What is Life?

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The breath of God is life.

There is life, and there is simple existence.  In searching out the truth of God concerning what He calls “life,” it will become clear that outside of Christ there is no life, only a dark existence.  Within life, things are understood clearly in truth and there are a limitless number of fruitful options from which to choose.  Outside of life a man’s time is fruitlessly spent feeling around in the dark, guessing at the truth of what is being experienced and needing an immense amount of vain effort trying to prove the truth of his own interpretation to himself and the world.  The first is a life of glory.  The second is a frustrating existence of vanity of the mind and vexation of the soul, a life of continual blaming of others for its failure to deliver.

According as He has chosen us in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.  Ephesians 1:4

Life results in consciousness and the ability to choose.  God’s eternal life results in God’s consciousness and the ability to express a choice having Godly effect.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.  So God created man in His image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. 
Genesis 1:26, 27

The first time “life” is used in the 4 Gospels is found in Matthew:

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.  Matthew 7:14

Jesus is speaking of people here who were obviously already alive.  By using the word “life” in regard to those already alive, he is speaking of the life of God, eternal life.  God Himself is even termed as “living.”

For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 
Deuteronomy 5:26

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?  Psalm 42:2

… my heart and my flesh cries out for the living God. 
Psalm 8:2b

These verses, and many others, emphasize not only the eternal nature of the life of God, but also the life-giving quality of that life.  You see, the life of man can only give what it is; thus man reproduces himself only in a temporary way.  The life of God reproduces itself (Himself) in an eternally supplying way.

He who believes unto me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.  John 7:38

The only way to live forever is to have a life that is continually supplying more and more of itself.  This the soul of man without God does not and can not do.  Man’s part in living eternally is to simply allow this life of God to “have its way.”

When and where God expresses Himself, this is known as the word (logos) of God.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with (pros – together with yet distinctly independent of) God, and the word was God.  The same was in the beginning with (pros) God.  All things were made by means of it (the logos – the expression of God), and without it was not anything made that was made.  In it (the expression of God) was life, and the life was the light of men.  John 1:1-4

Wherever and whenever God expresses Himself to man, to the end that man “hears” it, the life that is eternal and the light (spiritual wisdom and understanding) it brings is the result.

It is the spirit (of God) that gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life.
John 6:63

The word “spirit” in the New Testament is pneuma, and can also be translated “breath.”  It is the holy spirit, or breath,  of the living God which imparts its nature, eternal life into our souls.  This is the reason I read my Bible, what I expect to receive every time I open the book – the breath of God, God speaking to me, imparting His life and clarity unto me.

All scripture is “given by inspiration of God” (theopneustos – God breathed) and is profitable …  II Timothy 3:16a

God breathes within you His eternal life.  Wherever you see “spirit,” try thinking “breath” or “breath of God.”  It will impart the sense of motion, of being alive.

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of (Christ’s) righteousness.  But if the spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He Who raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies by His spirit which dwells in you.
Romans 8:10, 11

For he who sows unto his own flesh shall from out of the flesh reap corruption (decay); but he who sows unto the spirit shall from out of the spirit reap life everlasting.  Galatians 6:8

That purifying (holy) spirit which imparts itself into our beings, together with the God-given ability to practically receive that life of God,  is known as “Christ,” (because it is the life of Jesus himself, “earned” by him, received, sent and directed by him) and it is Christ who brings us unto our glory.  Once in us, he will forever continue to impart unto us that which he is, eternal life.

For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.  When Christ our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in (your) glory.  Colossians 3:3, 4

The life of God brings an awareness of not only what itself is, but also of how everything else that exists truly fits together with existence as it was created to be.  The life of God, brought into our souls by the breath (spirit) of God, is truth.

In it (the logos, expression, of God) was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in (the middle of) darkness; and the darkness comprehends (grasps in understanding) it not.   John 1:4, 5

And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the spirit of truth; which the world can not receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him; but you know him; for he dwells with you (being in Jesus), and shall be in you.
John 14:16, 17

Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things which are to come (these things are in existence today).
John 16:13

That the life of God can once again be imparted unto men’s souls happened according to truth.  Having been lost by man’s free choice, it had to be found and re-established by man’s free choice.  Because and by means of the eternal plan of God, carried out by the  life and work of Jesus the Christ, it is entirely justified that man once again becomes alive unto God.

Therefore as by the offense of one, judgment came unto all men unto condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came unto all men unto justification of life.
Romans 5:18

 Being justified freely by His generosity by means of the redemption (restoration to value) that is in Christ Jesus:  Romans 3:24

As the first soul of man became living unto God by the loving desire of the Creator through no act of will of its own, so the opportunity to become reborn unto God has again been made available solely through the loving desire of the Creator.  This desire is righteously fulfilled in and by the spirit of the Righteous One, Jesus the Christ.  It is vanity to think that you or I could or can have anything at all to do with making this happen.  Even the ability to receive this fantastic gift is itself a gift from God, an important part of the gift of Christ.

For by (God’s) generosity are you saved, by means of faith; and that (faith) not of yourselves; it is the giving of God;  Not from out of  (your own) works, lest any man should boast. 
Ephesians 2:8, 9

Faith is one of the manifestations, or evidences, of the spirit which we receive when we believe unto Jesus as the Christ.  This faith is the ability to receive into reality, or practice,  the spiritual things which are of the eternal life of God.

But the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man for profit really. …  For another (profit) faith by the same spirit;
I Corinthians 12:7, 9a

Come and receive life, the expression of God.  Come and enjoy being alive unto God, where life can be lived and enjoyed and seen and understood in the light of truth, in the light of eternity.  Come and receive the gift which the Creator desires every man, woman and child to have.  No matter what color, no matter what sin, no matter what nationality or language or religion, no matter what past, no matter what direction in life, come and receive and partake of the life which has always been and will always be.  Come and enjoy the eternally supplying and purifying breath of the living God.  Come and enjoy Christ.

And the Lord God created man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.  Genesis 2:7

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Learning to Recognize the Voice of God
What is the Word of God
God’s Point of View
The Law of God