believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life." (John 5:38-40 KJ2000) There is nothing more dead than a student of the Bible who does not have the Light of Life abiding within. Unless the Word, the Logos of God, is abiding in us and we abide in Him we will never see and understand heavenly things no matter how much we read the Bible, or how many classes we take, or how many sermons we listen to.
After the first birth, born of a woman, must come the first death to that natural Adamic life. The first life is terminal in Adam. But there is more. The second life we are given is eternal in Christ. There is a resurrection into Life, the very life of Jesus. "Though he were dead, yet shall he live." The unregenerate man is dead in the eyes of God because God is a Spirit (see John 4:24). When man sinned he became only flesh, severed from the life of his Father. "And the Lord God said, My Spirit shall certainly not remain among these men for ever, because they are flesh, but their days shall be an hundred and twenty years." (Genesis 6:3 Brenton)
Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome,
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses... But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many... If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:12-17 NRS)
Adam had life until he sinned. He was in the goodness of God Who created man and he walked in His light. But when Adam sinned he was cast into spiritual darkness. He saw himself as naked and hid himself from his Father. His connection in the Spirit was severed. Jesus came to the earth and said to the descendants of Adam, "The thief [the Serpent that tempted Eve in the garden] comes not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10 KJ2000) In one moment Satan stole man's inheritance as sons of God. He killed the life of God within man and destroyed what was to become the kingdom of heaven on earth, many sons unto the glory of God. Jesus came to restore that kingdom and life in the Father by dealing with the blot of sin and giving us a new nature that is lead by the Spirit of God once again. Our inheritance has been restored. Paul wrote:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, so that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:14-17 KJ2000)
Why didn't the Father just send us life through Moses or the prophets? It is because the abundant life promised us is only found in the Giver of life, the very Creator of life, that Being who is the Life. To have this life we must believe into Jesus because He is our Life. Paul wrote to the Ephesian believers:
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-6 KJ2000)
And to the Colossians he wrote,
If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4 KJ2000)
Our old man (the carnal nature) is dead. To dwell on that nature borders on spiritual necrophilia. We are raised with and in Christ. We are spirit beings having an earthly experience. Most Christians see it the other way around, but we should have our affections set on the kingdom of God where we dwell in the Son of God, not the desires of the world. The fallen state of the church is so well portrayed by its numerous dinners, potlucks and the fashion show every Sunday morning. Just listen to the content of the conversations outside after the service. Do men and women revel in their lives in heavenly places in Christ or do we hear them speaking about their interests and affections in this world? Out of the abundance and affections of the heart the mouth speaks.
Glory
Where did we ever get the idea that glory is heaven and something off in the future? Colossians 3:4 in the Concordant Literal Version translates it better. "Whenever Christ, our Life, should be manifested, then you also shall be manifested together with Him in glory." Where did we ever get the idea that glory is the same as heaven? Of Jesus John wrote, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14 KJ2000) John beheld Jesus' glory on the mount of transfiguration where the Father spoke and said, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased; hear you him." Later in John we read where Jesus prayed:
And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me. (John 17:22-23 KJ2000)
When Simeon beheld the infant Jesus in the temple he prophesied, "For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel." (Luke 2:30-32 KJ2000) Jesus is not only our light, but he is also our glory. The glory of God is given to those who believe into Jesus and it is not just something we get in the future. It is given us that we might be one with our Father and with one another. Our lack of unity shows our lack of His glory abiding in us. It was when the disciples beheld Jesus' glory that they started to believe in Him. (See John 2:11) Without this glory in the body of Christ, the world has not had a witness of Jesus presented to it.
We must appear with Him in glory in the here and now or we will not have it in the future, either. In this life if we seek our own glory we will not have the glory of God. Jesus said, "He who finds his life will lose it, but He who loses his life for my sake shall find it." Jesus sought the glory of God, not his own, (See John 8:50) so should we seek to glorify Jesus on this earth and not ourselves. Jesus went on to pray:
Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me: for you loved me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24 KJ2000)
He did not pray, "that they may be with me where I am going," but "where I am." It is by our believing into and abiding in Jesus that we behold His glory. This is our inheritance in Christ in this life as we abide in the Vine.
True and full eternal life is found hidden in Christ Who is in the Father. He is without beginning or end and if we are hidden in our Father, we have that same life within us. This revelation should make us jump for joy! His life is our life without beginning or end. We have a state of being that is timeless. Here death has no power and the grave has no victory. This is why Jesus could say to the Pharisees, "Before Abraham was, I am." As we are in Christ, we are also not subject to the limiting constraints of time. The further we go in this walk in Him, the less we think in the terms and limitations of time and space. We see that eternal life is a life of power over not only sin, but sickness and death. The same power that the obedient Son had on the earth two thousand years ago is also found in the many obedient sons who live in and unto their Father's glory. The more we dwell in our hearts in the eternity of God, the more we see that all things are possible in Christ. Philip was in a revival in Samaria and the next thing he knew he was in the desert talking to an Ethiopian eunuch. Time and space did not limit him. Paul was stoned to death, yet he got up and walked away. The dead were raised, demons were cast out, the blind and the lame were healed. Why? Because the early church sat in heavenly places, walked in Christ and stood in Him against the wiles of the devil that were the results of the fall of man.
"Set your affections on the things above, not on things on the earth." That includes leaving earthly limitations behind in the way we think. Many in today's church would love to have these same powers that were common in the early believers, but why? Most often it is so they could stand out in the crowd or even use them to become rich and famous. As a result they are not setting their affections on the things that are above, but on earthly things. Only as we are totally taken in body, soul and spirit with our relationship with Jesus and our heavenly Father will we know the life giving force of God. Those who are in Christ, like Jesus, will only do the works we see our Father doing and speak the words we hear our Father saying. This is what true spiritual sons do. "And whatsoever you shall ask in my name [character, excellence and authority], that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14:13-14 KJ2000) True sons of God live for one reason--that their Father might be glorified in the earth and wherever His Son dwells. This is why they ask anything of their Father, not for themselves, but for the glory of God. As with Jesus, we seek to glorify our Father in this earth.
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