LIFE in itself is mysterious. Its origin and development are the profoundest of secrets.
LIFE.
But its presence in the world is a fact none can overlook. Everything around us is divided into the living and the non-living.
LIVING AND NON-LIVING.
This great division in the world of natural things has its analogue in spiritual things. The divine classification of the human race is into the living and the non living: "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life." "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him.”
LIFE, BUT NOT ETERNAL LIFE.
Solemn words from solemn pages are these! Have you thought of them amid the hum of the crowded street or the hum of a June garden? Life in full evidence is around you in both instances, but not the "life" of the scriptures. For none can have "eternal life" apart from Christ.
THE LIFELIKE MAY NOT BE ALIVE.
There is a wide difference between the un-hewn marble and the sculptor's masterpiece, but neither the one nor the other possesses life. He who can give beauty to the shapeless block is powerless to bestow upon it life. There was such a difference, socially, intellectually and religiously, between the Jewish Rabbi and Philemon's slave, as some would compare with that between the lifelike statue and the quarried rock. But there was, nevertheless an absolute resemblance between Nicodemus and Onesimus in this— they were both spiritually dead. The Lord Himself laid down in His own emphatic words as the Son of God from heaven:
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Each must have a new life imparted—those that are "nigh" equally with those that are afar off. A man may be "not far from the kingdom of God," but except he be "born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Dear reader, let me ask, Are you a possessor of eternal life?