JESUS = LIFE

Jesus said to him, "I am . . . . . . the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

Jesus is the creator of all things, including all living things.  There would be no life without Him.  As John's gospel says it, "All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made (1:3).   Jesus is life because He created life in all its diversity.  The infinite size of the universe, the vast array of its wonders and the mind-boggling diversity of life all testify to the power, beauty and love of God, Jesus the Christ.

Jesus is the way of life.   Jesus gave His life as a ransom for us.  We were on "death row" with no way of escape.  Jesus died in our place and now we are able to walk free--the prison cell was opened and now we walk free.  We were doomed to certain death, now we have life in Christ.  If you are not in Christ, you are still on "death row!"  One of the end-time events of which the Bible clearly speaks is the wrath that is to come.  There is no escape apart from Christ.

Jesus is also the way of life because when one follows Him one is not investing in futility.  How quickly life passes by.  My wife, the lovely and gracious Helen, is the family history archivist.  The family pictures testify to the speed of life's passing.  Many pass through life investing only in what makes them feel good, following the desires of body and mind in the present, not investing in eternity.  In a few short years they are forgotten and nothing is left.  In Christ there is the life of salvation, which is an adventure in itself.  It is in the life of salvation that Christ brings us into wholeness.  Christ is not the way of the safe life, but He is the way of the life that is eternal not futile.

When I was a boy, my mom place a plaque on the kitchen wall that I, and I am sure my siblings, still remember.  It said, Only one life will soon be past.  Only what's done for Christ will last.


Our Father's Love,
Tom