ONE LIFE TO LIVE!!

Text: John 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:  I am come that they might have life (Zoe), and that they might have it more abundantly.

I know that “As the World Turns”, many are “Young and Restless”, and if they’re not leaving the “General Hospital, they’re standing on “The Edge of Night”, but truly there’s only “ONE LIFE TO LIVE”, and it is lived in and through Jesus the Christ!!

WHAT IS “LIFE”?

“Life” in Webster’s Dictionary is defined as that property of plants and animals (ending at death) which makes it possible for them to take in food, get energy from it, grow, etc.  It also means a human being; living things; the time a person or thing is alive or exists; the source of liveliness; vigor.

There is a “natural life” and a “spiritual life”!

●       Natural Life:  God’s creation or the universe and all that is therein

Psalm 24:1  The earth is the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein.

Genesis 1:27-28  (Natural birth) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.  

●       There is the “spiritual birth”: 

John 3:3  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.   Verse 5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

It’s actually through “the new birth” that we can attain and obtain the “abundant life” which is “eternal life” or “Zoe life”!  Zoe’ means “life in the absolute sense” (perfect and complete).

In John 10:10, “Life” is from the root word Zoe, meaning life; lifetime. It also comes from another root word za’o, meaning to live; be alive; quick.

●       This “Zoe” is “life” as God has it – “life” which the Father has in Himself.

John 5:26  For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.

●       This is the “Zoe life” which He gave to the Incarnate Son to have in Himself.  (John 5:26)  same as above.

●       This is the same “Zoe life” which the Son manifested to the world.

1 John 1:2  For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.

It is from THIS “LIFE” man has been alienated (estranged; made hostile; turned off) as a result of the Fall of mankind:

Ephesians 4:17-18  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity (conceit; complacency; emptiness) of their mind: (nous - intellect; thoughts; feelings; will; awareness)                                                                    Verse 18  Having the understanding (dian’oia meaning deep thought; disposition; exercising of the mind) darkened, being alienated from “the life” (Zoe) of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: (kardi’a meaning thoughts; feelings (mind); the middle or core of one’s being).

1 Corinthians 15:22  As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Alive or zoopoie’o, meaning to (re) vitalize; give life; quicken; restored to “eternal life”!

BEING ALIVE

The “abundant life” through Jesus the Christ is not just mere existence by having life, but the abundant “life” is “BEING LIFE”!

John 14:6: I am the way, the truth, and “the life”.  (“The” makes what’s said “definitive” or conclusive; final; fixed; certain.)

This tells us that Jesus didn’t just “have life” but He was “life”!                                                            

If you just “have life”, someone can take it from you, but if you “are life”, they can’t take it from you. 

1 John 4:17  As he is, so are we in this world!

John 10:11, 15, 17, 18  I am the good shepherd:  the good shepherd giveth his life (psuche’) for the sheep.             

Verse 15  As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father”:  and I lay down my life for the sheep. 

Verse 17  Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

Verse 18  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.  This commandment have I received of my Father.

This “life” that Jesus laid down was not “Zoe” (eternal) life)!  The “life” He laid down was the “psuche’” – meaning breath, i.e. spirit (irrational and mortal soul): that which animates the body and shows itself in breathing of animals or of men: a living being; a living soul.                                          

In (Hebrew) “life” is [ne’phesh] a breathing creature, i.e. animal of vitality; (figuratively) bodily or mentally: soul; life; person; mind; heart; creature; body; will; desire; appetite; mortally).

The “soul” was the “man” part of Jesus that He laid down.  Not even the “flesh” aspect of Jesus saw corruption; neither was His “soul” left in hell! 

Acts 2:27 - David speaking concerning Jesus - Because thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 

JESUS DIED MORE THAN JUST A “PHYSICAL DEATH”:

●       MENTALLY:  He died “mentally” all His life because He knew the time would come that He would have to suffer the death of a sinner on the Cross.

Isaiah 53:12  He hath poured out his soul unto death:  and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Hebrews 10:22  ...without shedding of blood is no remission.

●       EMOTIONALLY   He died emotionally in the garden.

Mark.14:34-36  My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death.  

Verse 35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

Verse 36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me:  nevertheless not as I will, but what thou wilt.

●       SPIRITUALLY  He died spiritually on the Cross dying as a man – being separated from God.

Matthew 27:46  My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 

This was the only time Jesus “feared” – and that fear was being separated from His Father:

Hebrews 5:7-8  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.

