Vince Deagler

we are starting a study of 1 john this week in our sunday worship service.  it is interesting to see the similarity between the opening of john’s gospel, and the opening of this letter.  both are rather complex sentences that surely could have been simplified.  why they weren’t is a matter best taken up in heaven.  despite this complexity, it is clear in both places john points to jesus as “life”.  (1 john 1 the word of life, the life, the eternal life, the gospel of john, ch. 1 in him was life, that life was the light of men)  elsewhere john refers to jesus as the life jn. 14:6, and equates eternal life with knowing jesus jn. 17:3.  what do you suppose he is driving at?  what does this mean?

i’ve been doing a lot of thinking in this area, and a verse from 1 timothy came to mind.  1 tim. 6:18-19 mentions life that is truly life.  as i think of that my mind gravitates back to the garden of eden where so much of life experience is rooted.  there in the garden was a tree of life, and the warning man was given regarding eating the fruit from the forbidden tree was the day you eat it you will surely die.  now here is what i’m thinking.  adam and eve did not immediately die physically, did they?  but the process of death did start physically, didn’t it.  and then there is the issue of spiritual death.  when they ate that fruit, immediately on a spiritual level they did die.  their sin now stood as a barrier that seperated them from god.

so in a sense they had a life that really wasn’t life, and were dead but really weren’t dead.  am i confusing you?  it is this exact complexity jesus came to address, and john hopes to resolve by pointing to jesus.  in john 10:10 jesus says he came that we might experience life to its full.  now if in the garden life was lost, but man continued to live physically.  it is reasonable to assume the death mentioned was a spiritual death.  and it is equally reasonable to assume that when jesus is referred to as life and the giver of life, to people already physically alive, this life must be on a spiritual level as well.  when i add those thoughts up, especially where paul calls us to take hold of life that is truly life, i can come to no other conclusion than it is possible to have a life that truly is not life.  it seems to me that is an apt description of life outside the garden, life seperated from god, life that most people on planet earth experience.  but it is far from the life god wants us to experience.  so, he sends jesus who is life, so that we can experience life to its fullest in the here and now.  and then when our time in the here and now ends, we go to live with god forever in a perfect place, and for the very first time we experience exactly what god wanted for us all along.  in other words, for the first time i experience true life.  everything in the here and now is tainted by death.  but in eternity there is no more death.  only life…life to its full…life that was lost when we turned from god…life that was restored in jesus.

so, if you are tired of living a life that is not truly life, turn your life over to jesus.  he is life and will begin to change you in a way that is hard to even comprehend.  but it is summed up in the statement life to its full.  and from there it just gets better.  so reject almost life, and grab a hold of true life.  it is in jesus.  love to hear your thoughts on this.  blessings.  vince