Our Friday Devotion comes from "Daily in Christ" by Neil Anderson:
"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1 John 5:11-12 NIV
When God breathed life into Adam, he was both physically and spiritually alive. Adam was spiritually alive because his soul was in union with God. We were never designed to be separated from God or to live independently of Him. We were born to be spiritually alive.
For the Christian, to be spiritually alive is to be in union with God. This concept is repeatedly presented in Scripture by the prepositional phrase in Christ . Being in Christ is the theme of the New Testament. Like Adam, we were created to be in union with God. But Adam sinned and his union with God, and ours as well, was severed. It is God's eternal plan to bring human creation back to Himself and restore the union He enjoyed with Adam at creation. That restored union with God, which we find in Christ, is the essence of our identity.
When you were born again, your soul was united with God and you came alive spiritually, as alive as Adam was in the garden before he sinned. As the New Testament repeatedly declares, you are now in Christ , and Christ is in you. Since Christ who is in you is eternal, the spiritual life you have received from Him is eternal. You don't have to wait until you die to get eternal life; you possess it right now!
The apostle John wrote, "He who has the Son has the life" 1 John 5:12. He probably remembered Jesus' statement to Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die" John 11:25-26. After Jesus said this to Martha, He added, "Do you believe this?" verse 26.
The Word of God is clear: Because of Jesus, we will continue to live spiritually even after we die physically. Do you believe this?
Prayer: Dear Father, I declare my wholehearted belief that my spiritual life--eternal life--is in You. Help me live today with eternity's values in view.
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What an awesome reminder of Jesus’ presence and existence in our lives, our minds, and our bodies. Many don’t know this about me, but I used to suffer from severe and truly crippling anxiety attacks. The foundational platform from which my fears stemmed was death, an inevitable part of life, but nevertheless one of which I was terrified. For me, it wasn’t just something that would happen “some day.” It was something I believed might happen in the very next moment in time of my life. I believed this every moment of everyday for more than three years. If I was alone in a room, I could literally feel death waiting to swallow me. Sound bizarre? It was. It was utterly terrifying. Was I crazy? Some might think so, but no – I wasn’t crazy; I was scared and I didn’t know Jesus. As Mr. Anderson writes – “to be spiritually alive is to be in union with God,” and I was far from being in union with God. I was spiritually dead, but praise God in Heaven above because when I finally turned to Him, things started to change. I do believe it got harder before it got easier, but here we are today, right? Though I don’t want it to happen before I see my son grow old, I am so completely okay with the day I physically die because I know it’s only the beginning. It has been a miracle of God that it’s even possible for me to say that. For me, the restored union with God, found through Christ, is so indescribably precious. I pray that He never stops helping me to honor that union. Thank you for today’s devotional. It was truly touching on a personal level.
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