Three Kinds of Life
We're looking at security with God and whether we can lose it. We've looked at God's foreknowledge, from eternity, of what we decide about Him and His Son, our Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Romans 8 tells us that once God knows we chose Him in Christ, our salvation progresses with certaintly.
Now let's look at what we mean when we talk of Christ's life in us.
When we are born again, we pick up a new and extraordinary 'flavour' of life, unavailable any other way. It's a free gift. How does the Bible describe this life?
For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself
For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
John 5v26,21
Here Jesus refers to a particular type of life possessed by God. It is not a derived, created, life. It is a self-existing, self-sustaining, uncreated, indestructible life*. It is beyond our full understanding. Jesus possessed this same special type of life as the Father. He started to give that life to others. It's infinite, from eternity, so He in giving it away, He didn't lose some of it in the process. The widow's flask of oil from 2 Kings 4 is a type of this life. It doesn't deplete until the need is met.
For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit without measure.
John 3:34
So the Father gives this life to the Son, and the Son gives it to whom He will.
There are three Greek words all translated as 'life' in English Bible versions. They are, transliterated, bios, psuche, and zoe. They represent, loosely, biological life, the life of the soul, and the life of God, respectively. This is how the words are most often used in the Bible. We can see that the English words 'biology' and 'psychology' are derived from the first two. Bios represents the physical processes of life. Bios is impressive enough as far as it goes. When I look at a well-used guitar, someone has maybe played it regularly for decades. It is worn, the fretboard has hollows, the frets are grooved, the finish is eroded. Yet the fingers of the musician are just fine. Bios did that, the callouses may be there but the skin cells are renewed continually. The guitar may be great but it is really just dead matter. Psuche represents the functions of mind and emotions. The human mind is complex, nuanced, multi-facetted, different for each person. It is creative, it can imagine, it may be fragile and delicate.
But beyond these, there's a further category of life. Jesus used the word zoe to refer to the life He and the Father shared**. The same word is used to describe the life which He gives to us. The verses from John above use zoe.
Now the word zoe was not invented for the New Testament: it was a pre-existing Greek word. Originally though, in Greek usage, it referred to what we might call vibrancy, vigour, productivity, freshness. It described the zing, the beans, present in addition to bios and psuche, infusing them with something extra. The New Testament combines zoe with aioneos, which means 'perpetual' or 'always ongoing'. We then get a phrase translated 'everlasting life' or 'eternal life'. This is the phrase used in the famous verse, John 3v16, for example. Permanence and quality of life are signified. The phrase zoe aioneos occurs about 47 times in the New Testament, most often in John's writings.
The exact interpretation of the phrase 'eternal', as found in the Bible, is subject to some debate amongst scholars. Interestingly, Strong's Concordance says aioneos indicates a past, present and future continuity of times. 'Eternal' has the sense of infinite times past as well as present and future. When we say God has no beginning and no end, we are attributing this kind of life to Him. And, when it is present in others, He is always the source of it. It is granted at His discretion. He has already granted bios and psuche to everyone born into this world. New Testament zoe aioneos, is only for born again believers.
The full nature of eternal life, as it concerns time, remains, frankly, a mystery for now. It is usually held to be either the the continuation of time forever, or possibly the absence of time. Whatever the best definition, and we are looking through a glass dimly here, as we are trying to understand with our mortal mind God's very own realm of existence. All scholars agree it is a realm that has always been. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. God's name, according to Exodus 3v14, is I AM. He is present in all our times. We, in our mortal selves, are present only in one instant.
When we become believers, we cross over into this zoe aioneos. It is perpetual, it is not subject to birth or death, although we are born again into it from our natural life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 5:24
'Life' here is, again, zoe, and 'eternal life' is zoe aioneos. But notice what Jesus says. He's saying 'he who truly hears and believes has already passed from death to life'.
A few English versions (e.g. CJB, EHV) use 'crossed over' for 'passed'.
If you have passed from death to eternal life, it is very, very hard to see how you can pass back again. You have passed into a realm of permanence. I would suggest this means you simply cannot pass back out again!
For me, the only question is, 'did you really pass over?'
* This uncaused quality of God is called 'aseity' by theologians. It is possessed by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
** Jesus very probably spoke in Aramaic most of the time; so this is the Greek word used to record what He said.
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