A Christ Reality: Jesus is Life

 John 1:1-2 

“We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.” 

What is the meaning of life? I asked that question to my students at the beginning of the school year. Two answers stuck out to me: money & there is no meaning to life.

If I ask myself that question, I think my answer would be to make a name for myself. To do important things. But not just for the sake of doing good, but for the sake of being noticed because you know, fame is life.

Thank God for Jesus.

The purpose of this post is not to share my answer to that question, but to share God’s answer to that question. The purpose of this post is also to share a Christ reality, or in other words, one of the many truths about Jesus.

Christ reality: Jesus is life itself.

He is eternal life. Without him life does not exist, but with him life exists in its truest essential form. The implications of this truth are massive.

For example, one of my most prevalent fears is the fear of being without. Without energy, money, love, acceptance, you get the idea. I fear losing things that I need or things that seem important to me so I spend a considerable amount of time fretting about these things because they seem like life to me. Of course I never say that out-loud, but my inner-world certainly confirms it.

The point here is this: If, as a Christian I have Christ, then I have life.

And anything that is not Christ is not life. So if I am without those things but I am within Christ, I still have life. More than life. Life eternal. So where is the space for worry, fretting, doubt, and fear? There is none.

But my dear friend, that is so much easier written than actually lived out, isn’t it? It exists more palatably as a theory than a lived reality. But my encouragement to us both is this: can we afford to continue to live life outside of this truth? Is that really the life that God has given us to live? No, it’s not.

For me, this practically looks like putting my worry to rest. Putting my worry to death, even. It’s me recognizing that my one true necessity is Jesus and he has given himself freely to me and for me. I have life in him and he is not dying again, so neither am I. (Spiritually speaking, that is.)

That means I don’t have to worry about losing anything because my life is not bound up in things that might be lost.

My life is not bound up in my job.

Nor my family.

Nor other people’s opinions of me.

Nor money.

Nor favorable circumstances.

Nor success.

I am not bound by anything except for Christ.

And if we were to lean continually into that truth, how abundant, how transcendental our perspective and experience of life would be.