Life From Above

*The following article is from the book – The Mystery of Godliness

God originally created man in His own image. (Gen. 1:26-27) It was God’s purpose to have human children He could use for the purpose of displaying the splendor of His life of love. Even though God’s love can be seen in all of His creation, which is an expression of His glory, His spiritual children were to be the highest expression of His life of love in the world.

When the Son came into the world as the Second Adam, He displayed God’s spiritual image in the same way that man was originally created to live. He was “the image of the invisible God.” (Col. 1:15) We can therefore learn from the record of His life what it means to display God’s spiritual image – His life of love.

The Son of God was sent into the world to save man from his fallen state by restoring the spiritual image that was lost in the Fall. “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (1 John 4:9) The “light of life,” a life the Father shares with the Son, is intended to be displayed by the Son through each of God’s children.

Mature Christian character is therefore intended to be a form of the “brightness,” “radiance,” or “out-shining” of the Father’s glory. (Heb. 1:3) And even though we cannot expect to display the life as flawlessly as the Son did, we can enter into a real participation with God in His divine nature and become like Him in love in this world. (2 Pet. 1:3-4; 1 John 4:17)

I {the Son} have given them {access to} the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one {in life and nature}: I in them and You in Me…in order that the love You have for Me {divine love} may be in them and that I Myself may be in them. (John 17:22-23, 26)

God did not intend for His children to use their own efforts to imitate His life and nature. They were to manifest His glory – His life of love – by receiving their life from the Son by dependent faith. If they believed in Him, and were therefore willing to deny themselves and take up their own cross, they would find His spiritual life in an abundantly full measure.

…If anyone would come after Me {into the Kingdom-life}, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me… Whoever loses his life for Me will find it. (Matt. 16:24-25)

…I have come that they may have life {the Kingdom-life}, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

…Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life {the Kingdom-life of perfect love}. (John 4:14)

We know there are many people in the church who say it is impossible for the Son to display His life of perfect love through His disciples in this world. But we must say to them, “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” (Rom. 3:4) “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17) It is our willingness to become like God in His life of love while we remain in this world that will enable us to have a real sense of boldness when we stand in His presence on the “day of judgment.” (v. 17)

Again, God does not expect us to produce His life of love through our human efforts. The life is to be received as a gift of promise. The only limiting factor is our unwillingness to yield in faith to all that our Lord teaches.

In an attempt to illustrate how Christians are to receive the “light of life” from heaven, we will compare this principle to how electricity produces light through a light bulb. In the same sense that electricity is invisible, so is the power of God. Even though electricity cannot be seen, the power is displayed when it enters a device that has been created to display light. The light bulb, of course, is not the source of the light. When left on its own, it remains without any real intrinsic value. It cannot do what it was designed to do without the power of electricity. On its own, it can “do nothing.”

Similarly, you were designed and created to be an expression of God’s divine nature. (2 Pet. 1:3-4) Even though you do not have the needed power to produce this “light of life” from heaven, the Spirit can supply an invisible power that lights up your life with God’s nature of love.

The whole purpose for creating human children was for God to have a means of displaying His life of love – His glory – in this world. As we begin to understand this spiritual principle, we will also see why we have little value while we remain separated from the power of God. Our value comes from fulfilling our Creator’s purpose. We are here for the purpose of displaying His “light of life” from heaven.

All your strivings to manifest this life through human effort will only leave you hopelessly exhausted. “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Gal. 3:3)

In the same sense that Jesus did not do anything in His own strength, He tells us, “Without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) This life from heaven, and the godly character we are to display, is dependent on God’s divine power.

When God stopped using His power to display the “light of life” through Adam, God’s lamp in the world went out. The body was no longer able to display God’s spiritual image. There is nothing man can do through his own efforts to reproduce God’s nature of divine love. This is why carnal darkness will naturally prevail until fallen man has begun to live by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our heavenly Father therefore sent His Son into the world to first reconcile man to God, and to then become a source of light to the world. He has promised to provide His “light of life” to everyone who will follow Him through the cross. (John 8:12; Matt. 16:24-25; 1 John 4:9) Whoever loses their flesh-life will find the Son’s abundantly full spiritual life. (John 10:10) “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)

The Bible declares emphatically that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11:6) No matter what we try to do for Him, we cannot please Him until we are willing to walk in a moment by moment reliance on Him to supply us with His life and godliness from above. And, glory be to God, whoever earnestly seeks Him through a responsive walk of faith will be rewarded – they will find His Kingdom-life.

Christians are therefore expected to depend on God for everything. They are not to do anything that does not include a reliance on God, “for whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Rom. 14:23)

Faith involves something more than an academic nod! The children of God are expected to rely on the power of the Spirit to display the life of the Son through them. Since we were created for this very purpose, we cannot neglect this great life of faith without being morally irresponsible. The life of God is not optional! We must not remain like a light bulb without electricity!

Man has only two alternatives: He can either continue living by faith in his own strength {live by the flesh}, or he can turn to God and begin living by faith in His enabling power {live by the Spirit}. Living by human self-sufficiency is the essence of sin. (Rom. 14:23) Therefore, as the Scripture so clearly teaches, “if you live according to the flesh you will die.” (Rom. 8:13)

Once you recognize this spiritual principle you can better understand why Satan will keep opening up reasonable alternatives to faith. He knows that if he can keep you living by the strength of your flesh {the self-sufficient ways of the fallen world}, which is diametrically opposed to the way of faith, he will cause you to defy your Creator. And everyone who lives this way will find they are continually dying in a spiritual sense. They do not experience the Living Water that continually satisfies the soul and wells up to a manifestation of God’s eternal life of love. (John 4:14)

No matter how lofty your motives or otherwise commendable your actions, if they come from your own sufficiency {the pride of life} they are sin. God expects His children to depend on Him in everything they do.

When Jesus walked in a mortal body as a man, He too was required to live by faith. He remained without sin simply because He always relied on His Father. He did nothing in His own strength. He did not produce a sinless life through any other means than by continually relying on the working of His Father. To have acted in His own independent strength would have resulted in sin. In essence, all sin comes from acting by self-will and self-sufficiency.

This is why Satan’s attacks on the Son were designed to lead Him into acting on His own initiative. He was tempted again and again, and in all points as we are. But He never departed from a life of living under the control and power of the Holy Spirit. He did not sin because He never once stopped relying on His Father. This is the Mystery of Godliness.

If Christians are to ever walk as Jesus did, which they are required to do (1 John 2:5-6), they will need to go through a complete renewing of their mind. Everyone who is still thinking in terms of what they must do in their own strength, still needs to press forward in their walk of faith. They must die to all forms of self-sufficiency before they will be in a position to be raised by the power of God into the life of promise.

When people tend to think of the Christian walk in terms of what must be worked out by human effort, they will naturally believe that it is impossible for anyone to walk as Jesus did. Their lack of faith will prevent them from receiving the life of promise. These Christians will therefore need to be built up in their faith so they can rest from their own works and begin depending on the Lord to establish His Kingdom-life within their hearts by the resurrection power of His Spirit.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the {regenerate} people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work… Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest… (Heb. 4:9-11)

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it… (Ps. 127:1)

Again, the Christian life is intended to have a supernatural quality about it. “Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:21) Only the Spirit of Christ has the needed power to manifest the “light of life” through a human body.