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Preached on 05-09-99

LIFE

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)

WHAT IS LIFE? It is a remarkable thing that though people value life so highly, they are in general in complete ignorance as to what it really is. There is, of course, some general understanding as to the differences between something that is living and something that is not. Biologists will list certain characteristics possessed by living organisms. Doctors and lawyers will struggle for and reach general agreements on a definition of death -- that is, a way to define the absence of life. But when it comes to saying just what life is, there is widespread confusion. The atheist is likely to say that it is merely some kind of chemical reaction -- a process which will one day be completely explained in terms of molecular biology (cf. DP 314:3). The person who believes in God is willing to accept that life is something more than this -- something which lies behind the various bodily processes, and that this life, this something, is given by the Creator. But just what this something really is, they do not know, except that it is, perhaps, some ethereal entity or force (cf. DLW 363).

Though there is deep ignorance as to what life is, still it is highly valued. The reason for this is obvious. Though people might not know what life is, they value what it does. Life gives them the ability to think, to feel and to act (cf. DLW 2), those very abilities which appear to be lacking in a corpse. People want to live, they want to exercise those abilities which come with life, and they fear the loss of them. Without these abilities, they feel that they would no longer exist as human beings. And so it is that many people fear their eventual death. They fear it because they believe it marks the end of their existence as conscious, feeling, moving human beings. In many ways this fear is perfectly reasonable. The end of life, if there were such a thing, would indeed be the end of human existence. But the fact of the matter is that there is no end to life. Death would be a frightening possibility, were it not for the fact that the Lord has revealed that there is no such thing as the death of a human being.

Human beings we are told, were created by the Lord to live forever. The natural body may cease to function, but the individual life continues -- it continues in a much more perfect spiritual body. Knowing that a far better world awaits us, we do not have to fear the death of the physical body. We know that we will continue to exercise those abilities which come from being alive. We know that we will continue to think, to feel and to move.

But we are not only told that life will continue forever. We are also taught that life can increase. This is what the Lord teaches in our text: "I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." And in the Writings the Lord reveals in further depth the amazing truth that life is not only something we have, but something we can have more or less of. We tend to think of life as something we simply have, and that is all there is to it. But this is simply not so. Every human being has life, but some have more life than others. Furthermore, each one of us can, if he wishes, receive more life.

It is important to realize this. We might assume that because we are human and so cannot die, we are therefore assured of eternal life. However, though it is certain that we will never die, it does not follow from this that we will necessarily receive eternal life. When the Word talks about "eternal life" it is not talking about the mere continuance of human existence. It is talking about life which increases and grows more abundant to all eternity. Not everybody receives this eternal life. As we read in John: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die" (Jn. 11:25-26). It is a very well-known passage, teaching clearly that the Lord gives man eternal life. But it also seems to say that this is only the case with good people -- that only people who believe in the Lord live forever. But in a very real sense this is indeed the case. Evil people do continue to live, in that they do continue their lives. But the life which evil people have is so sparse in comparison to those who are in good, that it is not referred to as life, but as "death" or "eternal death" (AC 7494).

We are scarcely aware, while we live in this world, of the vast difference between the abundant life of a good person, and the meager life of an evil person. This is because we seldom reflect upon what life really is. We tend to think from the appearance, tend to think that we are beings who possess life within ourselves. Strictly speaking, though, we are not living beings. We don't have life within us. We are dead, formed from the dust of the ground (see TCR 470). Only the Lord has life, for only He is life.

This, the Writings teach us, is what life really is. Life is not a chemical reaction. It is not some ethereal and vague vital power. Life is the Lord Himself (DLW 4, et al.). Life is not something the Lord has made and put in us to endure forever. Life cannot be made, for it is uncreate. The Lord does not make life, for if He did so, it would be the same as creating Himself (TCR 470). As we read in True Christian Religion: "Who does not see, when he is able to think from reason elevated above the sensual things of the body, that life is not creatable? For what is life but the inmost activity of the love and wisdom that are in God and are God, which life, indeed, may be called the essential living force?"(TCR 471).

By ourselves, then, we are dead, completely lacking any life of our own. But we were created by the Lord in a very special way: we were created to receive the action of His life. Because of this, when the Lord acts upon us, we can act or react to His life, using it and enjoying it as if it were our own, in accordance with our own desires. In this sense it can be said that man is living. But still this life is not man's, but flows in directly from the Lord: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7).

