Atom“But Have Eternal LIFE”
By His great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who ae being protected by the power of God through faith… 1 Peter 1:3-5
We reach the high point of our Lenten journey this week as we mark the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus’ walk on the earth as God and human has led him to the cross and the tomb and God’s ultimate plan. It is the highpoint of our understanding of Jesus and our hope for help in our own life’s journey. Likewise, our walk through John 3:16 has brought us to the highpoint of God’s plan for us and for all creation. Today we come to the last, ultimate word of promise – that of “life.” And not just life, as in living, breathing existence, but “life” – as in fully-engaged-in-tune-with-my-Creator-know-who-I-am-and-where-I-am-going-life.” There is a difference. And the Bible tells us the difference even in the word used in this marvelous promise.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life!”
The word in Greek here – the language of the writers from which our Bibles are translated – is the word zoe. The other word used for life in the Bible is bios. Bios is life generic. It is the life we share with all things that metabolize, from protozoa to moss to insect to tree to mammal. It is what we have in common with the grass of the field and birds of the air…we live, we breath, we have life. Zoe, on the other hand is “life as God has it.” It is vitality, and energy, and fulfillment; it is life with soul; it is conscious connection with our Creator. It is purpose and hope. It is what makes human life unique when compared with any other life on this planet.
It is the life God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden:
“The Lord God formed the human of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (God’s life – zoe life); and the human became a living (zoe) being.” Genesis 2:7
Remember, the creation of the human came after the rest of the work of creation was done. The plants and animals were in their places. The birds were in the air and the fish in the sea. And now God created that being in the very image of God, with the very life-breath of God in it…you and me. An accident of creation? A happy coincidence of molecules coming together in just the right combination? Not me. And not you. We are God’s own special creation, with a “soul” – a spirit connection to our Creator. And so we do things that God does and that we only see in glimpses in other animals. We think; we question; we reflect; we feel emotional pain and joy; we create. We have zoe – the breath of life, the very breath of God within – like Adam and like Eve.
And like Adam and Eve we have the ability – the freedom – to separate our spirit connection from the one who gave it to us. We have the ability to cut the cord; to disconnect ourselves from our lifeline in such a way that we die. That is what the story of Adam and Eve in the garden is about. God gives them life, places them in this marvelous relationship of friendship with God and God’s creation, with only one restriction, “You cannot be me. You cannot take life into your own hands. So, as sign of that recognition, you must refrain only from eating of only this one tree. On the day that you eat of it you will die.”
Did God want us to die? I don’t believe so. God wanted us to choose life – and to trust our Creator to know what is best for our living.
But Adam and Even do not refrain. They come to the conclusion that they know better than their Creator and they take life into their own hands and they cut the cord. And they die. Not physically. Not at first. We know that they lived on, continued to eat and breathe, to bear children, to care for and populate the earth. But they also died. Their trust in God died. Their friendship with God died. Separation from full, intimate relationship with God died. And we humans have never been the same since.
We live, we breathe, we bear children and care for the corner of the earth we live in, but we have always this vague sense of longing…we feel like there must be something else; there is an ache in our being that tells us we need something more. Max Lucado in his book “3:16” says:
We feel the frustration I felt on Christmas morning, 1964. I assembled a nine-year-old’s dream gift: a genuine Santa Fe Railroad miniature train set, complete with battery-powered engine and flashing crossing lights. I placed the locomotive on the tracks and watched in sheer glee as three pounds of pure steel wound its way across my bedroom floor. Around and around and around and…around…and around…After some time I picked it up and turned it the other direction. It went around and around and around…
Mom, what else did you get me for Christmas? (page 119)
We sense life as being pretty much the same, going round and round, covering the same ground over and over again…work and school and family and community and work and school and family and community…around and around and around. Is there anything else? And we go looking for Eden, for a reconnection with zoe – with life as Go has it and as God intended it. But too often on our own path and with our own resources, and miss the invitation of Jesus to restore us to zoe.
Max Lucado again points us toward the promise of not only deliverance from death, but deliverance to life!
Show chapter 12 from 3:16 DVD here – “The Last Word on Life” (Shouldn’t you trust your future and way through the grave to one who knows - who has been there…and not just as a visitor…but a dead body himself?)
(Slide) “God…has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…He destroyed death, and through the Good News he showed us the way to have life that cannot be destroyed. (1 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:10)
There are not a lot of sermons I remember from my childhood; I know they were there nourishing and renewing my spirit like the good meals my Mom cooked that nourished and renewed my body, even though I remember few of the particulars about those meals. But I do remember one particular sermon when my pastor talked about he difference between “everlasting” life and “eternal” life. Everlasting life is about “length” of life – life extended even after death. “Eternal” life is not about length, but about “quality.” It is about life lived in the presence of God. It is the forgiven, renewed, re-purposed life of the follower of Jesus. It lasts forever, but it begins now. Eternity begins now when we connect with the God who walked among us, who died our death and who offered us his life.
That is why this week is the most important of all weeks in the life of a Christian – Holy week, when we remember that which made Jesus like us and yet uniquely God. He lived our life. He died our death. He was buried in our grave. But that grave could not hold him. And it need not hold us. That hope and that life begins even now as we trust his promise, as we place our hands – our hearts – in the hand and heart of the one who has come for us and who loves us as no other.
One last word from Max as we complete our examination of this “jewel of the scriptures” this message of God to disconnected hearts – John 3:16…one more time…
Play Max on “3:16 DVD”… Conclusion: “the 3:16ed Life” (A free offer still has to be claimed - to be “acted upon.” Please make sure that you do!!)
Let’s pray…
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