Meanderings on LIFE, part 4

I concluded last time with John 1:4, where the apostle John says that in Jesus "was life". He's already said in the previous verse that everything that was created was created by Jesus--or to say it another way, without Him, nothing was made that was made...which would include all LIVING things. And now in verse 4, He makes clear that LIFE itself is in JESUS...implying that Jesus IS LIFE--has it as part of His essence and that He is then the source or originator of everything else that is alive.

Now think of the burning bush incident recorded in Exodus 3:1-14. What caught Moses attention wasn't just a bush on fire, it was the fact that the fire was burning, but the bush was not being consumed. For fire to exist--to be alive--as with every other thing that's alive, it must have an interaction and exchange with something outside of itself. In other words, fire must consume fuel, just like everything other living thing. This bush was on fire, but the fire wasn't consuming it. It gave off light, it surely did illuminate it's surroundings, but the main issue was: it didn't need anything external to itself to be what it was...sort of like it...had LIFE in itself.

From the midst of that fire, God begins a conversation with Moses. A few verses later, Moses asks God what he should say to Israel when they ask him what the name of the God of their fathers is. When they ask, "What is His name?" Moses wants to know what he should say.

God's response is: "I AM WHO I AM" and then God summarizes by telling Moses that he should say to them "I AM" is the one who sent him to them. What does "I AM" declare? That He is the one who exists, who has always existed, who has LIFE in Himself. The fire that Moses stands before, a fire that needs nothing outside of itself for its continued existence, is a visual proclamation of the reality that God has LIFE in Himself, that He is self-existent. What the Creator has permitted us to discover about LIFE apparently doesn't apply to Him. We were certainly created in His image and according to His likeness--like Him in so many ways, yet clearly unlike Him in others.

Enough for now....