The Life

Pilate asked the question, 'What is truth?' Jesus gave him no answer. Some ancients believed this was because the answer was hidden in the question. They searched and found that if you re-arranged the letters of the question 'Quid est veritas?' (in Latin, the language in which Pilate would have asked the question), you got the answer, 'Est vir qui adest' meaning 'It is the man who is present.' The story may be questionable, but its conclusion is spot on. Truth personified stood before Pilate. If he could not recognise truth standing in person before him, what words could Jesus speak that would enlighten him?

Every word that Jesus spoke was true. However, truth is more than words. Every thing that Jesus did was truth. Every action, every gesture, and every look upon his face expressed the truth. He spoke the truth, he lived the truth and he was the truth - just as he spoke the word of God, he lived the word of God and he was the word of God. The spirit that was in Jesus was the spirit of truth.

The same spirit that was in Jesus is also in his body. Its members also will speak the truth, act the truth and be the truth. They will be a walking gospel and visible demonstration of God to the remainder of mankind. Just as Jesus is the truth, we also are becoming the truth.

The Life

Twice Jesus said he was / is the Life. 'I am the resurrection, and the life' (John 11: 25) and 'I am the way, the truth, and the life' (John 14: 6). How can we understand this spiritual mystery? What is life?

Physical life is a state of union between the spirit, soul and body. At death this union ends. Living people can engage in every kind of activity of body and of mind. They can eat, drink, sleep, walk and run. They can speak, think, laugh and cry. At death, all such activity ceases. The soul and spirit leave the body, which soon begins to disintegrate, until in due course all its identity is lost. We can control neither its beginning nor its end.

Strangely we have little or no control over the two most important events of our lives. Birth can result from an impulsive, unpremeditated act between two young people. Death, likewise, can come at any time through factors completely outside our control. Both these great events are totally in the hands of God.

Physical life is a picture of spiritual life. Spiritual life is union with God. Spiritual death is separation from him. Jesus said, 'This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent' (John 17: 3).

Spiritual birth is the beginning of spiritual life. From then all spiritual activity becomes possible. We can eat and drink and walk and talk in the spirit. We can pray and worship God.

Jesus gives us this spiritual life. He not only gives this life, but he himself is the life. When we receive him, we receive life.

He said to his disciples, 'He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me' (Mat 10: 40). We are in Him, and He is in us. That means that anyone who receives us is thereby receiving him. When they receive him, they receive life.

The spirit of Christ both in Jesus and in us is this spiritual life.

The True Vine

Jesus said, 'I am the vine; you are the branches' (John 15: 5). This was the last great 'I am' statement that he made. He spoke these words in the middle of his long discourse the night before he died. The central theme of that discourse was the great differences that would come to the disciples when they received the Holy Spirit.

Of all the trees in the land of Israel that Jesus could have chosen, he selected the vine. He could easily have said, "I am the palm tree; you are the branches." The vine and the palm tree both bear fruit, but their appearances are very different. A palm tree has a long clearly defined trunk and branches that are almost leaves. Its branches are completely different from its trunk. A vine is made up entirely of branches and has no clearly defined trunk at all. In other words, the vine is its branches.

We could easily think that the palm tree would have been a better picture of Jesus and his followers. The long, strong trunk would represent him, and the cluster of large leaves at the top would be his followers. That however is not the picture he chose to represent himself and us. He chose the vine, the one plant that is made up entirely of branches. We are totally identified with him. He is the vine, and we are also the vine. We are in him, and a part of him.

The vine perfectly illustrates what Jesus said, 'Remain in me, and I in you' (John 15: 4). We have no separate identity from him. If we are in him, and he is in us, then whatever he is we are. If he is the Son of God, we also are sons of God. If he is the bread of life, then we also are the bread of life. If he is the light of the world, then we also are the light of the world. If he is the way, the truth and the life, then we also are the way, the truth and the life.

May God make these things a glorious reality in us!

Before Abraham was I am

Lastly we will consider these words that so infuriated the Jews. Jesus existed before Abraham was on the earth, and no one who in any way believes in him doubts this.

Did we also exist before Abraham came to earth? More and more people these days believe that we did.

What say the scriptures?

The book of Ecclesiastes makes a clear pronouncement: 'the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it' (Ec 12: 7) The word return cannot mean anything other than to go back to where you have come from.

Other familiar Bible passages have strong implications on this subject.

Paul describing the state of the unbeliever wrote, 'God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions' (Eph 2: 5). John uses similar language: 'We know that we have passed from death to life' (1 John 3: 14). Unbelievers, according to both Paul and John, are in a state of death. The word dead, according to both my dictionaries, means no longer alive. In other words, you have to be alive first before you can be dead. You know whenever you see a dead animal or bird or plant that it was previously alive. The scriptural teaching that the natural man is in a state of death implies that he had previously been alive in some other state.

Paul also wrote, 'He chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him' (Eph 1:4). Were we chosen before we existed? It's possible, but it certainly makes better sense if we already existed before the foundation of the world at the time when we were chosen. This scripture also suggests an existence before we came into this world.

This life then is a brief stopover in time between two eternities. I have expanded this subject in the article Pre-existence.

Conclusion

John and Ezekiel saw visions. In the spirit, they had a preview of the perfected body of Christ. They saw in a picture God's plan and blueprint for a glorious future reality. God, who sees the end from the beginning, sees it already complete. They were privileged to see through his eyes.

Jesus saw with eyes of faith what his disciples were going to become. He could say to them, 'You are the light of the world,' when they were just taking the first steps of their spiritual journey, and still full of the many failings we no doubt see in ourselves. Jesus believed in them and spoke in faith of what they were going to be, and already were in the sight of God.

We do not yet see the completed body of Christ. We see a building still under construction, largely hidden by scaffolding. We see mud, rubble and debris all over the building site. We can look at our own failures, sins and inadequacies and feel we can never be the light of the world, the bread of life, the way, the truth and the life. But that is not what God does. He sees the completed and perfected building. He looks at us, as Jesus looked at his disciples, and sees what we are going to be. In faith Jesus says to us, 'Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect' (Mat 5:48). And we press forward for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ.