Title: Jesus is the Life
Scripture: John 1:4
“In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”
(New American Standard Bible)
Jesus is the life!
The book of John starts with declaring that the LORD is the Word and Jesus is the Life. Jesus Himself repeatedly said that He is the Life.
“Jesus *said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’ ” (John 14:6, NASB)
Jesus is the only way to the true life. The book of John starts with declaring that Jesus is the Word and then continues on declaring that Jesus is the Life. Jesus himself repeatedly said that He is the Life.
He said:
“I’m the way, the truth, and the life; no one can go to God the Father without Me.”
"I am the resurrection and the life. Ones who believe in me will live even if they die.”
“If you believe while you’re alive, you’ll not die.”
“The ones who eat my flesh and drink my blood will have the Life and brought back to the Life on the Last Day.
Jesus is the source of a life and He gives a life. All living things are created through Jesus. All kinds of animals, plants, and humans including Amoeba, insects, and mammals came to exist through Jesus. Jesus does not just give the life to our flesh but the life of our soul as well. The life the Bible talks about is usually referring to the eternal life of Jesus. Jesus came to this world in a flesh to give us the eternal life to us. Our flesh is born through our parents. Likewise, we receive the life to our soul through Jesus.
The ultimate goal for our lives is eternal life. God placed the yarning for eternal life in us. All kinds of religions like Muslim, Hinduism, and Buddhism are all created in yearning for eternal life. However, none of these gods can give eternal life. Only Jesus can give eternal life. Jesus died and rose again to become the first fruit of resurrection.
1. Jesus gives the life
“In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” (John 1:4, NASB)
When it said that there was life in Jesus, it means He is the source of all forms of lives. All lives came to exist through Jesus. Jesus came to this world in flesh to give His life to us.
“… I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)
We are all His lambs, and He is our Shepherd. How did Jesus give us His life to us? After coming to this world in flesh, He died to redeem us from our sins. By His resurrection, He gave us the eternal life. As we became all sinners in Adam, we all became righteous in Jesus. As we all died in Adam, we receive the eternal life in Jesus. As we all died with Adam in his sin and his death, God gave us a new life to us through Jesus.
“So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” (Romans 5:18)
By one person’s sin, all people were destined to be condemned as sinners. The condemnations of all people were removed by Jesus Christ. The grace is bigger than all sins combined. Adam as one person became a sinner and spread the sin to all humanity and died. Jesus redeemed for all sins of all people. He gave us a new life and made us righteous. The grace given through Jesus is bigger than the sin of Adam and all sins of all people combined. This is the principle of the salvation. It’s the truth.
It’s true that we became sinners in Adam. It’s true that we all died in Adam. It’s a truth that all sins are redeemed through Jesus. It’s a truth that we are given a new life through Jesus. That is the starting point of the gospel. Believing this truth is the starting point of our faith. Knowing the gospel and believing Jesus is a gift and a blessing to us.
We are not able to believe the gospel with our own strength. We cannot understand Jesus with our own logic. Because God opened our heart to believe the gospel, we are able to understand the gospel. Jesus completed all requirement of salvation already. It’s a historical fact. However, if we only know the gospel and not believe it, it is only a historical fact that we know. It does not do us any good.
2. We have to believe Jesus to receive the life of Jesus
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12)
*When we believe Jesus, we are given the right to be the children of God.
If an orphan is adopted by wealthy parents, the orphan receives all rights of being the son of the wealthy parents. He is able to live with all kinds of luxuries and enjoy being a son of wealthy parents. Through Jesus Christ, we are adapted to God. So Jesus is the First Child of God and we are all the second child of God. Jesus said that He is not ashamed to call us as His brothers. The Jesus is not ashamed to call you and me as His brothers and sisters! Why? Because Jesus redeemed us with His blood and gave us a new life by His resurrection. Jesus opened our hearts to believe the gospel so we are adapted to God as His children. Jesus did all these. He is not ashamed of us but rejoice and loves us so much. How grateful are we?
