He LIVES

The English language, like others, has complexities. For instance, LIVES can mean where a person dwells or it can mean that a person has life, is alive. When applied to God, since life comes from is sustained by Him, He obviously LIVES, contrary to a popular notion that God is dead.

The people of the OT knew it. Some, particularly David, said it in various declarations, “As the Lord lives . . .” uttering their intentions or using it in praise, as in 2 Samuel 22:47. “The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation . . . .”

Job affirmed it also: Job 19:25. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth” concluding that after he died, “in my flesh I shall see God.”

The people of God in those days before Christ came connected their existence with the living God and the events of their lives with God who lives!

Jeremiah 23:7–8. “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

When Christ came and died and rose again, He affirmed that God lives. Not only that the NT clearly connects His everlasting life to that of those who believe in Him. He lives forever as do His followers:

2 Corinthians 13:4. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

For this, I also can affirm with Paul’s declaration in Galatians 2:20:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Before he believed, my husband thought living forever would be boring. Now he knows that life with Christ is never boring but abundant, just as He promised. This isn’t about being financially wealthy (although it could include that) but about richness, insight and fullness of meaning in life, and experiencing our awesome God through all things — joyful or not . . .

2 Corinthians 1:5. “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”

Ephesians 3:20. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us . . . .”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Experiencing the life of Christ here is just a taste of what forever with Him will be like. Because He lives, we will live also and without the negatives that characterize our sin-filled world. This God who lives allows me to see enough of His life and power that the life hereafter becomes incredibly appealing. Yet even here, because He lives that after-life is real, a promised certainty that makes this life rich and full, even during the hard times. Because He lives, I can hold fast to the life He gave me until that day when my life sheds everything that is not like His life and can walk with Him — complete throughout eternity.