From the Way to the Truth to the Life

[HKHaugan]

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse (Rom.1:20).”

When Jesus declared He was the life it immediately indicated there was something new on the scene. This wasn’t biological life that everyone knew ended up in death and oblivion. When He said that those who seek to save their life would lose it and those who lose their life for His sake would find it, there was no question that what He offered was different. That the life He offered was eternal, had no end and was with God, brought something entirely new for the human mind and heart to comprehend.

Throughout history religions of all kinds promised to meet the deep longing for something more than this world’s experience. The idea and felt need for an afterlife are built into our being. We are images of God and as such long for Him and the life He is. But to see this life in the flesh, to see the flesh killed and then rise from death into a full life that had no physical limitations was a shock to the conditioned atmosphere that the world had known.

Not only was the life of Jesus eternal, it was spiritual and it was personal. When we see what Scripture says, it is immediately identifiable. Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 in a synagogue, “17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. (Lk.4:18-21).” Jesus was bringing the long promised gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the life Jesus promised, whose ministry and mission Jesus directs. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you (Jn.14:16-17).”

Then, after His Resurrection, He pinpointed when spiritual life would begin. He gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5).”

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:7-8).”

So what is this that happens? Before Jesus all we had was our sin nature, which meant there was no future after death. When Jesus was crucified He cancelled the power of sin and death by His Resurrection thus making Himself available to all people through faith. When we received Him by faith He filled us with His eternal life giving Holy Spirit as He had promised. This is how we were born again spiritually. We were given this new spiritual nature and brought into His Kingdom to live forever.

While the sin nature is still with us we now have the new spiritual nature alternative to choose to follow Him or our self-centered nature. This is the nature of the freedom we have been given. We now understand freedom. Freedom is not doing anything we please. Rather it is choosing to obey God as opposed to our sinful nature. Every next moment we can choose to follow Jesus or our sinful nature whose end is the devil and the eternal loneliness of hell. Freedom has to do with our spiritual nature. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal.5:1).” This deeper freedom leads our mind, our heart and our spirit to the service of God and others. Spiritual freedom is what builds our character, shapes how we think and matures us in our spirit. All of this is the new life, the eternal spiritual life, the life of God in Christ, that began when we accepted Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. This new life is the gift we have been given and continue in through the Holy Spirit forever. The life we were born with in this world ends. It is a copy and a shadow of that for which we were created, life eternal in God. Born again, born again, thank God above we’re born again.