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"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." Ist John 5:12
"As righteousness tends to life: so he that pursues evil pursues it to his own death." Proverbs 11:19
"The labor of the righteous leads to life, The wages of the wicked to sin." Proverbs 10:16
"For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself," John 5:26
The most valuable thing any human has is life. Quality of life springs forth and thrives upon a foundation of truth, love and righteousnesses. With those three we can face the challanges we face in this natural world and overcome. As these three are corrupted, then our quality of life is stolen and diminished and can even be reduced to the point of death.
We loosly consider our existance as life. But here, God is saying our working to be truly righeousness, our doing the right thing, it causes us to tend to life. As we search out how to act righteously we come to realize that real life comes from God and we get it through Jesus Christ. When we are righteousness it is taking care of our life and the lives of those arround us. Godly righteousness is not our becomming a slave to others but by serving others where they can see the love of God and their own need for God in their lives. Righteousness is necessary for real life. Being righteous simply means doing the right thing regardless if it is profitable or not. God desires that you and I are righteous, that we make the right choices. Most people expect that others should treat them righteously, but they are not so adamant on treating others the same way unless there is some sort of gain or profit. We all try to believe that our own actions have been the right choices. We often reject anything that says otherwise. Our decisions and actions affect the quality of our life and the lives of those people around us, whether for good or bad.
We don't normally consider our own actions as evil. We have things we want and there are things we don't want. Naturally the things we want and don't want are influenced by our lusts, pride, fears, hate, etc. With a life not focused on God those influences will exert pressure on our decisions. Those influences will then work to destroy our righteousness. That changes when we make a decision to center our life on God. As real life is founded on true righteousness our efforts are only fully realized when our life is focused on God. Jesus Christ is the son of God, the Word of God that defines the meaning that guides us in understnding what true life and righteouness are.
Let's look initially at two things that shows God's real intent toward all people. These two points are very broad but the meaning is clear. They also show us what is necessary for us to have this very highest quality of life. Because God is perfect and we humans definitely are not, we only can truly receive this highest quality of life by working these precepts about life into our lives, that is by believing them. Yes, simply by choosing to really believe what God says.
"I (Jesus Christ) am come that they might have "life", and that they might have it more abundantly." [John 10:10b]
If we do make right choices and do the right thing then we will focus on the real issues of life. Religious people often want to make this word righteous a religious word, but it isn't.
So if we get serious and focus our arrention on the issues of real life we eventually realize we need God. Otherwise life just becomes a treadmill. Our need for God is not fulfilled with a work plan or a set of laws to follow. We need a personal God that will walk with us and guide us on this path of life. Initially it would seem that Jesus Christ would not be the logical answer. We don't need another religious person telling us what to do. However when we get tired of the consequences of our failures sometimes we look closer at this Jesus Christ and come to realize that our imaginations of who Jesus is, is not who He really is. In this Jesus we find life, the real life we have always been searching for. But we have to become familier enough with Him to understand who He really is before we realize that our previous assumptions were false. It is just logical then, that the more we study this Jesus, the more abundantly we will experience real life.
The highest values in life are pure love, truth, and righteousness. We are talking about each of these in an absolutely pure sense. Each of us desire what is real, what is solid. Often we expect confirmation of something to be be real by excitement or trmporary gain. But those emotional highs in the end provide the very emptiness we are tired of.
Most people consider our natural lives to be somewhat normal people. Yet obtaining life's highest values often seems impossible. We yearn for truly pure love, real truth, and for people around us to be doing the right thing. Once the mask is off, what we see is selfish lust, feigned love, and perverted truth that brings someone gain at the expense of others. We may feel we have to accept this emptiness as that may be all we are currently aware of. The good news is God has the life we truly desire available to us. It doesn't look like or operate like, our natural life. We cannot use our natural life as a standard to determine how right or good this new life in God is.
This is why the God of creation sent His only begotton son to us here on earth. So we could have a new life. A Christian life is not a cleaned up version of our old natural life. A Christian is a new creation. The parts we are made with, are rearranged to the correct order as God originally intended them to be. They have gotten out of order by us naturally rejecting God and going our own way.
So there are two different lives available to us. We can freely choose to live either style of life. Trying to have the best of each style of life doesn't work.
Our natural life is centered on self or the "me" part of us. This is the life everyone naturally chooses from birth. Yes, we come up with very sophisticated ways to pretend that we are loving, truthful people, but our hearts are still centered on self. Because we go to such effort to refine our sophistication, it often takes conflict in things of higher value for us to see our own heart. God regards this type of life as just an existance. God calls a person living this way as dead. or as some would call it spiritually dead.
