In Him was LIFE

In him was Life, and this Life was the light of men.

Jesus is the way, the truth, the Life.

In Him was Life.

He came into this world. Men and women were confronted with Life. A life that those close to him touched and handled. His detractors came face to face with One in whom the Life of God dwelt. Were they perplexed, confused, troubled? When he walked by the road, and healed the blind man, people saw the Life in action. When they heard him preach, they heard the Life pouring out of him (my words are spirit and Life). When he raised Lazarus, they saw the (I am the Resurrection and the) Life at perhaps its most triumphant moment, triumphing over the stench-death of a fallen son of Adam.

Kenneth Hagin had a teaching on Zoe, the God-kind of Life. He used the Greek word Zoe to express the idea that in Christ there was a special kind of life not found in ordinary, unregenerate human beings. He was right in this.

How could it be otherwise? How could the Author of life not have Life in himself? life from Life.

This Life became incarnate. It did so for a number of reasons. One, to offer, as a man, a righteous life to God. Two, to suffer, as a man, for the sins of man, and to offer this suffering to God as a substitutionary punishment for man's sins.

But there's another reason He became a man.

The Life became a man so to become mortal, to make it possible for the impossible to occur - for the Life to die.

Think of the impossibility of the Cross. That the Life that existed from before the creation of the world, that existed with God and as God from eternity, should become non-life. Should become a self-contradiction. How can the Life become dead?

And so Christ the Life became a man so that he could die.

But the Life of God in Jesus Christ is, ultimately, indestructible. Death tried, but couldn't hold him. He was like one of those fishing bobbers. You can hold it under water, but as soon as you release it, what happens? It bobs up to the surface. It is contrary to the nature of Life to be held by death -- unless death is somehow stronger and more permanent than Life.

Death really tried to hold Jesus Christ, but it couldn't. It's grip began to weaken. It's grasp began to slip. And then...

thump.
thump.
thump.

The heart began to beat again! The mind began to work again! The spirit was infused with life again. He was alive!

He cast off the grave clothes, neatly folded the face cloth and put it to one side, and emerged unheralded and unknown (but not for long!) from the tomb. The greatest moment in the history of humanity, and no man or woman was there to witness it or record it (maybe the angels greeted him)! Oh, I wish they had had webcams focussed on the tomb! (But don't you think, when we get to heaven, Jesus will take us through the entire Bible, event by event, and explain it all to us.)

Having tasted death once, for all, He is alive for ever more. He cannot die. Why? Because He is the Life from whom all life derives its existence and before whom all life shall one day bow.

Now, for the "application".

You've been to the cross and accepted Christ's death on your behalf for your sins. You've been penitent, truly sorry for your sins and your sinful state.

Now, receive the life of Christ. It is available to you, as a gift, because of Easter.

He was put to death for our sins, but raised for our justification.

If we have been reconciled to God by his death, how much more shall we be saved By His Life.

Receive the Life that is in Jesus Christ.

It is offered to us.

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

He offers Himself to us.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Until your hearts beat as one.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.