Life in Himself ...

Friday, July 29, 2016. How much does life matter to you? To many of us it matters a lot. But there are also many do not value it much. Often this applies to the life of others. We touch a far reaching topic - as long as millions are starving today, as long as people die day by day on the Mediterranean Sea, as long as war and terror is ongoing. Let us also talk about eternal life …

Faith and Life …

Jesus connects faith and life. Only when you believe, you have true life. It is something special which happens to the believer in Christ Jesus. He has come to what he calls “eternal life”. He is reconciled with God. Let us hear this in the original sentences of the Gospel of John:

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. (John 5, 24ff)

God has “life in himself”. And Jesus, the son, has life in himself as well. This is proven in the resurrection. Death could not hold the son, death did not have any power over his life. He lives, and today he wants to be with us through his Holy Spirit. The entrance door is faith in the son, in Jesus.

Will Live …

Often, we discuss the Gospel with a mixture of believers and non-believers. When you are at the very beginning of faith, there are usually many things you do not understand. The bible is not clear to you. But you are attracted by it, you want to know more. There are those who can hear, and the others who can not yet hear. There are also those who cannot hear at all. But usually they are not coming to spend much time on discussion with believers any more.

People who start to follow Christ start to change. That is very good. When you live in intense community with “love itself”, you cannot but change your heart and your character - you are changed by the Lord, by his presence and community. A lot of great things happen in the mind and heart of a believer! Those who hear are part of an eternal community.

It is highly amazing to think about “life in himself”. God has life as a part of his characteristic. He lives, he cannot die. To us mortal humans, that is highly amazing, and a promise at the same time, since we take part in his life by faith in Christ. That is truly “Wow”, breathtaking! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts