In the June 2002 issue of Astrobiology Magazine, Leslie Mullen began her article titled “Defining Life” with these words:
What is life, exactly? This is a question that keeps biologists up at night. The science of biology is the study of life, yet scientists can’t agree on an absolute definition. Are the individual cells of your body, with all their complex machinery, "alive?" What about a computer program that learns and evolves? Can a wild fire - which feeds, grows, and reproduces - be considered a living entity?
Although one can certainly go to any dictionary and find a definition of “life”, it is interesting that scientists and philosophers still struggle to come up with a definition that all can agree upon. But the effort to come up with a definition or explanation of life isn’t just limited to scientists and philosophers. Here is just a small sampling of what various people have had to say about life:
The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.
Anonymous
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
Abraham Lincoln
In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.
Charlie Brown
The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.
Clarence S. Darrow
Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.
R. D. Laing
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.
Danny Kaye
We are born wet, naked, and hungry. Then things get worse.
Author Unknown
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.
Robert Frost
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein
Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.
Dennis Wholey
Some of those quotes are humorous and a few of them are actually quite profound. But I ran across one quote this week that just stopped me in my tracks because I think it really sums up well the most important implications of the passage that we’ll look at this morning:
Unbeing dead isn’t being alive.
e.e. cummings
As we’ve done each week in this series, let’s begin this morning by reading out loud the beginning words from John’s gospel:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:1-5, 14 (NIV)
So far, in the first three verses, we’ve discovered that the “logos” is eternal – He is uncreated and has no beginning or end. We’ve seen that He has his own personality which provides us with the ability to have a relationship with Him. We’ve confirmed that He is fully God, with all the attributes of God. And we looked at the “logos” as Creator and found that creation is an ongoing process. This morning we’re going to focus on the first half of verse 4:
In him was life…
John, more than any of the other New Testament writers, focused on the concept of life. Nearly one-quarter of the uses of the word “life” in the New Testament are found in his gospel and when we add in Revelation and his three epistles, we find that 40% of all the references to life in the NT come from John’s writings. But, just as we have a hard time coming up with just one definition of life, the New Testament writers also had to deal with several different aspects of life. Fortunately for them, they actually had three different words they could use to describe life.
Three Greek words for “life”
• psuche = the natural life
That same word can also be translated “soul” or even “mind”. It speaks of the breath of life which animates a body and makes it alive. In the gospel of John, the only time we find this word used is when Jesus speaks of laying down His life where He is referring to His natural life as a human.
• bios = the duration or manner of life
This is the least used of the three Greek words for life in the New Testament. We get our English prefix “bio”, which means “life” directly from this Greek word. The only time John uses this word in his writing is in 1 John 2:16 where he writes about the “pride of life”.
• zoe = the absolute fullness of life; life real and genuine
This is the word that John uses most frequently in his writings and is the word he uses here in John 1:4. Although in classical Greek, this word applied to life in general, even that possessed by animals, the New Testament writers elevated the word so that it took on the sense of all the highest and best which followers of Jesus possess through their relationship with Him. That is the concept of life that we want to focus on this morning.
The “logos” animating
You’ll notice that I’m using the word “animating” to describe the nature of the “logos” that John describes here in verse 4. The dictionary defines “animate” as follows: “to give life” or “to fill with life”. And that is exactly how John describes the “logos” in this passage. This is certainly an area where we can only begin to scratch the surface this morning, so I want us to focus on just two aspects of the “logos” animating or giving life.
1. The “logos” is the source of all life
It’s really interesting that John writes that life is “in” the “logos”. That implies that the “logos” not only embodies life, but He is also the source of all life – both physical and spiritual. Although John’s primary focus here is on spiritual life, his description of life in the “logos” is not limited to just that aspect. So let’s begin with a brief look at the “logos” as the source of physical life.
• Physical life
As we might expect, we see the “logos” as the source of physical life all the way back in Genesis.
the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Genesis 2:7 (NIV)
As we clearly saw last week, the “logos”, along with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, was actively involved in the process of creation. And once they created man, they breathed life into him – they gave him physical life. That fact gives rise to an absolutely critical principle that must profoundly shape our worldview:
o Physical matter did not give rise to life; life gave rise to physical matter
This is essentially what divides a Christian worldview from an atheistic one. If the atheists had a bible, it would begin “In the beginning was matter and energy”. Although they can’t prove it, they choose to believe that matter and energy were just there. They can’t tell us where it came from or how it got there. It was just there. And then over billions of years, with no creator, no intelligent designer, no God, the energy worked on all this matter and eventually this impersonal matter and impersonal energy somehow resulted in life.
