John 1:4 “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
The nature of God is life, for in the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit teaches us that in God, is life. This same passage teaches us that the life of God is the light of man. In other words God’s life gives the spirits of men life. On more than one occasion the Lord Jesus told us that He is “the life” (John 11:25). In other words Jesus is telling us that outside of Him there is no life. And so we see that spiritual life is in fact the life of God.
John 17:1-3 “Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, (2) as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. (3) And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
The life of God is eternal life, and as revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture it is that life which Jesus imparts to all who are born-again. In this passage Jesus goes on to explain to us what eternal life is, for He tells us that eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ. The truth that all who are born-again know God is confirmed to us by God Himself, for He says that all who partake of the New Covenant shall know Him, from the least to the greatest of them (Hebrews 8:11). And so we see that all who are spiritually alive have the eternal life of God, and they know both God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:3-4 “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, (4) by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
The Holy Spirit reveals another aspect of spiritual life to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, when He tells us that the life of God that we have received enables us to become partakers of His divine nature. And so we see that one who is spiritually alive has the very nature of God in their spirits. The Holy Spirit contrasts the divine nature of God with the corruption that is in the world through lust. And so very clearly we see that the divine nature of God is completely opposite to the natures of men that are in the world, even the most noble of men.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit reveals to us what the nature of the human spirit that has the life of God is like. Some have thought that this passage of scripture referred to the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but Jesus taught us that we are the branches and that it is the branches that bear fruit (John 15:5). This passage of scripture is referring to the fruit of the born-again human spirit; nevertheless the fruit of the born-again spirit is still derived from the root, which is God. Clearly the spirit of man that has the life of God also has the divine nature of God. And so as we have seen in this section spiritual life is the eternal life of God, which incorporates knowing God and having the divine nature of God. The spirits of all believers are in this condition, from the least to the greatest of them.
Michael E.B. Maher
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