Last week, we spent some time looking at the Gift that Jesus came to give us – the Gift of LIFE! It was part of His essential being when He came to planet Earth. Remember how John began His Gospel by saying,

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:4).

This “life” provides spiritual “light” to all who receive it. And, if you recall, we discovered that John closed out His Gospel by informing his readers about the purpose of his writing, which was that,

“…you might believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah) the Son of the living God, and that by believing, you might have “LIFE” in His name” (Jn. 20:30-31).

But there were those who rejected the LIFE that Jesus came to give them for two primary reasons: 1) they were looking for Life in the wrong place; and 2) they refused to believe that only Jesus could give it to them. Here is how Jesus confronted the religious leaders of His day, 

“You search the Scriptures (the Old Testament) for in them you think you will have eternal Life, and it is these Scriptures that bear witness of Me; but you are unwilling to come to Me so that I can give you Life” (Jn. 5:39-40)

They were searching diligently through the Law in order to find eternal life, but they failed to realize that the Law only leads to spiritual death, and only Jesus could give them spiritual Life. Years after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Apostle Paul wrote,

“The letter kills, but the Spirit gives Life” (2 Cor. 3:6).

And in the very next verse, Paul spoke of the Law as, 

“…the ministry that brought death (spiritual death), which was engraved in letters of stone…”
(2 Cor. 3:7).

Even today, people try to keep the “letter of the Law,” but fail to realize that keeping the Law only results in spiritual death. The truth is that Life comes through the Spirit of God, given to us as a gift from Jesus Himself. The Old Covenant focused upon obedience to the Law, which only led to spiritual death, while the New Covenant focuses upon receiving the Life that Jesus came to give us, and then responding by loving Christ and others through the power of the Holy Spirit. So, don’t look for spiritual life in all the wrong places as the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did. Look to Jesus Himself for the real spiritual Life that you and I crave. 

But to whom does Jesus give this spiritual Life? He gives it to a very select group of people. That group is not a previously selected or chosen group, but to those in whom He finds a heart willing to hear His message and accept it. Well, enough for this week. We will tackle this subject in next week’s blog. Hope to see you then.  

In the meantime, may the Lord bless and keep each one of you in His care.