Column - Do you realize Christ who is life?

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Column - Do You Realize Christ Who Is Life?

 “So it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is  spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which  is  spiritual.” (1 Corinthians 15:45-46)

1. It is frustrating that Christians today seem to understand the life of the flesh and the mental strength of the soul, yet seem to know very little about the life (zoe) given by Christ.

The result of Adam's fall was that the path to the Tree of Life was blocked.

It is God's command to receive Christ, who is the Tree of Life, and have eternal life (John 12:50).

That is why the Lord asks, "What is a man profit,  if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).

He is not referring to natural life.

If he seeks to save one's life, he will lose it; anyone who loses his life for the Lord will find it, and the way to do so is to deny oneself, take up one's cross, and follow the Lord (Matthew 16:24-25).

The 144,000 redeemed from the earth are those who have not defiled themselves with women but remain pure; they are those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, and they are those who have been redeemed from among men as the firstfruits belonging to God and the Lamb (Rev. 14:3-4).

The question is whether we know redemption from the earth and redemption from men, and whether we know the place where we follow the Lamb.

If a Christian is able to follow the Lord, the High Priest who has entered behind the veil with the anchor of our souls through the Book of Hebrews (Heb 6:19-20), then we can say that we follow the Lamb.

On that path, we continue to obtain life (Heb 10:19-20) and reach glory.

2. The problem is that knowledge of eternal life (Yada, Ginosko) is superficial.

Because eternal life is abstract, it presents a theological model answer that it is knowing God and knowing his Son.

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After having eternal life, one comes to know the eternal life  in the Father and the Son, by the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:24-25).

Furthermore, he lives by the Word (Rhema), which is Spirit and life, just as the Lord said, “he who eats me, even he shall live by me” (John 6:57).

This is because the last Adam is the quickening Spirit, that is, the life-giving Spirit.

Humans born on this earth who died in Adam due to transgression and sin must necessarily be resurrected by being united with His resurrection through the death and resurrection of Christ to be saved.

Therefore, those who are attached to Christ, the firstfruits, come to possess the faith of resurrection.They are not merely witnesses of the resurrection, but apostles with whom the Lord, who is the resurrection and the life, is present.

3. No one can inherit the Kingdom of God through flesh and blood without being born again.

Just as a clod of clay cannot escape the Earth's universal gravitation, a person of the flesh belonging to the earth has only a life dependent on breath, like Adam, the living soul (Isaiah 2:22).

However, those belonging to heaven—that is, the born-again spiritual people—live through Christ, the life-giving Spirit

By accepting passive death through faith, they experience the manifestation of Jesus' life in their bodies.

Through this, the life of Jesus is manifested in their mortal bodies through the barter of exchanging their own lives for active faith in the cross of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:10-11).

Regarding this, I dare say it is the essence of resurrection faith.

What else but the power of resurrection is it that while the outer man is wasting away, the inner man is renewed day by day?

To put on the image of heaven through Christ and to obtain the glory of that image is the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:49).

It is pitiful if humans, who are supposed to eat from the tree of life and live with God, fall into paradise and do not taste the world to come during the time of the flesh when they suffer tribulation in the devil's world (1 Corinthians 15:19).

I am not trying to say that we have a heaven to go to in the future.

Those born of the earth and belonging to the dust must be born again to become spiritual people in whom Christ, the treasure and image of God, dwells within that earthen vessel.

Without this mystery, life is going to end tomorrow, so let us eat and drink; it becomes a faith steeped in moral pleasure, saying that it is a blessing for humans to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves.

This is how humans are under the sun.

4. We heard and believed the fact that, through the atoning grace of Christ’s cross, we were transferred from Adam, the man of dust, into Christ, the spiritual One of heaven, and were baptized to be united with his death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-5).

We have become spiritual beings belonging to heaven.

However, while our bodies are still lumps of dust destined to die and be returned to the earth due to sin, our spirits lived through righteousness (Romans 8:10) and have obtained the qualification of children of God who can seek the life hidden in heaven.

Therefore, we must not keep Christ, who is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), outside.

We will become the Laodicean church, an eschatological church with closed doors (Rev. 3:14-22).

Consequently, we must break free from the fixed notion—like Martha or Mary—of knowing Jesus merely as one who heals the sick, failing to believe He is the resurrection and the life, and believing like parrots that he will be resurrected on the last day. Instead, we must always believe in Christ, who is the present resurrection and present life, as Lord and call upon His name.

In these last day, living in the flesh is a time of tribulation for all.

However, by keeping the commandment through which the Lord rescued us from death by his resurrection and transferred us to life in Christ, and through which the Spirit of truth teaches and reminds us so that we become one bread, one body, and one spirit with Christ, we must seek the fullness of the Holy Spirit with a living faith that receives heavenly spiritual gifts within the Triune God, even though our bodies may be weary.

Therefore, we must approach the throne where Christ, the high priest who intercedes and waits for us to be perfected, is seated (Hebrews 7:25).

It is precisely being redeemed from the earth and from man and following the Lamb.

Written by Pastor. Yohan Kim

Translated by Missionary Sookyung Chung

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