The Baby in the Manger #7: the Life

Life (heb: ḥay, grk: zōē)

‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' (John 14:6)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. (John 1:1-4)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

Life: in our language it is a word rich with meaning. All that we see in Jesus is richer still.

First, there is the animation of inanimate matter into something living. In Genesis 2 we read how the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7).  As we reach the theology revealed to us in the New Testament, we realise that Jesus was present: Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind (John 1:2-4). Jesus is the agent in the Trinity through whom the world was created. It would be futile to even try to get our heads round the miracle of creation and life itself and how Jesus is the author of it; and yet it is even more mind-blowing to think that all that power lay there in the manger.

Second, there is endurance of life.  Life is not only the opposite of inanimate 'dust of the ground', but it is the opposite of death and decay.  In the centre of God's good garden described in Genesis 2 stood the 'tree of life' (Genesis 2:9).  And yet when humanity rebelled they were banished from the Tree of Life, no longer able to live forever. (Genesis 3:22).  Death enters, along with failing crops, systems that don't work, pain in childbearing, and all the disease and decay we see today.   And yet when Jesus comes he promises this: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). It's a wider promise too: in Revelation 21 we read of a new heaven and a new earth as He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ (Revelation 21:5).  This 'new' (grk: kainos) is fresh, unblemished, and the very opposite of old and decayed.  We may be surrounded by death now, but life is promised.

Finally, life is more than just breathing.  Probably the most universal goal of human beings is work out what it means to truly live - and do to so!  Is it to live with purpose and meaning?  Is it the sense of belonging?  Is it the freedom to pursue the life we really desire?  Is it the lasting legacy we create?  In saying that he is the 'the life', Jesus is promising the answer to and fulfilment of this quest, saying: I came that they may have life, and know it to the full (John 10:10).   And the 'eternal life' he promised in the paragraph above starts now: Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3).   THIS is life - that we know God.  That we trust in his love and care and plans for us; that we seek him out; that we have belonging and purpose in his Body the church; that we lose ourselves only to become part of something bigger.

There is life in Jesus because he is the one through whom all life comes.

There is life in Jesus because he has defeated death and promises that those who trust in him will not perish.

And finally, there is eternal life in Jesus that starts now.