But the Bible makes it unmistakably clear that it is just the other way around. First, there was life, which existed in the triune Godhead, including the “logos”. In the beginning was the “logos” and in Him was life. That life created matter and energy and breathed His life into His creation.
So the fact is that all of us in this room have physical life because the “logos” has breathed life into our bodies. John certainly believed that and his gospel reflects that view. But he has something even more significant in mind as well. Not only is the “logos” the source of physical life, He is also the source of…
• Spiritual life
Last week, as several men gathered to pray before the worship service, Owen Lamb prayed something that was very profound. I don’t remember his exact words, but they dealt with the idea that all of us who are followers of Jesus are new creations. That was certainly an aspect of the “logos” as the Creator that I had completely missed last week. But it is without a doubt revealed to us in Scripture:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
Let’s see if we can’t see both why this new creation is necessary and how it comes about. We’ll begin with this passage which you’ll hopefully remember from our study in Ephesians:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Ephesians 2:1, 2 (NIV)
Even though we have physical life, all of us were spiritually dead as a result of the sin in our lives. We were literally walking corpses. And because we were dead, there was nothing we could do to respond to God or to bring ourselves back to life.
But since the “logos” has life within Him, He is able to do spiritually exactly what he did physically during the creation and breathe life into His creation. Here’s how Jesus described that process in His own words:
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
John 5:24 (NIV)
Through the “logos” we are able to cross over from spiritual death to spiritual life. The old spiritual corpse is gone and in its place there is a new creation into which the “logos” breathes spiritual life. Jesus described the result of that new creation as “eternal life”. That’s a term that we use so regularly that sometimes I think that we fail to recognize the full extent of what it means. So let’s take a few moments to make sure we understand what Jesus meant when He used that term.
2. Eternal life consists of both quantity and quality of life
Far too often, we only think of “eternal life” in terms of the quantity of life – in other words that it is only a measure of the length of our life. And eternal life does certainly mean that we will live forever. On the day after Jesus had miraculously fed the multitude with bread and fish, he referred to Himself as the “bread of life” and he spoke of eternal life in terms of its length:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever…
John 6:51 (NIV)
Jesus promised that those to whom he has given spiritual life will live forever. That’s certainly not a new thought to any of us. But did you realize that those who are spiritually dead will also live forever? This passage from Revelation is just one place that the Bible confirms that fact:
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever…Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:10, 14, 15 (NIV)
Every person who has not been given spiritual life by Jesus as a result of their faith in Him will one day be thrown into the lake of fire, which is described as a place where they will face torment day and night forever and ever. So, since that is the case, then eternal life must be measured by more than just its quantity or length. There is also a qualitative element to it.
Jesus Himself gave a definition of eternal life that makes that quite clear. As He prayed with His disciples shortly before He went to the cross, Jesus prayed these words:
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
John 17:3 (NIV)
You’ll quickly notice that when Jesus defined eternal life, He didn’t mention anything about its length. His focus was on the nature and quality of that life. Eternal life consists of knowing God and His Son, Jesus.
But that is certainly not the only place where Jesus described eternal life as a quality of life and not just a quantity of life. Perhaps these well-known words of Jesus express that concept most clearly:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10 (NIV)
On Tuesday morning at the Men’s Bible study, we were discussing the increasing rate of suicides among those who claim to be Christians. I certainly don’t have all the answers to why that is occurring, but it seems to me that it is just one symptom of a much deeper problem within the church.
I don’t have any studies or statistics to prove it, but my sense is that within the church we’ve lost sight of the idea that eternal life is not just something for the future, but that it involves a quality of life right here and now. It’s more than just getting to spend eternity in the presence of God in the future. It’s also the very best, most rewarding, most-fulfilling life that we can live while we’re still here on this earth. The “logos” didn’t just become flesh so that we could spend eternity with God; He did it so that our lives might be abundant and full as we live them out on a day to day basis.
I’ve already alluded to several implications of the animating of the “logos”, but let’s wrap up our time by focusing on a couple of the most significant ones:
THE “LOGOS” ANIMATING - IMPLICATIONS FOR US
1. The “logos” is the only way to life
Unfortunately, far too many people, even including some who are followers of Jesus, try to find life, both physical and spiritual, in all the wrong places. Some people try to prolong their physical lives through exercise and healthy eating, and medicines and supplements. There is obviously nothing wrong with any of those practices. In fact, since our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of our bodies. But James warns about the futility of trying to prolong our physical lives:
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
James 4:14 (NIV)
And then there are those who recognize that there is more to our existence than just the short time we spend here on earth. But they try to attain eternal life through all their own efforts. If they can just do enough good things, or if their belief is just sincere enough or if they perform the right rituals, then certainly they can enjoy eternity in the presence of God. Even Christians aren’t immune to that type of thinking. Perhaps there are even some of you here this morning because you think that by being here you’re earning favor with God and that will lead to eternal life.
