The Claims of Jesus Christ
6 The Life
Now let’s discover another claim of the Lord Jesus. It is found in his words, “I am the Life.” Jesus has hinted at this in John 10 verse 10, where He says, speaking of those who follow Him, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” In John chapter 11, where we have the account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus says to Martha, “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (verse 25).
We are not going to think of the events in that chapter in this study, or of Jesus’ claim, “I am the Resurrection.” This will be the theme of the next study. We are concentrating now on the claim, “I am the life.” There is one other place in the Gospel where this claim is made. It is in John chapter 14 verse 6, where Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” So you see it is an important teaching in John’s Gospel that Jesus is the life. It is more obvious, too, when we think of the many times in the Gospel where Jesus says that the ones who have everlasting life are those who believe in Him, and He implies quite clearly that it is only those.
If Jesus is the life and true life only comes through Him, it is important for us to know what this means. As we have said before, the life He is speaking about is not just physical life, the kind of life that we all have. The word life is often further described by adding the word “eternal” or “everlasting” to it. This word does not merely apply to the length of life. It tells us of the kind of life it is, the quality of the life. In other words it is the life of God Himself.
The first thing that is clear is that without this life we are dead spiritually. We are not dead physically, but we are dead in our relationship with God. Because we are without his life, where God is concerned we are dead, cut off from Him because of our disobedience. This means we can never enter the place called heaven, nor shall we ever enjoy the glories of the kingdom of our Lord. This again shows us how important it is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive everlasting life. Without this life we cannot possibly avoid the awfulness of eternal separation from God and all that is good.
Another result of our being dead spiritually is that we can have no communion or fellowship with God. The apostle Paul, in Ephesians 2 verse 1, speaks about those without Christ as being “dead in trespasses and sins.”
Isaiah also says in chapter 59 verse 2, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you.” Because of this separation, God is not real to us and we cannot love Him and have fellowship with Him. He seems to be far away from us. God does at times get through to our consciences with a realisation of our sin and darkness, but this still makes Him someone to be feared rather than loved. Without this life of God that comes to us in Jesus Christ, we are dead and cannot truly love, worship and have fellowship with Him.
What does it mean to have this life? What positive reality is ours when we possess it? We must remind ourselves that if we have Jesus, we have the life of God. John says, “He that has the Son has life” (1 John 5 verse 12). Now if we have Jesus and have the life of God in us, we shall start becoming like Him. Our whole attitude to life will change because we have a new kind of life. Its source is from above and from God and not from the earth. We shall start producing the fruit of the Spirit. Where there is life in a tree, there is fruit. If there is no fruit being produced, it would seem there is no life. It is the same in the life of a Christian believer.
When you can, look up the list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which Paul gives in Galatians chapter 5. They are: love, joy and peace, long suffering, kindness and goodness, faith, or faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. What a delightful cluster of fruit! This is the sort of fruit, which starts growing in our lives, when we have the life of Jesus in us. God begins to make us patient and kindly in our dealings with others; his love within us overflows with desires to do good. We are faithful to Him, and gentle when people oppose us and persecute us. Finally we begin to learn how to control ourselves and our lives, so that all our strength can go into the right channels. Life grows and so we begin to grow in all these areas of our living.
Physical growth, though, depends largely on food and drink. If we are healthy we get hungry and thirsty and if we do not want food and drink, there is usually something wrong. It is much the same spiritually. When we have eternal life we begin to feel hunger and thirst for fellowship with the Lord and for food from his Word, the Bible. We find we want to pray and talk to the Lord. We find, too, that we want to talk to others who love the Lord and we want to worship the Lord with them.
As we read the Bible and have fellowship with the Lord and each other, strength comes to us and we grow in grace and in our knowledge of the Lord. We do not have an aim and purpose in life. We can say with Paul “To me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1 verse 21). Life has taken on a new aspect altogether. There is a satisfaction and fulfilment because we have the life of God within us.
So, the secret of real living is to know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour and Lord. Having accepted Him we are indwelt by the very life of God - by his Holy Spirit and are enabled to live lives that are victorious over sin and are pleasing to Him.