Part 4 of 8 - The Only Source of THE Genuine LIFE

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called His Life.

Consider the title father. “Father” is the primary relational title Christ used for God, relative to Himself and for all those who believe. The title “Father” speaks of our organic (living) family relationship in God as the progenitor of all His children.

God’s life is the only genuine life, being both the divine and eternal life. God as Father is the only progenitor of His genuine life. David wrote; “For with you (Lord) is the fountain of life…” Psalm 36:9. The Lord as Father is seen here as the source of life, as a fountain that flows His life to His spiritual offspring. As we’ve seen in earlier installments, Christ is the Father’s Seed of which His offspring are reborn spiritually. Christ’s Seeded life springs up with all that He is, within any person who receives Him.

God’s substance, so to speak, “is spirit” (John 4:24a), as a table may be wooden. Likewise, “life,” as used by Jesus in His speaking is almost always the Greek, “Zoë,” meaning the unique divine eternal “life” of God.

John 10:10b I (Jesus) am come that they might have (not only) LIFE (Zoë, God’s Spirit life), and that they might have it (life) more abundantly (in the form of Christ’s resurrected “Spirit of Life”).

The Greek word used for the word “life” here is “Zoë.” This here refers specifically to the resurrected life of Christ the Apostle Paul calls “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2a). The “Zoë” life may be compared to two other kinds of life within every human; 1) “bios” is the biological life in man and, 2) “psuche” which is the psychological life in man. God’s essence is His “Spirit-life” and that “life is in the Son” (John 5:11-12), by whom we as believers have gained the eternal life of the Godhead as He is today.

Romans 8:9-10 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now IF ANY MAN HAVE NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS. 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

1 John 4:13 …we that we dwell in him (Christ), and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

We may receive God’s eternal life by simply believing, to receive the Spirit of His Son who was given and offered for us and to us, out of the Father’s heart of love and mercy.

John 3:16 For GOD (As Father) SO LOVED the world that he GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON, that WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM shall not perish but HAVE ETERNAL LIFE (His Life).

Galatians 4:6 And because ye are sons, GOD HATH SENT FORTH THE SPIRIT OF HIS SON INTO YOUR HEARTS, crying, Abba (Father), Father.

God as Father is the eternal lover of our souls, our individual self-beings. Contrary to many religious ideas, the Father is not a distant judge to His rebirthed children. He is their progenitor and life-giver. He is also their eternal sustainer… by His One Seed of life, which is Christ’s Spirit dwelling within each of His children. Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory:

Scripture reveals that the … Father’s life is … in Christ (the “His only begotten” Son). Philip asked Jesus, “show us the Father” to which Jesus answered; “… I am in the Father and the Father is in me…” (John 14:8-11) Christ became the resurrected the LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT” (1Cor 15:45), founding a new race of people (2Cor 5:17). Christ, as “the Spirit of life” has come to indwell the human spirit of every believer, making them eternally alive in the very instant and moment that He made His self one with the their human spirit (1Cor 6:17). 1 Corinthians 6:17 But HE THAT IS JOINED UNTO THE LORD IS ONE SPIRIT (with the Lord). Christ’s “Spirit of life” in us is the essence of our living union with our heavenly Father. We are His spirit-birthed offspring; being born of His Spirit-loins as His “many sons” (Heb 2:10).

Jesus below refers to the Father when He spoke with Mary Magdalene, immediately after His resurrection. The title “Father” is the most wonderful and powerful statement of our relationship with God - as His children. Jesus used the title “Father” 129 times in the Gospel of John alone. We could not be God’s children unless He is our Father. He cannot be our Father, except we be the offspring of His spiritual loins.

John 20:17bgo to my brethren, and say unto them, I ASCEND UNTO MY FATHER, AND YOUR FATHER; and to MY GOD, AND YOUR GOD.

1 John 3:1-2a Behold, WHAT MANNER OF LOVE THE FATHER HATH BESTOWED UPON US, THAT WE SHOULD BE CALLED THE SONS OF GOD… Beloved, now are we the (literal) sons of God.”

In receiving the Son by believing, we become the birthed children of the Father. John 1:12 But AS MANY AS RECEIVED HIM (Jesus), TO THEM GAVE HE POWER TO BECOME THE SONS OF GOD, Even to them that believe on (Greek, pistis, trust) his name: Yet, many believers still don’t know or have revelation of the Father as their real Father; they would ask “How do we come to know the Father?” As everything we come to receive and possess spiritually, this revelatory knowledge also comes from “the Son.” The “Spirit of Christ” within the believer is the Lord and the revelator who “teaches us all things” (1John 2:20, 27). Matthew 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save (except) the Son, and HE TO WHOMSOEVER THE SON WILL REVEAL HIM. First we “receive” the Son then Christ within us, in time, will reveal the Father to us as our Father. This is a life-changing experience we will always remember and revere. I recall in 1992 seeing The Lord for the first time as my Father, I will never forget that moment.

Our sonship comes by our spiritual rebirthing, so we should simply “receive” the Father’s “seed, which is Christ.” Just as our human physical conception was by our human father’s seed, so it is spiritually, by the Seed of God the Father, which is “the Spirit of life in Christ.” This is an organic life-germinating event, by the only life qualified to be called life (Zoë). This is the eternally divine and limitless life of God the Father that is… in the Son. Thus, “… as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power (force of competency) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” (John 1:12)). “Power” here in John 1:12 is more completely translated “force of competency.” Christ the “Seed” (1Peter 1:23, Gal 3:16), bears God the Father’s DNA into the womb of the believers spirit. Who can deny the force and power of the weed seed in the crack of a walkway or driveway? Certainly the Christ-Seed is evermore powerful. The Christ-Seed is God’s capable life-force, by virtue of the life of the eternal “Godhead” that dwelleth “in Him” (Col 2:9).

It is Christ “Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an ENDLESS LIFE” (Hebrews 7:16). All we need to do is receive Christ - not doctrines, not church membership; there is no need to keep a Christian code of conduct. His life comes to us not by making promises to God, not to live by Christian principals, or anything other than simply believing to receive “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”

Sadly, today we hear many things that are not the simple truth of “the gospel of the grace of God” for today. The gospel for today is not the gospel of the kingdom Jesus of Nazareth gave to Israel, but rather “the gospel of the grace of God” (Act 20:24) He gave to Paul for us. Yet, we hear so many sermons encouraging us with this false religious concept. They may say; “Do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that, and then, IF you’ve done enough, maybe God will receive you.” This is because so much of Christianity still clings to and teaches Old Testament “Law” that God gave Moses for Israel. They neglect the grace that the ascended Christ gave to Paul for the Gentiles; “the gospel of the grace of God,” and his message of “salvation by grace through…not of works” (Eph 2:8-9, Rom 6:14).

 It was not until several years after the crucifixion that “the preaching of the cross” was widely proclaimed as a message that came via the Apostle Paul as “the gospel [good news] of the grace of God” (1Cor.1:18; Acts 20:24). When Paul and Silas proclaimed and “preached Christ” to the Philippian jailer they said simply, “believe (trust) on the Lord Jesus Christ ands though shalt be saved…” (Act 16:31).