The word, “Faith,” has been repeated 300 times in the New Testament. The word, “Faith,” was used in the association with the salvation of the Bible. The requirements of the salvation have been completed by Jesus. We receive the salvation as a gift only by our faith. The salvation is never incomplete. The salvation is not a destination where we have to complete the journey to get there. The salvation is perfectly completed by Jesus already. We receive the salvation only by our faith. When we believe Jesus, it means we receive Jesus. We receive God as our Father. We receive Jesus as our savior. We get to receive the salvation that the LORD already perfectly completed as our own. We just receive it. Then God becomes our Father and Jesus becomes our savior. The salvation completed by the LORD becomes our own.
Today, you only have to receive it.
Open your heart!
Receive Jesus as your Christ!
Please repeat after me.
“Jesus, I receive the LORD as my savior!”
If you can confess this with all your heart and soul, you receive Jesus as your savior. Then Jesus becomes our savior.
* When we believe Jesus, Jesus becomes our savior and we become the children of God.
“Who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13)
Today, when we receive Jesus as our savior, the Holy Spirit comes to us and make us born again.
“Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’ ” (John 3:5)
Today, when we believe Jesus as our savior, the Holy Spirit comes to us and make us born again.
How is that possible?
It’s a mysterious thing!
Even the forming of a fetus in the mother’s womb is mysterious to our logic.
“Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.” (Ecclesiastes 11:5)
How can we possibly understand how God revives our dead souls and make us live eternal life?
However, when we believe Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to us and the life of Jesus lives in us. Because we have the life of Jesus living in us, we can live the eternal life with the LORD. The eternal life we’ll be living is better than the life Adam had lived in the garden of Eden before he had sinned. After he had sinned, the first man Adam died. However, when Jesus came as the last Adam and gave us a new life, we have the life of Jesus living in us. Because of the life of Jesus living in us, we can live eternal life. This eternal life cannot be earned by any effort or any payment. We can only receive it by faith. There are no other requirements other than faith. How grateful is that?
“But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31)
By believing Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, we receive the life.
The word, “Life,” is repeated 120 times in the New Testament but the word, “Faith,” is repeated even more times in the New Testament. Only in the book of John, the word, “Faith,” is repeated 98 times in the form of a verb. In order to receive the life of Jesus, the absolute requirement is faith. When we believe Jesus, we receive the life of Jesus.
3. Live with a faith that you received the life of Jesus!
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.” (1 John 5:1)
*The prove that we received the life of Jesus is our faith
It has been said that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?
Then believe that we are born of the LORD!
These two events occur together simultaneously.
Believing Jesus as the Christ is the proof that we are born again.
If you believe Jesus is the Christ, you are born again. If you are born again, you believe that Jesus is the Christ without a doubt. We are born of the LORD. Even when we don’t feel anything, we must believe according to the Word of God. First, we have to know the fact and then believe. It’s followed by feeling. Because there is a fact, we believe the fact. When we believe the fact, the feeling comes after that. Our feeling and emotion change constantly. Therefore, we shouldn’t rely our faith on our feeling and emotion. We rely on the truth, the Bible. The strongest proof that we are born again is whether we believe Jesus as our savior or not.
Another prove that we are born again is whether or not we love the LORD.
“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” (1 John 3:14)
We love the One whom we are born from. How does a child loves his parents? The child initially loves his parents because he is born from them. How do we love the LORD? If we are born of the LORD, we intuitively love the LORD. Because we love the LORD, our thoughts are always directed to Him. We trust Him and always rely on Him. A deep love toward the LORD naturally and intuitively flows out of our hearts. It’s the second prove that we are born again.
No child calls a stranger to be his dad. When you call God, “Father,” how does that make you feel? Do you say to yourself, “He is not my real Father,”? You don’t think that. Right? When we call God, “God the Father,” we can feel that He really is our Father God. Why is that? It’s because we are born of God. God is my Father! It’s very comforting for us to call God, “My Father.” It strengths our heart and soul. Calling God, “My Father,” fills us with joy. The scone proves that we are born again is our love of God.
The third prove that you are born again is loving your brothers and sisters.
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.” (1 John 5:1)
Who are, “The child born of Him,”? The other believers who are our brothers and sisters. If we are from God, we love our brothers and sisters who are born of God. We love our siblings because we have the same parents. When we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s the proof that we are born of God. “I love you.” It’s the proof that we are born again.
