Give life

“He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”  Romans 8:11

Give life –  One of the greatest paradoxes of this world is the paradox that we are really not alive without His indwelling Spirit.  Look around you.  All of those people who move, breathe, eat, talk and otherwise display all kinds of “alive” activities are in the truest sense of the word nothing more than the walking dead without Christ.  If there were ever a horror movie, reality is it.  Zombies everywhere.

Why don’t we see this?  Because we have a near-sighted perspective about life.  We see present animation so we conclude we are living.  But Paul has an eschatological perspective.  He looks at the final end and makes his determination based on that.  And from that perspective, there are a lot of walking dead.

I was one of them.  I walked for years and years as an animated dead man.  In fact, I spent so many years training myself to believe I was really alive that even today I can easily slip back into that delusion.  My problem is that many times my old zombie mind distorts reality.  I begin to walk again as though my life is my entitlement, as though life is in me.  But Paul is quick to remind me that I don’t have life unless His Spirit is indwelling me. 

The Greek word for “give life” is actually stronger.  Zoopoieo really comes from two words that mean, “to make life”.  Do you see that unless God makes life in you by His Spirit, you are just plain dead.  It doesn’t matter what it looks like.  You might look like the most alive person on the planet.  The truth is this:  without His Spirit, you are already in the grave.

Life does not belong to me.  It is not mine to possess.  It is God’s gift.  He makes it happen, not me, not my parents and not some accidental biological process.  It’s God’s Spirit indwelling or it’s six feet under.  If I keep this perspective firmly in mind, my walking around life changes considerably.  It’s not my life I am living.  It is His life. 

“Father, make your life in me today.  Let my walking around be the life you give me.”