The next style of life is a God centered life. We don't mean a religious life. Truth, love, and righteousness are all part of the charctor of the real God that created the heavens and the earth. When we believe the words of the real God that created the heavens and the earth, then we, bit by bit, take on His charactor. In doing so we, bit by bit we enter more and more into real life.
For the words "self" or "me", the Bible often uses the word flesh. The Bible has two definitions for this word flesh. The soft body parts on our bones, and the self part of us including our ego and personality.
Self preservation and survival depend upon us making sure we get what we need. If we don't take care of ourselves, who will? This mindset is necessary up to a point. It makes sure we are fed, clothed, and somewhat safe. Because of that, it seems logical to our natural thinking to make our self or flesh as the center of our life. The problem is, with self in the center of our lives, we don't experience the quality of life we expect. It is like a beautiful illusion that never comes fully to reality. It does not matter how hard we try, it still remains an unobtainable illusion. Wealth, status, prestige are all nice, but they don't make the illusion a reality. This wonderful life centered on self is an illusion because it can never cause us to have the highest quality of life. A life bases on real love, truth, and righeounesses. A life centered on our flesh will compromise the very real love, truth, and righeounesses we yearn for to get what it wants. This is Satan's big lie. It really is a choice of one life or the other.
From the beginning, God designed a better life for us. But God lets us have the life we assume we want, first. A life centered on our flesh. If we are successful then for a season it can appear to be the life we want. But there comes a time where some come to their senses and realize that there has to be something better. Our existence from birth is just that, an existence, no matter how we polish it. It is hard to describe what a better life would be like, but when we see it in others, we realize we don't have it. As we study the Bible we see that life in Jesus Christ.
God considers real life to be an overcoming life based on a foundation of absolute truth, love and righteousness. The truth is administered with love, not the harshness of law. It is guiding and leading, not pushing and forcing. The love is real, not a pretense like we see all around us in this present world. The righteousness or doing the right thing, is not motivated by lust, or greed or law. It is doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do for all involved.
But look around us, this world is in a real mess. People are living according to their version of truth, love and righteousness. Each person has their own version and they are all different according to that person's beliefs and motivation. The mess the world is in proves that we cannot use our own standard as our foundation to life. Since the world is in a mess because of what it gets wrong, we should focus our life on the only religion that deals with mankind's sin problem. Since the Bible shows us how to put sin in remission, we should also trust it's version of truth, love and righteousness.
When we hear that real life or as some call it, new life comes through a religion, many reject it. Most have seen dead religion from those with unchanged hearts, and we want none of it. Again when we see real life lived out we realize it is the life we truly want. If we search for it we will find imperfect people that have it and some have more of it than others.
To have this new life, there will need to be changes. If we are wise, we realize we don't have the power to make these changes ourselves. We choose to do things God's way and God does the changes through and in us. The process seems weak and ineffective, but it works from the inside out and works beautifully given time. We have so many questions. God deals with all the questions that need answered in a way that causes us to grow and He answers them on His perfect timetable. At first we think God's timetable should line up to ours. Over time we learn that our timetable needs to line up to His.
Do you want this new life? I think you do as I know I do.
It takes time, to wrap our minds around God’s view of life. It is a broad topic and there is considerable depth. Like many Bible topics, if one takes it in small bites, we discover that it is most logical and very well designed. There are two types of life, our natural life and a new life in God, sometimes called the life we have in Jesus Christ. We are all familiar with our natural life, and the millions of variations it has. We think of it as the life we were born with. There is also this brand new life in Christ, an overcoming spiritual life available to those that will receive it. To have it, it has to replace our natural life.
There is a natural inherent desire to want to believe that our old natural existence is the best life that there is. When we consider the millions of variations of our natural life we often think the way to a better life is to have a richer or cleaner variation of our natural life. From God’s perspective our natural life is still just an existence. God considers us living our natural life, as being dead and not having real life. We can clearly see this when we can compare our natural life to the life God designed for us. Before we make that comparison it is hard to believe that there is anything other than a natural life. Again, the topic of life is very broad and it can get quite complex. If we see a diagram that shows the structure of a natural life compared to the structure of a life in God, we begin to clearly see the differences.