There is a very important component to love I want to emphasize. Even though we love our parents, we have to put extra effort to love our parents even more. This helps us to love our parents more. Even though we love our parents, if we don’t see each other and we don’t call each other for a long period of time, the love cools down. We have to try to always keep in contact with our parents and always try to put extra effort to express our love toward them. It’s the same with the LORD. Our way to express love toward the LORD is by praying, worshipping, reading the Word, obeying, and serving. More we do this, our love toward the LORD becomes stronger.
It’s the same with our brothers and sisters. We tend to fight with our siblings the most. We are born from the same parents but we fight the most. We can’t fight other people like that. Despite the multiple fights, the love of each other is greater than any arguments or disputes they may have had. They forget and forgive.
Although we are Christians and we love each other, we do have occasional disagreements among ourselves at times. It seems that closer we are more fictions we have. At times, we end up hurting each others’ feeling. However, we who are in Christ have to overcome the hurt feelings with love of Christ in us.
Forgive!
Try to understand each other!
Accept each other!
As we do this, we grow to love each other more. Intuitively we love the LORD and each other but we have to put extra effort to love more. I hope that you always keep this in your mind.
The ones who received the life of Jesus has the flowing of the life of Christ in them. We have two types of life flowing in us. One is the life of our flesh and the other one is the life of our soul.
Because of the life of our soul that we can serve the LORD.
Because of the life of our soul, we can even die for the LORD.
Because of the life of our soul, we can obey the LORD.
Because of the life of our soul, we can serve the LORD.
The life of Christ flowing in our soul spills over to our bodies and our minds as well.
“Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:10)
When we carry the cross of the Christ and live our lives carrying the cross, the life of the resurrection of the Christ shows in us. Where? in our bodies, in our works of sacrifices, and in our works of carrying the cross.
Today, the life of Christ is flowing in our bodies!
During ordinary days, we may not be aware of the life of Christ flowing in us. However, during tribulations, we feel the life of Christ flowing in us more intensely. How? The LORD gives us the strength to overcome the tribulation. It’s the life of Christ in us. This life of Christ in us allows us to live even after we die.
*The life of Jesus overcomes deaths.
The ones who have the life of Jesus in them can feel the life of Christ in them when faced with their own deaths. They get to know the life of Jesus in them. When you are faced with death, you’ll know that you are saved. You’ll get to know that you received the eternal life. Therefore, you are not afraid of a death. Instead, you look forward to the eternal life with the LORD. You get to welcome the death. This cannot be done with a strength of any human being.
It was the morning of the last day for a devoted Christian artist named Korer. His family tried to serve him a breakfast but he waved away his hand and said, “I don’t need to eat breakfast now because I’ll be receiving a feast in the heaven soon.”
When faced with a death, if you are devastated by it, you didn’t receive the life of Christ. The ones who can look forward to the eternal life with the LORD faced with a death have the life of Christ in them. It’s the life of Jesus in them able them to look beyond the death. The life of Jesus gives us the power to overcome death.
As he realized that his last day is coming, Moody said, “The world of darkness is retreating and the world of light is approaching.” I hope that we all become like him.
Today, we need to receive the strength in our bodies by the life of Christ in us. The life of Jesus gives us our physical strength as well. The life of Jesus overcomes illnesses.
The life of Jesus ables us to overcome any difficult circumstances we may be faced with in our lives.
Remember that the life of Jesus is flowing in our bodies, in our minds, and in our souls!
I want to wrap up now.
Do you believe Jesus as your Christ?
Then believe that you are born again of Christ!
If you believe you are born again in Christ, believe that you have the life of Jesus in you!
You can overcome tribulations with the life of Jesus in you!
You can overcome illnesses with the life of Jesus in you!
You can overcome death with the life of Jesus in you!
Live by the life of Jesus in you!
Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for sending Jesus Christ into this world. Thank you, Father, for giving us the life of Jesus to us. Thank you, LORD, that we have the life of Jesus in us and we can live eternal life with you. With the life of Jesus in us, help us to overcome illnesses! Help us to overcome death. We believe Jesus as our savior. Thank you for giving us the eternal life. Help all the saints to live the life of Jesus today! Jesus name we prayed with a blessing. Amen.
Additional Bible Verses
“The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, Cursed are you…And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.’ ” (Genesis 3:14-15, NASB)
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’ ”
(Romans 10:9-13)
