John 6:60-63
Spirit & Life
John 6:60-63 MKJV
Then when they had heard, many of His disciples said, This is a hard
saying, who can hear it? (61) But
knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured about it, Jesus said to them,
Does this offend you? (62) Then what if
you should see the Son of Man going up where He was before? (63) It is the Spirit that makes alive, the
flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.
God is life and life is of God. That is why the Bible calls God
“the Living God” and why Jesus, in verse 57 (yesterdays passage), calls God
“the Living Father”. John 6:57 MKJV As
the living Father has sent Me, and I live through the Father, so he who partakes
of Me, even he shall live by Me.
The
material flesh, without the life principle, rapidly decays and rots. The
collocation of proteins and lipids has no energy of its own. According to one
website (http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/worth.asp) the chemicals in our
body are worth about $4.50! Indeed the
flesh profits nothing!
The life
principle is called spirit – that is what animates us and gives us great value
as persons. As Jesus says in verse 63 “It is the Spirit that makes alive.” We commonly use the word in this sense when
we say that someone who is animated and alive is ‘spirited” while a person who
is lackluster and apathetic is called “dispirited”.
The God
principle and the Life principle are very closely connected through the fact
that God is the Creator who gives life to all things, and who has life in
Himself. God places His life in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:9) who then makes it
available to us through faith - and who dwells us as we dwell in Him (John 6:57).
The key to receiving the eternal life of God in our souls is in
believing the words of Jesus. “The words that I speak to you are spirit and are
life.” (John 6:63) Faith in the words of Jesus enables us to connect to God,
and to receive the life of God.
When this life manifests in us it does so as spiritual fruit – the
love, joy, peace, patience and kindness of Galatians 5:22-23. Such life is more
than mere energy; it is personal and divine life and has a quality of love and
peace to it. It is highly organized and harmonious energy, more like a symphony
of the soul than the “frantic, clamorous noise” of the flesh.
God’s life is more than mere existence. Eternal life is much more
and much higher than eternal existence. Even Satan has eternal existence! But
the Devil does not possess eternal life.
Eternal life is the harmony of Heaven and the peace of God
dwelling in the soul of the believer - to enrich it, develop it and sanctify it
to completeness and perfection. This is a spiritual work that is brought about
by spiritual means, through a living faith connection with God, through Jesus
Christ our Saviour.
The
flesh is useless in this. No amount of non-spiritual work can bring about the
life of God in our souls. We can climb stairs on our knees, be circumcised, and
whip ourselves until we bleed and try all sorts of external religious practices
– but they are of absolutely no use apart from Christ. Two New Testament
passages make this absolutely plain:
Colossians 2:20-23 MKJV
(20) If then you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why,
as though living in the world, are you subject to its ordinances: (21) touch not, taste not, handle not; (22) which things are all for corruption in
the using, according to the commands and doctrines of men? (23) These things indeed have a reputation of
wisdom in self-imposed worship and humility, and unsparing severity of the
body, but are not of any value for the satisfying of the flesh.
Galatians 3:1-5 MKJV
O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you not to obey the truth, to whom
before your eyes Jesus Christ was written among you crucified? (2) This only I would learn from you: Did you
receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing of faith? (3) Are you so foolish? Having begun in the
Spirit, do you now perfect yourself in the flesh? (4) Did you suffer so many things in vain, if
indeed it is even in vain? (5) Then He
supplying the Spirit to you and working powerful works in you, is it by works
of the law, or by hearing of faith?
True
Christian spirituality is not found in the “works of the law” nor is it in “the
commands and doctrines of men” rather it is in laying hold of the life of God
which is in Christ, by faith and then living out this life in love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, long-suffering and self-control.
As
with any tree, the fruit flow from the life, not the other way around. We
cannot get God’s life by forcing ourselves to have self-control and patience –
we will just end up as rigid legalists doing that! The life flows from the
Spirit in us, which comes, as we truly believe the words of Jesus.
When
Jesus says: “Then what if you should see the Son of
Man going up where He was before?” (v. 62) He is referring to His ascension and
His visible return to the Heaven from which He came - as the bringer of Eternal
Life who was validated by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus is a clear
demonstration of what God’s life looks like in human form, and its grace and
power. Only He can thus say: The words that I speak to you are spirit and are
life. (v. 63)
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