ONE LIFE
What is salvation, how are we saved? By living the Life of Christ, who
alone is Life.
Salvation means
living the life of God. We can only be saved by his life that is why Jesus is
the way. Where are we going to find life apart from him? Jesus is the way
because in him is life and his life is the light of men. Outside his life,
there is only darkness. Thus we are in him and thus we have light. God alone is
Saviour because he alone is Life. Jesus Christ is God and he has saved us by
joining us to himself so that we draw from his life and live.
How do the myriads of myriads of people live? In Union with Christ. All
people share one life.
In essence,
salvation is our union with Christ. We are joined to him and so we live. We
cannot live apart from him since cut off from him, it doesn’t exist. The
billions of people on earth have only one life – the life of the Son of God.
Billions of people sharing the same life. There are not many lives so that each
has their own life. It is the one life of Christ by which the many live. We are
immersed in the one life and so we live.
Does he create another life? No, he shares his life with all.
Living, being
is his essence and this is what he has privileged us with. He doesn’t create
another life. It is his life he shares with all, and this life animates
countless beings, and as for us humanity, he has joined us to himself so that
we are one Spirit. He put all men in Jesus Christ, and when he birthed the
Firstborn in the Resurrection, he birthed us all together with him. This is how
our vitality, essence is in our union with Christ, thus Father commands all men
to believe in Jesus and live. This is salvation - our union with Christ.
What is life? Life is God and he creates things. These don’t have their
own lives; they live the one life of God.
Life is being,
existence contrary to non-being, inexistence. God did not create life; he is
life and out of his essence, he brings forth things that are animate yet these
animate things do not have their own lives. God did not create individual
lives, no more than we can create life outside of our essence. God did not
create individual lives, he created people and things and breathed his life in
them and they lived. Life is always in the singular; even as God is one, so
also there is one life like the one God who created many and they live by his
life.
What brought us into existence? God, Life, Being.
God is being
and outside of him is non-being. So when Jesus says he is the life, he means
it, literally. Apart from Christ, there is no life; there is no other life,
like one may say God is life and there is another who also is life. The another
is non-life, inexistence, non-being. God, life, being, existence are one thing
to designate the essence that brought us into being. We used to be non-being
for God alone is Being yet according to the good pleasure of his will, God
brought into existence things that were not.
How did God bring us into being? He joined us to himself and we partake
of his life and so we live.
Being is
almighty, omnipotent, all-powerful and in his wisdom he generated as many as he
conceived them. But he doesn’t create another life. He generates these from his
essence; and so whatever is originates from his one and only life.
How is Christ the Way? He is the only way we live because there is no
other life apart from his.
That is why
Jesus says he is the way because there is no other way to have life apart from
our union with him. He joined us to him and we partake of his life, and so we
live.
What does being grant us? Being grants us consciousness, awareness,
movement, livingness, enjoyment, pleasure, happiness.
Being grants us
awareness, consciousness; we have the privilege to meet people, to witness the
world and creation; we can eat, sleep, love, which are all so delicious. We
walk, talk, hear, laugh, sing, dance, run, play and so on. We partake of these
things because God conceived us in his heart and brought us into existence by
sharing his life with us. This is because life has dawned on us as The Miracle,
the biggest blessing ever - to benefit from the quality of God himself.
What did Jesus reveal about life? That he is the one Life that we live.
In the fullness of time, God
appeared in the world in the form of man and the Word of God was made flesh and
dwelt among us. He taught us what we used to be ignorant of - that he is the
life that man lives. That there is only one life and this life is his life and
it is in him we move, sit, stand, eat, sleep, walk, talk and live. We used to
think life was in the form of a human being, and this being lived by himself.
The Son of God became man to show us that life is God, and this life is our
light. We see the world, we walk on earth, we experience creation through this
one life of God. He came to give us an understanding that apart from being
joined to him, we cannot live.
Is this
religion? No, this is creation whereby we are made without our consent, so we
live because Life generated us.
This does not depend on whether we
believe in him or not; this has nothing to do with religion; this is not a
matter of sin or morality. This is humanity. This is ontology, this is
creation, by which we are brought into being without our consent, also we are
saved without our consent since we are made from him who is life and we live because
it is Life that generated us. This is our being, nature, essence, and
existence.
God’s goodness.
Life is beautiful so he granted us this grace to live and savour the beauty of
life.
We didn’t ask
to be born yet God, knowing this beauty, conceived us in his heart and shared
his essence with us. We were in his heart for eternity just as those who are
not yet born, our great grandchildren, are in his heart. Then we appeared in
this world and rejoiced to see this beauty of existence. This is a gift beyond
measure; to be brought out of non-being into being, out of inexistence into
existence. What a glory!
When did we begin to exist? In God who conceived us in his heart. Being
born is when we became conscious of his grace who shared his happiness with us.
Being born into this world was not
the time when we existed. We existed in God who conceived us in his heart for
eternity. Being born into this world is the time we became conscious, and became
aware that God had shared his happiness with us by bringing us out of non-being
into being, from inexistence to existence. So the child rejoices, celebrates,
runs here and there to show his gratefulness for being here.
