The Miracle of Life

By David Hall

For most of us, including the scientific community, life in nature is a mystery.  We can discern where it is, and can observe its characteristics and the conditions under which it can exist and multiply.  But we cannot create it nor fathom its mysteries. 

There are three kinds of life we can talk about.  All of us are aware of biological life, and many will acknowledge some form of spiritual life.  Fewer have encountered divine life.

I remember reading an article years ago which described an archaeologist who had gone into a tomb in Egypt and had found an urn full of wheat seeds over 4000 years old.  The amazing thing was that when some of those seeds were planted, a crop sprung up.  That is life!  It is more than just chemistry - it is biological life. The  Greek word for that kind of life is ‘bios’.

Then, a little over 30 years ago, I remember being in a labour ward with my wife.  I watched as a little purple, blue-ish body was placed upon her mother’s breast, and instantly became pink with life and vitality. It was an amazing experience for me as I stood there in awe.  Here was a life - a different kind of life. Yes, there was biological life here, but there was more.  It was spirit and soul life.  There is another Greek word for this kind of life.  It is ‘psuche’.  Psuche denotes our human life, the thing that makes us different from the animal or vegetable kingdoms.  It involves our soul and spirit.

But there is another kind of life that we must consider, and there is also another Greek word to describe it.  This life is divine life – God’s own life.  When the apostle John speaks of this special life he uses the word ‘zoe’.  Let us consider this life for a moment.

God is eternal so the life in Him is eternal.  The word ‘eternal’ does not just refer to endless time, but it also expresses limitlessness in every aspect.  There is nothing greater than God and His life.  It was this life that was brought into the world when Jesus was born of the virgin Mary.  This is why the incarnation of the Son of God had to be by a virgin birth.  God was not just multiplying human life and equipping a man with a special form of ‘psuche’.  God was bringing divine life into flesh.  God Himself was coming into flesh in the person of the Son of God.  Here was a new thing.

Since Adam was created, mankind has possessed human life.  We stole that life and went our own way in our attempt to live independent from God. The prophet Isaiah said, ‘all we like sheep we’ve gone astray.  We have turned, everyone, to his own way.’  In Adam we all became alienated from God, ‘dead in our trespasses and sins’.  Eph 2:1 

Now God wants to restore us back to relationship with Himself so that our human ‘psuche’ life is renewed.  But more than that, God wants to plant in us the seed of  His very own ‘zoe’ life.  In the vessel of our ‘bios’ life, in which resides the ‘psuche’ of our soul and spirit, He wants to place His own life.  At that point a miracle takes place so that we become joined to God.  We become sons of God, empowered by His ability to live as He designed us in the beginning.

But the arrival of the life of God within us is not the complete story.  This is because the gospel is not about simply infusing us with His life so that we can be better people.  We are, in fact, to be joined to Him to share the one life that is His.  This happens at the point where we give ourselves to Him and to His people, presenting ourselves as ‘living sacrifices’.  Rom 12:1.  From that point on we are identified with the Son of God, as members of Him.  Having laid aside our independence, we belong to Him in every way, just as He gave Himself to do the Father’s will.  This ensures a constant supply of His life flowing to us and in us, multiplying each time it is offered back to Him on the altar of worship, love and service to God.

That is the heart of the gospel message.