Living on earth for many decades can bring insight when a person is meek to the Creator. The greatest man who ever lived was only here for three decades, and yet he knew the Creator as a loving Father and made this eternal Spirit known to others. To understand the things of God, let’s consider four questions that every human will face during our brief existence in this world. Where did I come from? Why am I here? Why must I die? Where will I go after death?
Where did I come from?
Jesus taught that God is Spirit. No man has seen God at any time. Spirit is invisible, like the wind, but can be known as a breeze can be felt. This Deity has no sexual nature, yet uses physical qualities that people have so we can relate. Jesus called God a Father. We are born again of God’s incorruptible seed by the Word of God. The same way that a human father loves his children, God loves and cares for us. I may use the pronouns “He, His, Him” for God. Yet that is only in terms we can understand. And our understanding of the Deity is very limited.
The Creator built a world of matter, with life animated by soul. That soul can relate to the Spirit. God created animals on the earth, birds in the air, sea creatures in the water. Earth, air, water. Body, soul, spirit. God formed Adam’s body of the earth; God “breathed” into the nostrils of that body a soul. And God created Adam and Eve in His own image—giving them spirit. People still need earth, air, and water to live. Earth is found in food and all of the myriad systems that the Creator has set up for life to interact and flourish. Water is essential for life, even more than food that is composed of “earth.” Jesus lived for forty days without food, but it doesn’t say he had no water. Even though we can live days without food—and even water—we cannot live more than a few minutes without air. Just as water in the blood transfers nutrition and removes waste from all parts of our bodies, air is the engine of life that still animates us.
Each person instinctively cares for his or her own physical body. We lift our arm to our face when an object hurtles toward our eyes. Babies suckle their mothers to quench a desire for nutrients. We also protect our soul, our breath, when it is attacked. I remember swallowing a piece of meat that lodged in my throat and cut off my breath. As I stood dying, God showed me how to expel it. My breath returned and I still live. But how many people protect the thoughts that their soul animates? Are we just as quick to ward off fears and worries as we are to ensure that we breathe?
God designed people to discern and judge so that we can have our needs met. Yet, so much of our lives requires little conscious thought. Survival demands that our hearts continue to beat even when we sleep. We are built to automatically breathe in air and breathe out another gas (carbon dioxide, which is designed to help plants grow). At times gases are expelled from other parts of our body (burping, flatulence), which can cause annoyance or laughter depending on the culture. We are built to drink liquids that purify our blood, and then expel liquids (urine, mucus, sweat, tears) to get rid of wastes. The same is true of solids: food enters the stomach, is processed by other organs, and goes “out into the draught.”
The world is filled with spiritual beings, not just people. Those who have God’s spirit dwelling in their bodies, can use their soul life to think and know spiritual realities. The Creator has messengers and servants who are spiritual. The Greek word angelos for “messenger” gives us the most common name for these creatures, angels. There are cherubim and seraphim. There are chief angels like Michael and Gabriel. There are fallen angels, headed by Lucifer who now is called Satan (an adversary), and the Devil (an accuser), and the Serpent or Dragon (a subtle and deceitful creature that can sting and devour). Any person with soul life can feel the wind on their body. Any person filled with God’s holy spirit can discern spiritual things.
Why am I here?
This leads to our second question, what is our purpose in living? Solomon concluded that we are to love God and obey His will as the “whole duty of man.” Jesus certainly exemplified this truth as no other. He always did the will of his Father, even to the point of giving up his life for others. God is timeless, boundless, limitless in every way. He “knows.” That includes what people who live within time call past, present, and future. Before Adam rejected God’s love and grace, the Creator already saw the perfect deliverance for fallen man. In fact, God immediately told Adam and Eve that a “seed of the woman” would crush the serpent’s head. Women have no seed (Latin sperma); that comes from the male. But God did create life in a woman, Mary of Galilee, and she bore a son. That was the “seed of the woman” that the Creator promised. Jesus only took part of Adam’s nature. All other people fully share in flesh (from an ovum) and blood (life, like the sperm, is in the blood).
Adam and his descendants wanted to make things right again. The loss of Eden and its blessings was a great blow. They tried their own ways time and again, but only those who meekly asked for the Creator’s help received wholeness. Noah built an ark to save all breathing creatures. Abraham trusted the Creator to know God as his Lord and Friend. The all-knowing Spirit told Abraham that the promised seed of the woman would one day come from his bloodline. And in that seed, all bloodlines and nations and peoples would be blessed and saved.
God is only good, and only wants good for His creation. Any person who is alive and breathing can learn. Watching our grandchildren grow and learn is sometimes more vivid than when we raised their parent, our own son or daughter. As young parents ourselves, we may have had other responsibilities that kept us from seeing the amazing development from infant to toddler to child to youth to adult. But what should we learn? To love and obey our Creator. That really is our “whole duty” and responsibility.
