"The Life Of God"

Ephesians 4:18

God is life! Apart from him there is no life. All men and women by nature are "alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." But believers are made to be partakers of the life of God by the infusion of his grace into them (II Pet. 1:4). We live because God is in us. And God is life.

GOD IS LIFE ESSENTIALLY. God is life in and of himself (John 5:26). His life is totally free and in- dependent.There is no cause of life in God, and nothing upon which his life depends. But our lives, both natur- ally and spiritually,depend entirely upon him. Through- out the scriptures God's very glory, by which he is exalted above and distinguished from the idols of men, is his life. It was the living God who gave the law at Sinai (Deut. 5:26) and brought Israel into the land of promise (Josh. 3:10). David thirsted for the living God (Psa. 42:1-2). Christ is the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16). And we are the temple of the living God. All the idols of men are motionless, lifeless, dead (Jer. 10:5, 10, 15, 16; I Thess. 1:9). Because their gods are dead, idolaters place great emphasis upon dead rituals, ceremonies, images and symbols. But we worship the living God in spirit and in truth (Rev. 10:5-6).

GOD IS LIFE ETERNALLY (I John 5:20).The eternality of life in God implies his immutability (Psa. 102:26-27) and his immortality (I Tim. 1:17; 6:16). God gives immortality to angels and men. But he alone has immortality in himself, because he alone is life.

And GOD IS LIFE EFFICIENTLY (Psa. 36:9). He is the Source,Spring,Author and Giver of all life. In its low- est form and its highest form, life is the gift of God. And he is sovereign over all. He gives life to the grass,and makes it wither and die. He gives life to man and beast,and takes it away at his pleasure.When God is pleased to do so, he can make a jackass reason like a man and talk (Num. 22:28). And when it is his pleasure, he can cause a brilliant,powerful man to eat grass like an ox, grow feathers like an eagle and make his nails grow like the claws of a bird (Dan. 4:32-33). God, who is life and sovereign over all life,gives spiritual and eternal life to whom he will (John 5:21; Rom. 6:23). Spiritual life in Christ is given, sustained and crowned by God alone. God shall have the praise of it!

Don Fortner