●       PHYSICALLY  He died physically on the Cross to deliver us from “physical” death. 

John 19:30  When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished:  and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.                                                   

This “ghost” that Jesus gave up was not the “Holy Ghost which was the “pneuma” (the

Spirit or breath or rational soul).  He gave up the “ghost”, which was the “ekpne’o”

(irrational soul).

Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

-          The “spirit” is the God that you are: 

-          the “soul” is the man or woman that you are: 

-          the “body” is the dwelling place of the soul and the Spirit God made flesh!      

                                                                                                 

St. John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.    

Verse 14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. 

1 John 4:17  As he is, so are we in this world.

Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any

two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul (psuche’) and spirit

(pneuma). 

It was the “soul” (the ekpne’o) or (psuche’), “the man” He laid down, and He took it back again when He was resurrected!                                                                                                                                                                    

Luke 24:37-44  When Jesus appeared to the ten.  37  But they were terrified and

 affrighted and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 

            Verse 38-39  And he said unto them, Why are you troubled? and why do thoughts arise in 

             your hearts?  Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself:  handle me, and see; for a 

            spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have.  And He also ate before them (Verses

            40-44).

THE SPIRIT, THE ETERNAL PART OF JESUS, NEVER DIED!

        Luke 23:46  And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit (the pneuma):  and having said thus, he gave up the ghost (the ekpne’o).                                                                                                                                 

The word “ghost” is from the root word (ekpne’o) meaning to expire: give up the ghost:  (to breathe out).  (Jesus released Himself into the “judgment fire” of God” to deliver us from sin, death, hell, and the grave)!!!   

       Luke 12:50  But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished? 

Straitened means “hold together’ secure, afflict, confine, arrest.  He’s saying here: How can I afflict, arrest, confine and destroy the works of the devil, so that I can secure you unto myself and hold the creation together and bring it back unto my Father unless I go through the death of the Cross, passing through the “judgment fire” of God?  And He did to the glory of the Father!!!

2 Corinthians 5:19: To wit (know), that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

Acts 2:27  Thou will not leave my soul (psuche’ or ekpne’o meaning the sentient part; sense aspect that’s capable of feeling; conscious) in hell (hades - hah’dace meaning unseen, ie “Hades” or the place - state - of departed souls; grave).  

Luke 23:46  Into thy hands I commend my “spirit”: [wind; breath; the rational soul; the HOLY GHOST or the (pneu’ma) “spirit” which was the eternal part of Jesus, that never died].

1 Corinthians 15:53-55  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (Not up beyond the blue but right now)  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?

Death reigned from Adam to Moses because they were functioning out of the “soul realm”:  then the Law came and it ministered death!  Jesus came and brought “life” – “Zoe” (eternal life) which is what the Adam people (male and female) had before they fell from “divinity” back into “humanity”!

THE LIGHT!

❖     St. John 1:1-3  Read verses 1-3.  Verse 4  In him was life (Zoe); and the life (Zoe) was the light (phos or luminousness) of men. 

Illumination is clarity of purpose or light, as reaching the mind; leading man out of his “humanity” and bringing man back to his “divinity”!!                                                                               

        Genesis 1:3: Let there be light, meaning owr-ore; illumination - give light to; make clear; explain; to inform.  God was saying, “let there be a revelation of Jesus Christ”:  “let there be knowledge”: let there be luminary(s) which were notable people who could and did enlighten mankind.                                                                   

 Knowledge is life!  We must know something to live! 

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge.

Acts 5:5 & 10  Ananias and Saphira gave up the ghost (ekpsu’cho) meaning  to expire; give up the ghost:  “to breathe out the soul or life”.  They didn’t give up “pneuma”.  God Himself is Spirit (pneuma), and you can’t kill God; neither can He die because He is “Eternal”! 

As we take on all that He is, neither do we have to die!  Jesus was God, and He conquered death for us so that we don’t have to die!

John 5:24: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

God has proven that “life” is stronger than death by putting on flesh and conquering it through Jesus the Christ in the flesh!  Even before that, God proved that “life” was stronger than “death” because Enoch didn’t see death and neither did Elijah.

       Romans 8:2-4  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:  that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.     

SO WHOSE REPORT ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE!!!

THERE IS ONLY “ONE LIFE TO LIVE”, AND IT’S LIVED IN AND THROUGH JESUS THE CHRIST!!!

~ Pastor Gracie Perry