Logically, if Jesus was right and God is Spirit, we must have spirit to know Him fully. We can use our bodies and souls to observe and see God’s creation—the beauty of the starry expanse and the countless miracles of life on our planet. But no man has ever seen God with his eyes. Jesus taught of the light in the eye, of spiritual insight. Jesus was filled with the holy spirit beyond measure. Yet, this man who was promised for so long, decided to pour out his soul unto death. What was his duty? To pay for Adam’s transgression. Now anyone can believe on his accomplishments and receive God’s holy spirit to dwell within. When we are born again of the spirit, we can truly know the Father and worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Jesus was part of the creation. He could be seen and heard and touched. He could make known the Father. Jesus was God’s prize and salvation from the beginning. Jesus came into existence “in these last times for us,” even though he was known by the Father before the foundation of the world. Jesus changed from newborn to infant to child to man. He changed from death to life when God raised His Son from a Jerusalem tomb. Jesus now is Lord of all creation, seated at God’s “right hand” (a position of authority and power) with a spiritual body. The purpose and work of Jesus Christ is the same from yesterday, today, and lasts forever. And anyone who accepts this truth will have God’s spirit.
Romans 10:9:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved [made whole, receive the spirit].
Why are you here? To believe on Christ, to be filled with the spirit, and to walk spiritually in a world where many creatures are still only body and soul. God had words recorded by those people with spirit so that we can know what we have. The Bible is the story of those men and women. After Christ arose, his apostles (Greek for “sent ones”) made known more fully how to walk by that spirit. That is how we can only really love God and obey His will.
Why must I die?
No person wants to die. Some may open to the suggestions of fallen angels and take their own life or the lives of others. Each moment on this earth is a precious gift. We are to cherish our time here and use our God-given abilities to the Father’s glory, to “shine” for Him. Jesus Christ continues to help us in this life, making intercession for those who trust in him. Yet, even great believers like Peter, Paul, and James spoke of their physical death as it approached. Peter knew he must shortly put off this “tent” of a body; Paul said he had fought a good fight, completed his race, and stayed faithful to what he was called to do. James knew that life was a vapor that appeared for a short time and then vanished away.
To answer this question, we must recognize the author of death. The Creator is all good, all light, all life, all love, all of those things that bring us joy and power and peace. Lucifer was the brightest of creation and thought that he could sit upon the throne of the only Almighty God, his Creator. That is like a piece of turkey thinking it could eat the person who made it into a sandwich. Yet I have experienced blinding pride and over confidence in my life and relations. I have tasted of this foolish and destructive force. Lucifer turned to himself for power and authority. He was the only being that he himself would obey. Sadly, for himself and all of creation that continues to “groan,” in so doing he turned away from God, the only true source of life. Some may ask, why did this loving and benevolent Creator allow such evil to exist? Evil, like death and darkness and night, are the absence of what God provides—His goodness and life and light and day.
When Lucifer, the Light carrier, became the wicked one, he also became the father of lies and brought his death-dealing power to any who would follow him. That great fall brought down a third of the angel beings who listened to him. This created being used his free will choice to lose all of the brightness that he had reflected from the true source of light, his Creator. He offered “the lie” that the creation is to be worshiped more than the Creator; taking the form of a brilliant creature to dazzle and sway and deceive the first woman and then her husband. Adam and Eve lived for hundreds of years after this deception. But they did eventually die—as did all their descendants to this day. But there is a promise that this earthly life is not the end.
Where will I go after death?
As in Adam, all die—so in Christ, will all be made alive. Has that occurred? Have all who have died been made alive in Christ? The scripture continues to say every man will have new life “in his own order”: Jesus Christ as the first raised to life with a new spiritual body, then those who are born again when Christ returns in the future. Then comes the end, when all those who rejected God and His Son will face the consequences of their unbelief. There is a second death for those who have not turned to God for eternal life. Satan’s old trick of being his own sufficiency has the deadly outcome of losing God’s goodness and love.
I do not know what eternal life with the Father and His children will be like. I do know that I will have a glorious body like unto Christ’s glorious body. I know that my present body is still animated by soul, just as Adam’s was originally designed (God made all people of “one blood”). But we are surely promised that this corruptible frame will put on incorruption and this deadly body will put on deathlessness. I know whom I have believed and am fully persuaded that I will have a spirit-animated life throughout eternity. God doesn’t lie—the Devil does.
Paul was a man who was beaten, stoned, whipped, cursed, and starved for his belief in Christ. He loved God and thanked the Father for sending His only Son to die for us and make available spiritual life. He wrote to a group of followers living on the isthmus of Corinth and explained the value of enduring in this life. There is only one spiritual foundation: the risen Messiah and Lord. Believing in him (what Jesus called “the work of God”) ensures eternal life. Built upon that foundation are the things we do in this life: whether glorious silver and gold and precious gems, or worthless wood, hay, and stubble. Spiritual fire will purge those things we have done in this life, and we will be rewarded for those that last. One way to know that we are producing lasting works is that they are based on God’s love as we walk by His spiritual guidance. That is to put on the mind of Christ, and that is to glorify our Father through His Son.
