During a conversation with friends, several in the circle took turns recounting their early experiences with certain words in the Christian vocabulary. One person said, “Whenever I heard the word life mentioned by a Christian or in the Bible, I always thought it was only talking about heaven. I never thought it had much to do with me right now.” Most everyone nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it was difficult to know what there really was to be excited about,” another confessed. “I imagined playing harps somewhere in the clouds, and I felt guilty when the whole idea just didn’t excite me too much.”
While these descriptions of heaven have little to do with what Scripture actually reveals, it’s true that we often carry a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Bible means when it speaks of the life God brings. Paul describes the Holy Spirit as “the life-giving Spirit” and assures us that this Spirit of life “has freed [us] from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:2). At the very core, we discover that in Jesus we find freedom and life—the cure to the wreck and ruin that surrounds us.
Further, to “set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace,” Paul tells us (Romans 8:6 RSV). When we yield ourselves to God, setting our affections on Him and His truth as God’s Spirit reveals it to us, then we’ll find ourselves experiencing true life—life full of wholeness and well-being.
This true, genuine life isn’t only for the future, but for now. When we embrace God (or better, when we open up to God embracing us), we find ourselves stepping further into what it means to be truly human and truly alive. We find the genuine life that only Jesus provides.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Genesis 12:1-9; 17:1-8
More:
Read through Romans 8:1-11 again. Mark each time the word life appears. What does this tell you about your own existence and what it means to truly live?
Next:
When are you most aware of the wreck and ruin of life? How does Jesus’ call to genuine life speak against these places of death?
BearPair on January 9, 2016 at 6:30 am
Good thoughts, Winn! I often think of this “life” as one freed from fear, as well as the ideas listed above. Truly, this life (that we live while here on earth) might be very common, were it not for the Uncommon LIFE god intends for us. Thanks for helping us shake loose the mind-cobwebs that so easily accumulate!
Gary Shultz on January 9, 2016 at 6:37 am
I’m glad your a whole life kind of guy. Once we became God’s He started us on the path to an endless, continuous, fellowship. Our short trip will soon be over and our real existence, the person God always wanted us to be will soon unfold. We have also been given this nursery experience of living on earth, we would do well to aim this life to meet the life that follows and the One who sponsors it. Thanks Winn encouraging thoughts.
Roxanne Robbins on January 9, 2016 at 5:22 pm
Interested in your thoughts: When Jesus offers us abundant life, so you think that means abundant on earth or abundant in what we’ll experience in Heaven? Or is He talking about both?
Winn Collier on January 9, 2016 at 5:57 pm
Hey, Roxanne, I understand Jesus to draw little distinction between the essence of Kingdom Life now and the essence of Kingdom Life later. We sit in between, without the full expression, now to be sure, but the life is of the same quality as it it the life that comes from God. So, eternal life, in the gospels, seems to be the life that commences now in Christ and continues into eternity in God. It’s the same life, only we experience it in different ways. That’s what I was trying to say when I wrote: “This true, genuine life isn’t only for the future, but for now.”
Roxanne Robbins on January 11, 2016 at 10:55 am
Helpful insights. Thank you, Winn!
Mike Wittmer on January 9, 2016 at 6:57 pm
If I could jump in. My understanding is that the abundant life begins now, continues when we die and our souls go to heaven, and consummates when Jesus returns, raises our bodies, and we live forever with Him on this restored earth. I think the Bible teaches three stages: now, heaven, and then the earth again.
Winn Collier on January 9, 2016 at 8:25 pm
Yes, Mike, that’s what I’m saying, didn’t explain it with that detail. I find it interesting that most of what we actually know about our future life is actually about the life God welcomes us into, through the joy of resurrection — the new world where the new heaven and earth are joined as one. Life indeed.