Are there many
lives as there are many men? No, there is one life of Christ and the many live
that one life.
In times past, we didn’t know what
life was and how it came about, and we thought God created individual lives,
and each man had his own life. When we saw a man, he equated him with life, and
so we thought there were many lives, even as they were many men. In the
appearing of the Son, God revealed that there is only the life of Christ and we
live through our union with him. The many men we see on earth are animated by
the one life of Christ. That is how Jesus is the way the truth and the life.
How are we born
of God? In the Incarnation he included all things in himself. In the
Resurrection he births all creation which he took into himself.
In the Incarnation, the one who created
man and the entire cosmos, the angels and all of nature, entered into creation
as man to reclaim all things. He took all creation in him by the power by which
he also created all things, and sustains all things by his one life, and he
died with all creation in him. In the Resurrection, he brings back all things
into existence, this time by birth.
What happened
in the Resurrection? He birthed all in himself and made all things new.
Jesus Christ is the Seed of the
Father and when he rose from the dead with all creation in him, he birthed all
in himself and made all things new - nature, the elements, the animals, and as
for humanity, the people he created in his image and likeness, he gave them
power to become the sons of God.
What about
Humanity? He gave them power to become sons of God, to be conformed to the
image of the Son.
These were created for this specific
purpose, which also he fulfilled. Now the Spirit of the Son finds compatibility
with man because man was created to house God. The nature of man, his build,
shape and figure is moulded after the Son of God. Man is in the image of God
because the purpose of God creating man is for man to be conformed to the image
of his Son.
What does
Gregory of Nyssa say? It is the totality of humanity that is saved; the human
nature and thus all people who have that nature.
Notice that he didn’t wipe out old
humanity and make a new one. God doesn’t discard anyone he has conceived; he
redeems them. He didn’t throw away the first, and bring in a second to deal
with the latter only. Humanity is one and it consists of every man Father has
ever conceived. Just as God is one yet three persons, so also is humanity - one
yet many persons. If one man is tainted, the whole is. If he had to wipe out
one, he would have to wipe out all, and what he would bring would not be
humanity, but another being. Yet this being he would bring would not be what he
intended for what he intended was a being in his image. Yet whenever he creates
a being that has his form, it is a man that appears.
What mind-set
do we have? The Spirit gives us a glimpse of his goodness, of the glory.
What would God do? Discard his dream
because of sin that has tainted it? No, never, nada; that didn’t even cross his
mind for a bit. Being omniscient, he knew man would fall. Knowing something in
advance doesn’t mean you created it. A wise one would know how a people with a
human nature and freewill would act in every case. That, however, didn’t
dissuade God and so, he created man because it is his dream he was realizing.
He sees the masterpiece in eternity though we who are unaware of the totality
ask questions, and think the injustices of the world could be a reason why we
shouldn’t have lived. The injustices of the world, sin or death will not thwart
God’s dream because he knows the beauty, and when we too come to have a glimpse
of it by his Spirit, we are shocked by the scandal of his goodness, and like
the apostle, we reckon that the suffering of this present age could not compare
to the glory that shall be revealed in us. This is the mind-set we have in the
face of contradictions.
How is
everything one in Christ? He included all men in Christ and in the Resurrection
of Christ, Father births all men.
In the fullness of time, God entered
creation through the Virgin Mary, and took all humanity in his body and died.
We who were not present at that time were also in him because he included every
man he has conceived in eternity. New humanity does not come out of the process
of creation, but out of regeneration. It is birthed in the Resurrection of
Christ. This is the power over death, the enemy that had been ravaging man.
This is God springing forth new humanity out of old humanity who all died in
the death of Christ on the Cross. This is Father giving birth to his sons in
Christ as he had always wanted – his dream come true in the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ our Lord, even the Seed of the Father.
The analogy of
the fish and water, the one sun and one earth.
He is the way because no other way
can produce life. An analogy - water is being and fish live in water. Outside
of water, fish cannot live. Fish can only live in water because outside of
water, there is no other habitat for fish to live. Christ is life and man live
in him. Outside of Christ, man cannot live. Man can only live in Christ because
outside of Christ, there is no other habitat for man to live.
Although there are many people in
the world, there is only one sun that shines on all. Again, though people are
found on different locations of the globe, and in various epochs of time, there
is only one earth in which humanity lives. In the likeness of the one sun and
earth, which have served the countless people of all ages, so also is Christ.
Although there are many people, these share the one life of Christ. No man has
their own life no more than no man has their own sun or moon or earth that
serves them individually. It is the one sun, the one earth that serves the
totality of humanity. So the one life of Christ quickens the totality of
humanity. The people don’t have many lives, but they share one life, and it is
through our union with Christ, the one life, that the many live.
Life is
beautiful. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The weight of his
glory.
Life is beautiful; this is true
because it is the quality of God and he is calling us to believe in Jesus and
live because Christ is the way the truth and the life. It used to be that no
man could know what God had prepared for them that love him. Now God has
revealed it to us by his Spirit. Yet we are aware we only have a glimpse of it
and are excited to see how he sees humanity, to know how he knows us, to
receive the weight of his glory for all eternity in Jesus Christ our Lord.
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