But the Bible is clear that there is only one way to life. We’re probably all familiar with these words of Jesus, but we need to listen to them again this morning:
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 (NIV)
Notice here that Jesus confirms what John wrote at the beginning of his gospel. Jesus, the “logos” in the flesh is the life. Life is found only in Him. And since He is life, the only way for us to obtain life is through Him. That truth is so important that John confirms it once again for us in his first epistle.
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 5:11, 12 (NIV)
It couldn’t be any clearer than that. If you have the Son, who is life, then you have life. If you don’t have the Son, then you do not have life. Unfortunately, far too many people misunderstand these words. Perhaps you’re one of them. You’re sitting here this morning and you know that you don’t have Jesus in your life. But you’re thinking “But I do have life. I’m sitting here thinking and breathing. I can eat and drink, work and play. So I must be alive. I must have life.”
If that is where you’re at this morning then I want to take you back to the words of e.e. cummings that I shared with you earlier that are also the second important implication of the animating power of the “logos”.
2. Unbeing dead isn’t being alive.
I haven’t been able to get those words out of my head since I first read them earlier in the week. What they point out very accurately is that it is possible to be alive, but still not have life.
Right now, at least as far as I can tell, all of us in this room are alive. Our organs are functioning. Except for those of you who are asleep, there is conscious brain function going on. Even if you’re asleep there is unconscious brain function. Your hearts are beating and pumping blood through your veins and arteries. But just because you’re unbeing dead doesn’t mean you’re alive.
There are two different groups of people here this morning who aren’t really alive right now.
The first group is those of you who have never committed your lives to Jesus. You’re one of those people that Paul referred to in Ephesians 2. You’re one of the walking dead. But this morning you can escape the hopelessness of that existence and accept the life which Jesus is offering to you. As we’ve clearly seen this morning, when you commit your life to the giver of life, He has promised to give you eternal life that consists of both a quantity and quality of life. If you would like to talk more about how to make that decision, please complete the flap on your bulletin and check the box that reads “I would like to learn about how to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ” or talk to Pastor Dana or me after the worship service this morning.
But there is a second group here today that I believe is far larger. You’ve made the decision to commit your life to Jesus and you are confident that when your life here on earth ends that you will spend eternity in the presence of God. But if you’re really honest, you would have to admit that you wouldn’t really consider your life to be the abundant, full life that Jesus described in John 10. If that describes your life today, I’d like to take you back to a verse that we looked at earlier this morning:
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
John 17:3 (NIV)
In these words, Jesus provides us with the antidote to an empty, unfulfilling life. Remember how Jesus defines eternal life in this verse? It is knowing the only true God and His Son, Jesus Christ. That is one of the reasons that I’m spending seven weeks focusing on the “logos” so we can get to know Him better. Since the “logos” is God, when we get to know Him better, we get to know God better. But a seven week sermon series by itself won’t even begin to really get us to know God better. That is just not something that I can do for you. I can help you in that process and provide some tools for you, but ultimately only you can decide to commit your life to getting to know God better.
We live in a world of increasing chaos. And if we’re not careful, it is easy for us to despair. We have radical, militant Muslims who would love to wipe every Christian off the face of the earth and are willing to go to any lengths, even their own deaths, to accomplish that goal. We have just come out of a very bitter, divisive election process. And regardless of who is in power, roughly half of our nation is perpetually opposed to the other half. Our economy is in ruins. Even in the United States, it is becoming increasingly difficult to live as a follower of Jesus.
And far too many of us have become like Peter after he stepped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus on the water. We’ve taken our eyes off Jesus and focused on the storm around us. And as a result we’re sinking.
There is only one way to avoid that kind of empty, unfulfilling life. And that is to devote our lives to getting to know God better. We need to renew our commitment to spending time in His Word and in prayer. More than ever, we need genuine Christian fellowship where we can come together as believers to help each other to grow in our faith, to encourage each other, to pray for each other and to reach out and help our brothers and sisters in need. That is the only way to ensure that we won’t just be undead, but we’ll actually be alive.
