Living to Die, Or Dying to Live?

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39

A friend of ours recently died of cancer. When Tom and I visited him in hospice I was blessed to be able to tell him how his life had impacted ours before he passed. He and his wife served the Lord in the homeless ministry for many years and their dedication and obedience touched many lives for the Kingdom. He had many wonderful “God stories” and shared miracles as well as powerful testimonies of God’s amazing intervention in people’s lives. He was also a musician and he introduced us to Derek Webb, a very anointed musician and song writer. One of my favorite songs, by Derek Webb, is called What is not Love; I see things upside down This song has been an inspiration for many of my blogs (the upside down series) and has helped me personally to see and understand God better and seeing His “eternal” perspective. And interestingly enough, I was inspired again by my friend’s death to understand “life”, from God’s eternal perspective a little better instead of from my upside down temporal view.

From the moment we are born we are dying. This life here on earth is temporal yet we tend to cling to it like it was the most important thing we have on earth, and I guess it kind of is, in a way. We are created with a self-preservation instinct and a desire to fight for life but I am understanding more and more how we are clinging to and fighting for the wrong “life”! When we don’t understand “God’s” definition of life we can be devastated when a loved one passes away, becoming hurt and angry at God for taking a life that was so important to us. For the young who have passed, we tend to go down the thought processes of “They had so much more life to live!” and we grieve the loss of their impact in our own lives. And that isn’t necessarily ‘wrong’ in our temporal perspective.

But the more I get to know God, the more I understand His ‘eternal’ perspective

and when I shifted from temporal to eternal I had an epiphany… Since we are dying the moment we are born then we are in a body of “death” (Romans 7:24), right? So what I have realized is that God isn’t taking “life” at all, He is actually taking “death” away, our body of death, and GIVING us LIFE! Eternal life! He came to replace our body of death with a new, eternal life! THAT is what we need to cling to! Not this temporal body of death but the LIFE that God is giving us!

When Jesus talks about giving us “life” it is mostly life “eternal” and not the temporal. He knows that this life will quickly pass away, in a blink of an eye, a vapor in the wind, and like grass that is here today and gone tomorrow (Luke 12:28). But, when we talk about life, it is all about the here and now, like this life is all that we have… We are not looking any further than this moment and this life time. And we can so easily think that this is the life that Jesus is talking about too.

I decided to look into the scriptures and see when God talks about temporal life (psuche) and spiritual life (Zoe). And there is a third life that means things that sustain life, resources, wealth and goods, food and clothing (bios) but I won't go there today. So, in the scriptures I find, I will change the word from life to the Greek word for life for more clarity:

Zoe = “God-life”; Spirit (Strong’s definition: …The Lord intimately shares His gift of life with people, creating each in His image which gives all the capacity to know His eternal life.)

“But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to Zoë, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:14

“Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's Zoë does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Luke 12:15

“In him was Zoë, and that Zoë was the light of men.” John 1:4

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal Zoë.” John 3:16

“…but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal Zoë." John 4:14

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal Zoë and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to Zoë.” John 5:24 (did you catch that!? Even He referred to this life as “death”)

“For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives Zoë to the world." John 6:33

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have Zoë, and have it to the full” (more abundantly) John 10:10

“Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the Zoë. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26

“Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the Zoë. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

“Now this is eternal Zoë: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

In looking at these scriptures, Jesus IS this LIFE that He is offering. He died to give it and it is to be greatly desired and sought after… Here are the scriptures for the other, temporal life:

Psuche = Physical life; soul (Lexicon definition: breath; the breath of life; the vital force which animates the body and shows itself in breathing):

 “For whoever wants to save his Psuche will lose it, but whoever loses his

Psuche for me will find it.” Matthew 16:25

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own Psuche --he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26

“The man who loves his Psuche will lose it, while the man who hates his Psuche in this world will keep it for eternal Zoë.” John 12:25

“…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his Psuche as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28

“…just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my Psuche for the sheep” John 10:15

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his Psuche for his friends.” John 15:13

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his Psuche for us. And we ought to lay down our Psuche for our brothers.” 1 John 3:16

In these scriptures we are instructed to lay our temporal life down, to hate it… give it up for others!

So Jesus is clearly focused on and asking us to embrace the “spiritual”, eternal LIFE, and telling us to LET GO of the temporal, physical life of death, trading it in for the other! Even Paul has the same message and focus of Jesus:

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:17

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Romans 7:24

So… what am I trying to say here? I guess I want to ask myself and you, which life are we embracing and hanging on to? And why are we embracing it? Is it the temporal, desiring physical healing, wealth, riches and creature comforts? Or is it the Life of God in us? Nurturing His eternal life, dying to ourselves, and laying down our lives for Him and others?

Are we clinging to life, living to die? Or are we dying to live?

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24