God made humans of five parts. Our flesh, our heart, our human spirit, our soul, and our physical body. The Bible uses two different definitions for each of the two words flesh and heart. Most people easily understand that the word heart has two meanings, our heart that pumps our blood and our innermost motivation. Because many only study the scriptures at a surface level, so many people have missed that the Bible has two meanings also for the word flesh. When we don't have the correct meaning God is trying to convey to us, we are confused with some scriptures. This second definition of the word flesh is not my interpretation nor any denomination's interpretation. Once you see it, you will wonder why you previously missed it. Even a 10 year old child can easily understand it.
Obviously the first definition of the word flesh is the soft body parts that are on our bones. The second definition of the word flesh is the self or the me part of us. What we think, what we want, what we feel, including our personality and ego. It is the "me" part that is different from other people. This second definition of the word flesh is used in both the new and the old testaments. It was used back in bible times and people also got it confused back then. Ignorance can cause considerable confusion.
Our human spirit the Bible calls the breath of life. it empowers our body and soul so they can function. Of course when the human spirit departs it goes back to God and the person is dead. None of our living functions can operate.
Our soul is the part of us that processes information. Our thinking, our emotions, our will, and input from our 5 senses; our touch, our sight, our hearing, our smell, and our taste. Many confuse the soul which processes information with the actual information itself. These are separate. We do not crucify our soul as a Christian. We need our soul both before becoming a Christian and after becoming a Christian.
What our body is is pretty self evident. Our bones and all the physical parts attached.
From birth we have lived by what we felt, what we wanted and what we thought, restricted somewhat by other things that influenced us including our parents, teachers, culture and the laws of nature and the government.
While some heard about God when we were living our natural life, we still just lived a natural life up until the time that we made the decision to give our life to God. While living our natural life from birth, our real focus has been upon me or my self or what the Bible calls our flesh. That is just how things naturally happen. But even then after receiving salvation, we often continued living a natural life, as we don't understand how God wants us to live as a Christian.
We are still dead to the quality of life God intended for us. Many spend their entire life trying to find that “better” type of their natural life. They often refuse to consider that there could even be anything other than this natural life. Many do not see the need for this new life. Many adopt some man made religion so they won't actually be a participant in becoming a new creation in God. In their hearts, their innermost motivation, they want to look better and be blessed, but they don't really want to give up their control, where they are the one who determines truth. They are fighting to keep their flesh, their self and this worldly kingdom, in control. They refuse to investigate this living God they hardly can see in the natural realm and don't want to yeild to.
Of all the religions in the world, Christianity is different. Christianity does not fit the description of a religion, instead it is real life. A pure, new, righteous, and overcoming life. It is not a polished version of the natural life we were born with. This new life lives contrary to our old natural life. When we make a genuine decision to accept God, a major change takes place, we become a new person, yes a brand new creation, and we inherit this new God centered life. We don't yet know how to live it as we start out as a spiritual baby.
If you have not yet read, "What is Christianity?" on this site, please do. At first it may seem a little boring as different foundational parts are explained. But as you track to the end, connecting the dots, the final conclusion is an incredible picture of what God has for the believer.
When one starts to recognize that there is a God, one starts to realize that this natural life, is no more than just an existence. It does not matter how much it is polished, it is still an existence. Money and possessions does not bring about godliness or a clean life. Only God does when He is the foundation of our life. However, God gave mankind a free will. Because mankind has a free will and can choose either good or evil, God had to make it where each individual would have the choice whether or not they wanted the life that can be had in God. So God placed all of mankind on this earth where they could experience both good and evil. Then those seeking truth would logically choose God. While God designed "life" for all people, each individual needs to choose whether they want this life for themselves. To make no choice is a choice rejecting God. If God would have given mankind real life from the start, that would have violated mankind's free will. That not have been fair. A choice to live God's life would have been forced upon them, over riding their free will.
Scriptures:
"I (Jesus Christ) am come that they might have "life", and that they might have it more abundantly." [John 10:10b]
Discussion:
Jesus Christ, said: "I am come that . . ." Here Jesus Christ is making a statement of purpose. When He says "I am come that" the form here is; “I am doing or have done this, so that something else can happen”. He is stating the purpose of why He came. He came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. The "they" are those that have made a genuine decision to make Jesus Christ their personal Lord and Savior. In other words “Jesus Christ came from Heaven to earth with the purpose of making a way so that we could have real life, the pure righteous life that He designed for us to have. And they, if they actively follow through with their decision, could have that new life more abundantly.