Live!

“ Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. ”

Why did Jesus come to live with us? Why did He then die? And why did He rise to live again? If we can grasp what these questions truly mean, we may begin to see Who He is, and who we are as well.

There was nothing, nothing at all . God in the midst of an eternal night, complete within Himself, the only source of light, all love, all potential, all goodness: with no other thing. Then God made all that is. A very great majority of that is just energy, light—streaming out from that first commandment: “Let there be light!” Some of the light has coalesced into matter, and has built itself into atoms, molecules, greater complication until suns and stars and planets cooling, and on one tiny speck: God planted something else. Life . Plants, fish, birds, animals. His crowning achievement, so rare, so unique, is man. He formed man from the dust, just scooped him from the elements that made this orb. From this dust He created man a body, with all its incredible life-giving systems: bones to lift this creature to its feet; muscle strands to move it; a great head containing a strange organ of intelligence; vessels to carry fluids throughout; a digestive tract to process the living substance of this earth; quarts of rusty salt water; lungs to bring in air; and a heart to pump the oxygen-rich air to every cell. And man lay in the Lord's Hand—a great an intricate doll, a wonderful machine—until God breathed into it the breath of life and imparted His greatest gift of all: Life. God said “Live!”

Live . After that wildly imaginative act in creating the thing called man, He made it live . And the dust of this world rose up and lived. Please appreciate this wonderful gift. For Adam to live, a power of our great God was imparted to us. Spend a little time around death, seeing or handling dead bodies—a few of us have done that—but when you do, you see the difference between life and a mere body returning to its native clay. To Live! What a gift! What power! What an evidence for the Almighty God Who lives before we ever appear.

So, mankind was the crown of creation, and made of its elements He broke fellowship with the Source of life, and would need therefore to die. We wrecked this perfection by taking control away from the Perfect One. He anticipated our failure, and planned to bestow perhaps the one greater gift to us, greater even than life: that was love.

For love's sake God came among us, actually one of us. Think how our great God became at first a one-celled creature, like the simplest life. Elemental, without complexity, in the womb of a young woman. Slowly He took shape; finally He emerged and breathed the air, let out a cry and lived among men.

We speak a lot about why He died—the sacrifice, an atonement, one acceptable payment for our sin. Truth: but He was redeeming more than just man. His entire creation fell through our failure. He wanted the whole creation back. Jesus died. That one amazing life ended as He let out His last breath, and that wonderful, living son of man began immediately turning back into the elements of this earth. They lay His lifeless body down, pierced countless times, torn, broken, impaled— unresponsive, now growing cooler, heavy in death. His friends placed it in a rock-hewn tomb and rolled a great stone door in place.

Our God came down to be a living man, but more than that, He took simple life and even death and dead matter to Himself: everything He'd made He also became. And when He had become even dead matter—the very dust of this world—from the lowest parts of all creation, even where departed spirits roamed in dimness, unable to rise—then with all that might be redeemed, He began His ascent. From hell to earth, from earth to life, from dark tomb to the growing light of morning, from captive to captain, from prisoner to master: and Jesus Christ burst forth from that tomb, Alive ! The Lord is Risen! Christ is Risen!

What He did was save everything . The contamination of the very soil, of water, of air, the light itself—all things. “Behold, I make all things new!” Rev. 21:5 Our first father had fallen and taken everything with him. But “as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” 1 Cor. 15:22

We speak of life and death as though we know what either one is. Life is a miracle, and when God has given you life, it is by command. “Live!” His life is in you, and He wants you alive. Not just for 70, 80 or 90 years on earth, but forever. That was His creative plan, and He stuck to it. Christ was given to us in order to set that back in motion. When God commands your dead body to Live!, He imparts to you the power to do just that. Just as when God commands your dead spirit to Live!, He imparts His Holy Spirit to live within you, giving you spiritual strength to live in Him. His breath is life. He gives you command, and an impartation to Live. So Live .

Ezekiel was given a vision of a great battlefield, filled with the bones of the dead. The bones were dry. It had been long since these people had lived. God asked him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel 37:3 God told the prophet to speak over the bones, that they come together again. Slowly the great field of bones began to rise, bones coming together, rising into man shapes, with sinews and muscles and finally skin, hair: the clay doll Adam once had been. God told Ezekiel, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.”' So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life, and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.” v. 9-10

God gives life. It is His nature. Sin, Satan, evil: these seek death, reject the life that is given, want the darkness to enfold this universe again, hate the light. But the command has been given. Live . And God gives you, each of you, the power to rise up from your own former dead selves and live, today, every day, to the end of earthly life, and through that door to eternity. He wants nothing less than you alive with Him forever. Dust has risen up to human shape, been given the breath of God, and the power to live. Live . That's why Jesus came, why He died, and why He rose again. So you might live.

Have we the audacity to refuse it? God told Ezekiel, as the prophet stood looking at that great army of resurrected people, risen from the dry bones of the dead, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord …And I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life…”'” Ez. 37:11-14

We become discouraged and life kicks us around. The world is still far from perfect. We may give up. Some have. Job, Elijah, Jonah—biblical prophets who all said they'd be better off dead. God didn't allow it. He gives life. He took life to Himself and drove Himself to the depths of death and dead matter and dead souls and, grabbing it in both hands, rose up with all that is to life again. He will not let you stay dead. “An hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live.” John 5:25 Says the Son of God, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” v 11:25-26 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will see Me no more; but you will see Me; because I live, you shall live also.” v 14:18-19 “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” v 3:15-16 “He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” v 5:24 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” v 6:63 “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life.” v 5:28-29

The power of life is such a gift that God will just not let you be dead, remain dead, live in death anymore. You have received the breath of God within that incredible intricate body with its thousands of systems giving, creating, sustaining your life. That's earthly life. It will end—we know it. But what comes next, no—what comes now in addition to earthly life is eternal life. God has no interest in our wrapping non-existence back up over our heads, seeking annihilation like Nirvana. God does not allow anyone to cease to be: we shall be raised .

Life will not allow death to triumph. Life itself gives convincing testimony that God exists, that God is good, that God imparts His gifts widely, that God has a sense of humor, and that God would never let this wonderful creation fail its promise of life. God commands you, Live . So, Live now and rise to newness of life in the Only One who ever defeated death by the power in Himself: Jesus Christ. Christ is Risen!

And we are risen. St. Paul writes: “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” Romans 6:8 St. John writes: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” 1 John 3:14 “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” 1 John 5:12

Life is offered to you, this day. God extends it to you. You are alive in the Body, be alive in the Spirit as well. Jesus rose out of that tomb so alive that nothing will ever harm Him, diminish that life. He offers that life to you, even His Body and Blood, to live within you now, so no shadow of this existence may darken your spirit or rob this life from you. God has said it in the Incarnation, on the mountain top, in the breaking of bread, turning water to wine, at the tomb of Lazarus, lifted up on the cross, and bursting forth from the spice laden tomb: He says it today. Live! Christ Risen! Live! Jesus is Risen! Live! The Lord is Risen! Indeed He is Risen and the Risen Lord says, Live.

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