Life – Genesis 2:7 (ESV)
“then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
When God breathes into man the breathe of life what is happening? Well lets look at what the consequences of it was. Man becomes a living soul.
When God tells Adam-male and Adam-female to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He tells them the punishment is death. Now when they eat of the fruit they don’t die in a biological sense, but their availability to the presence of God shifts. What was a delightful daily meeting becomes a reason to fear and hide. A loving marriage with no strife or discord dissolves into a blame game.
This mystery doesn’t get solved fully until Christ has a conversation w/ Nicodemus in the third chapter in the gospel of John. [Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. – John 3:3-6 ] Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless a person is reborn they can’t see the kingdom of God. Which is to mean they won’t go to heaven. Nicodemus then has an understandable response. How can one be born again…biologically? That seems impossible! Jesus reassures Nicodemus and by extension us with His next clarifying statement. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit (notice the capital S) is spirit. That is to say, there is a biological/physical life. However there is a spiritual life born of God that Jesus in chapter 4, verse 24 says is Spirit [“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” – John 4:24]
We see this dichotomy again when Jesus is speaking to Martha the sister of Lazerus in her grief of his passing in the gospel of John, chapter 11. [Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. “But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. “And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” – John 11:20-27]
Let’s put ourself in Martha’s shoes. Jesus is late in getting to us in order to heal our brother who died 4 days ago. However you know that this man has the ear of God in a way you’ve never seen. So you believe that if this man asks God for your brother back, then your brother will be resurrected. In response to your fussing, Jesus looks you in your eyes and says those who believe in me even though they die shall live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. On the surface this seems contradicting and a little cruel. The people even though they die will live if they believe in Me AND those that are living and believe will NEVER die. How are we supposed to understand this if there’s only one type of life? In order for this to be true there must be, as Jesus told Nicodemus a life whose source is flesh/physical and another whose source is God the Spirit.
So if we read it in those terms what Jesus declares makes sense. Those who may die a physical biological death, shall be declared alive by Spirit and those who are biologically alive and believe will never die spiritually. This is what Christ is asking Martha and by extension us to believe. Christ goes on to physically resurrect her brother as a foreshadowing of what He will do spiritually for those trapped by the prison and darkness of their sin as depicted in Psalms 107.
When God speak of life, He mean of a spiritual sense. When one is alive spiritually, they have now become a living soul. a soul that can show the fruit of the Spirit. A living soul can find joy despite dire circumstances, they can be loving and kind to people who despise them. A living soul can display godliness and light in a corrupt and dark environment. That’s what it means to have a version of life that death can not touch.
How many people do we see with biological life but they don’t have hope that knows no shame? They don’t have joy despite great material possessions. They can’t display self-control or give gentleness even though they want to receive it. They have religion but no relationship. How many people follow the rules of God but not His voice? Jesus complained about these types of people in the they don’t hear. They could physically hear the words Jesus said, but since their spirit wasn’t alive the understanding couldn’t transform their souls.
The crowd had no problem eating the physical bread Jesus provided, but when He offered Himself to them to eat and drink, in a spiritual sense of course, they being dead in spirit couldn’t fathom what Jesus was really asking them to do. The spiritually dead find the feats of the spiritually alive impossible and incomprehensible.
The children of God are alive in both spirit and deed because life can not help but to replicate itself.