1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John reminds us in the beginning of his Gospel that all things exist because of Jesus Christ. He gives physical life. Before the word of God spoke and Jesus brought forth our world, there was nothing. Lifelessness. The world was in chaos. It began with a thought from God; then a word; then light came and stuff started happening. And to this lifeless world things came into existence to sustain life. It was made to keep us alive, or to make our life more fulfilling. God filled our world with sun, with plants and trees and grass, and grains, and fruit and vegetables and flowers, and scrubs. The first physical life is vegetation.
My wife likes to hang onto the Christmas trees much longer than I do. It is dead. We can decorate it and make it look alive, but it once was alive and now dead, never to be resurrected. Perhaps if we saved some pinecones, we could plant it. Maybe a seed could die to be buried and come to new life. But I doubt it.
Because God is the source of life, it is a gift from Him. Jesus continues to be the source of all life. The sustainer of life and by his grace provides what we need for life.
God warned Adam and Eve not to eat of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Disobedience would result in death. Since they disobeyed death now came into the world and the days of man physically are limited on earth.
We spend lots of money to improve this physical life. We fight disease; we spend billions to make this temporary body look like it isn’t so temporary. We paint it up, tuck it in, cover it up. But this physical life is a gift from God and comes from Jesus.
Application: That which you enjoy in your life today, give Him thanks. That which you will enjoy for eternity, give Him more thanks!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, the truth of the resurrection of the body reminds us there is also a physical life after this temporary body is put in the grave. Thanks to You, Jesus, for that. Amen!
Dale
