Life

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. (John 5:26)

One of the erroneous teachings which abounds in the church today is that everything God has done for you is despite of you. This implies a God who reluctantly has restored man. This is not the truth about a God who is love. Everything in this giant rescue operation is because of you. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

When the scriptures say God is love, which is agape, that means love for others. It is the same love which now is our fabric. In the same way as Jesus did we find ourselves in situations where we communicate His love and our actions are love for others, because our desire for them is to experience the same kind of life as we are partakers of. In this perspective we can more easily perceive that Jesus died because of us. The best part is, though, that His resurrection was also because of us so that we can partake in the same quality of life as He has.

One of the temptations we encounter in this regard is that we do not experience that these qualities manifest frequently in our own lives. However, we do not live by appearances. We live by faith. Our first experience with this kind of faith was when we received Jesus. That was fairly easy compared with believing we are Christ. In our Christian walk we come to recognize that there are several levels of faith.

As we behold increasingly more of the beautiful scenery which surrounds us, and is in us, we acknowledge that He calls into being things which are not seen. The things we didn't see when we where farther down the hill are now clear to us. For us the ongoing transformation is now. He has seen what we are all the way, and now we are able to align what we see with what He sees. Faith has become knowledge. We also realize that we are not of this world, and that we as well are empowered to call things into being by faith which we yet do not see.

We are everything the word says we are, but we cannot acknowledge all of this through faith immediately. As our faith grows through tribulations, suffering, joy, encouragement, love and enlightenment from the Holy Spirit our mindset and outlook are renewed, and slowly but surely we understand that all the wonderful truths displayed in the Bible are us.

The principle aim of God's love is to create life. Not an ordinary life, but an abundant life. One of the characteristics of this life is that it is everlasting. The most tremendous thing about this life is, however, that we are given to have life in ourselves. This is truly an amazing and overwhelming gift. And God doesn't regret this; For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Rom 11:29).

Since God is love He necessarily also enjoys relations, fellowship and friendship, which all are manifestations of love. So in order to make this possible we inevitably needed to have life in ourselves with a perfectly functionally I, who can respond to His love. This I is a perfect mirror of Him, it is both Him and I, that is, He as us because we partake in the Christ life. He is the One who is all in all, and the one who is sustaining all things by the power of His word (Hebr 1:3). In the middle of all this we are!