Once we know that life is the Lord Himself, we can see many things more clearly. We can, for example, see why it is that the life within a human body can produce such wonderful effects. We can see why life can form and maintain a human body, and a human mind. No blind force could do this. But life is not a blind force. Life is an infinitely wise and loving Divine Human who makes us in His image and likeness, and gives us the power to move, to sense things, to think, and, above all, to love freely whatever we choose to love. Knowing that life is the Lord, we can also see why it is that a person can never cease to exist. If life is the Lord's presence, it will continue forever, for the Lord will never leave us. We can also know this: that if life is not our own, but is the Lord's -- indeed, is the Lord -- then it can be received in different ways depending on the type of person who receives it. Because life does not reside in a person, but is only received by him, it is therefore possible for him to pervert, twist, and even resist it.

Such resistance to life cannot occur at the point at which life enters into us from the Lord, for life is first received into the soul, which is above our consciousness, beyond our reach. Life as it is received first into the soul can never be harmed or destroyed, even by the person himself. It is by virtue of this that all human beings, even those who are completely evil, live, or exist, forever. But once life is received from the Lord into the soul, it then flows down into the mind and body. It is the way life is received as it descends which determines the degree and quality of a person's life.

Following birth, life is received mainly in the body, and only obscurely in the mind. A new-born baby in fact really doesn't have a mind at all, but only certain organics, or receptacles, in which a mind can later be formed. But then he begins to learn. Knowledge and experience are accumulated. Later on, rational ideas also are comprehended and assimilated. In this way a mental structure is formed. A certain form of mind comes into being. And this form of mind is a receptacle of life (AC 1900).

This is very important to realize. The things we learn are nothing else than vessels within the mind, vessels which receive life from the Lord. The more plentiful these vessels, and the more perfect they are, the more life we are capable of receiving.

We can all see this from our own lives. When we were children, we had our lives and we enjoyed ourselves. But now we are adults, and know more things, and deeper things, we realize that our lives are much richer, much fuller. It is not simply a question of being able to enjoy and appreciate life more as we develop. We can, as we progress, actually receive more life from the Lord within our minds.

This increase of life is to some degree dependent upon how much we know. But it depends even more on the quality of what we know. Since what we know is a vessel for the reception of life, it must be a suitable vessel. Life is nothing else than the presence of the Lord Himself, acting upon and giving vitality to that which receives Him. If He is to be present within our minds, then within our minds there must be suitable vessels within which He might be present.

Sadly, it often happens that the vessels within a person's mind are not suitable at all. His mind is completely filled with worldly thoughts and worldly concerns. Deep within there lurk false, selfish and hateful thoughts, ideas and feelings. How can such things receive the Lord's life? They cannot. The Lord's life does indeed still flow in. But as the mind receives this life, it twists it, and resists it. And when this happens, the person is relatively dead. He is dead to all that is truly alive and living, dead to such things as love, kindness, gentleness, charity and compassion. Whatever life he does receive is meager and distorted.

From birth we all have an inherited tendency to resist the Lord's life. We have a tendency to reject spiritual life. But we can, if we are willing, begin to open ourselves up to this life, to receive it freely. This is one reason the Lord came into the world. It is one reason also why He made His Second Advent. "I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." The Lord came to reveal truths, truths from Himself. We can learn and receive these truths. We can receive them first into our memories -- for the memory is the courtyard of the mind. Then we can come to believe these truths. We can come to understand them. Then we can live them. As we do this, these truths become a part of our minds. And in these truths the Lord can be present. He can dwell within them, for these truths are from Him. And when the Lord is present in this way, we can then receive life in fullness, for the Lord is Life.

The importance of acquiring some of these truths on a regular basis cannot, therefore, be overestimated. We can easily fall into the trap of thinking of the other world as a long way off. We can put off thinking about it, thinking that even if we should die sooner than expected, we will, after all, live forever. But, if we are to live forever, as opposed to merely existing forever, then here and now we must prepare ourselves to receive eternal life. We must receive it while we live in the world. It is here on earth that we must begin to learn from the Lord in His Word, and receive what we learn by living according to it. In this way vessels can be formed within our minds, vessels capable of receiving the Lord, vessels capable of receiving life in fullness.

We may enjoy the life we have now. But the life we have is scarcely anything compared to the life that we can receive. We are offered nothing less that ever-increasing life to all eternity, a life of ever-increasing happiness and joy. All we need do is turn to the Lord and follow Him.

A thousand years from now, or ten thousand years from now, when we are in heaven, we might, if it were possible, look back upon our lives as they now are, and reflect upon how dead and empty our lives really were, how dead and empty we were before we had fully received the Lord.

If we turn to the Lord He will bless us with everlasting life. The Lord has come to us. He has come to us that we receive life, and that we might have it more abundantly.

Amen.

Lessons: Gen. 2:1-7; Jn. 10:1-10; DLW 4