DARREL CARSON | Off the grid and loving Jesus
If there is one thing I remember about my life as a newborn Christian, it is the fact that everything was new. The days were brighter and life was good. Reading the Bible was a totally new experience; the clarity with which the Spirit of God taught me was astounding. One by one, the lies and strongholds of a false religion were and still are being torn down and being replaced with the reality of who Jesus our Savior is and how that reality is played out in the life of his children, his body—which is His church.
Yes, there were and still are those difficult times when the new life causes division and stress in relationships because the new life by its very nature forces separation from the old. This transition into the life where all things are made new can be difficult, and learning to trust the Savior through it all is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that by His grace, the new life in Jesus continues to grow, mature, and get better from day to day.
Right now, however, I want to focus on this new life, particularly as taught by Jesus in the Gospel of John. This is by no means a complete study on the topic; we will be looking at just a few of the highlights. There is much more that, for the brevity of this article, must be left out.
Jesus uses two Greek words that are translated as “life” in English, zoe used 32 times, and psuche used 9 times. Psuche has to do with the life force that manifests in the act of breathing, the breath of life as possessed by people and animals. This is the word that Jesus uses in John 10:17,18:
For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life (psuche) so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”—John 10:17-18 NASB1995
Psuche is the physical life that Jesus says He has the power to lay down and take up again. In verse 15 Jesus says that as the Good Shepherd, He lays His life (psuche) down for the sheep; He doesn’t flee like the hireling.
It is this reality, the fact that Jesus, God incarnate, shed his innocent human blood and laid down His physical life on the cross and rose again on the third day, that makes life, zoe, possible for us. The dictionary in my OnLine Bible app defines zoe like this.
The absolute fulness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God . . . life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ . . . and to last for ever.
This life, or zoe, that is given to those who believe in God’s only begotten Son in John 3:16 is life eternal, and praise God, it starts in the here and now as “the absolute fullness of life”. Zoe is what makes our new life in Christ so full and so complete; it’s a life that will never end!
Please note what Jesus says in John 5.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life (zoe), and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”—John 5:24-29 NASB1995
“The absolute fulness of life”, zoe, is ours when we hear our Savior’s word and believe Him who sent Jesus. This is an abundant life without fear of judgment because Jesus has taken our judgment upon Himself and we have passed out of death into life. Look for a moment at the tense of the verb, “has passed.” The first word “has” denotes where the believer stands in the present because of an event that has already occurred; we passed out of death into life. That is the reality of where we now stand.
Also note what else Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
Who are the dead that Jesus is referring to here? Are they not those of us who by nature are born dead in sin? The Apostle Paul says it this way in Ephesians:
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”—Ephesians 2:1-3 NKJV
Every one of us come into this world by nature dead in sin and destined for hell. We are dead, but when we hear and believe the voice of our Savior, we live. Jesus is not talking about the resurrection when He says we were dead but are made alive. Rather, He is talking about people who, having psuche life but no zoe life, are dead—but when these dead people hear the voice of the Son of God, they will live the new life, the abundant, born again life. This is the life that will never end.
Jesus says ,
“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”—John 5:28-29 NKJV
Here we see that the resurrection is entirely different from the new birth. Here Jesus says that all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth. What a crowd that will be; some will be raised to life and some to condemnation. This event happens at a point of time in the future, but the people dead in sin that hear His voice and live is an individual event that started happening when Jesus was on earth and will continue, one person at a time, until the final day when Jesus makes all things new.
Jesus said to Martha before He raised her brother Lazarus,
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”—John 11:25-26
Jesus is the resurrection, He is life, He is zoe. In John 5:26 Jesus says,
“For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.”
And that life, that zoe, He gives to believers to be lived; zao is the Greek verb. Believers live the life—or zao the zoe. This is eternal life in the here and now. If we believe, we will live even if we die, and if we live and believe Jesus we will never die.†
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