Jesus is the LIFE of Our Being
Jesus is the LIFE of our being
In the book of Acts, Paul is speaking to a group of Philosophers and Thinkers in the Acropolis. They have invited Him to speak to them because He has been performing miracles in the name of a God they didn’t know - and they wanted to know more.
The Greco-Roman world was full of gods. They had gods for everything and, in order to satisfy all of their many gods, they had gods of gods, so that if they couldn’t satisfy and please the thousands of individual gods, they could at least try to satisfy the ‘boss’ gods - who would keep the rest in line. Complicated!
They even had statues to the ‘Unknown god’ just in case they missed one.
So we pick up the story with Paul speaking to these learned men…
Acts 17:22-28 NKJV
“Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”
I want you to notice something. These were not Jews; people that at least were part of the faith of Yahweh, the God of Israel. And Paul was not in a synagogue.
These were Gentiles. Polytheistic, idolaters, and child sacrificers.
But he doesn’t condemn them for these things, instead, he says - “God is actually not far from each one of you…for in Him we live and move and have our being.”
In effect he is saying, the One True God you seek - you are already in Him.
Wait. What?
The air you breathe - is His. It’s His gift to you.
The Earth you live in - is His. It’s His gift to you.
The blood that is in your veins - is His. It’s His gift to you.
Paul said to them - “we are all His offspring.”
Not just us Jews.
Not just us Christians.
Paul was saying that you are not the product of your parents, you are the product of God’s design and His forethought. God is your true and actual Father. There are NO accidents walking around in human flesh. Every person has come from the imagination of a loving God, who authored their very existence and is actively sustaining their life - which will go on forever.
All of humankind is made in the image and likeness of God.
God imagined you with all of your features, gifts, interests, personality, sense of humour, ways of thinking about things, and formed flesh around you from the dust of the earth and then breathed His life into you.
God has said a big ‘YES’ to you.
Remember the way God revealed Himself to Moses?
Moses said - who will I say has sent me? God said - “I AM that I AM. Tell them the I AM has sent you.”
‘I AM’ means ‘Being Itself.’
Essentially God was saying, from MY BEING comes all other ‘beings’ and forms of life.
God also introduced Himself as THE LORD, translated from the 4 Hebrew letters - YHWH
YH (Inward Breath) + WH (Outward Breath)
In summary, God said, “I AM THE LORD.”
BEING + BREATH = LIFE
Consider also what Job wrote.
Job 33:4 NKJV
The Spirit of God has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
And other statements by Paul to the different churches of Asia Minor.
Col. 1:16-17 NKJV
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
1 Cor 8:6 NKJV
…for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
And in John’s gospel.
John 1:3-4 NKJV
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Jesus was essentially saying - I am the author of the life that you live.
You are not some random, living being - that somehow came into existence by some third party, causal process that was outside the interest or care of a loving God.
Instead, Jesus is saying, “I am the WORD that created you.
I am the LIFE that fills you now.
I am the LIFE that sustains you - both now and into your eternal future.
You can imagine a different LIFE SOURCE for your existence - but it is a mythology.
You exist because I saw you in my imagination and heart along way before you came into existence. The fact that you exist is because I am the author of YOU.”
Therefore - you were always born from a heart of love - and His love and presence has never left you.
