Christ is our life 

[By M. L]

The gospel has always been about laying the glory of men in the dust and exalting the glory of God as our Saviour. It gives no occassion for men to glory for we are justified by the law of faith and not by the law of works. Our own life, even in the holiness of the Spirit, cannot and will never replace the perfect righteousness of Christ who died in our place for our sins. 

At creation we were made in the image of God. 

[Genesis 1:27 ESV] "27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

This was a great privilege. But even though we were created in his image, we never had any divinity or immortality innate in ourselves. We were completely dependent upon God for our life. And even under the old covenant it was clear that without God there was no life:

[1 Timothy 6:16 ESV] "16 who (God) alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen."

[Deuteronomy 30:20 ESV] "20 ...loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.""

But after sin the image of God was destroyed in us. Thus we were seperated from God. And since we did not have any righteousness anymore we did not have any life as well. 

Righteousness and life are closely connected:

[Luke 10:25-28 ESV] "25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" 27 And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." 28 And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.""

[Proverbs 12:28 ESV] "28 In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death."

But since the very beginning sin as been connected with death:

[Ezekiel 18:4 ESV] "4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die."

[Genesis 2:17 ESV] "17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.""

In the Hebrew this verse literally says 'you shall die die'. It repeats itself for emphesis. God meant it. They would really die on the day they would eat of that tree. And though though the death sentance was not executed when they did eat of that tree, the death penalty was put on their head on that day.

This shows that when we have righteousness, we have life. If we have sinned, we have death.

This means that when we say we have an immortal soul and life innate in ourselves we are saying nothing less than that we ourselves are righteous.

No! Let the glory of men be put to the dust. God looks upon us, sinful human beings, and He only sees a vapor passing by. He compares us to a cloud and we are nothing more than dust:

[1 Peter 1:24 ESV] "24 for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,"

[Genesis 18:27 ESV] "27 Abraham answered and said, "Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes."

[Psalm 39:5, 11 NKJV] "5 Indeed, You have made my days [as] handbreadths, And my age [is] as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state [is] but vapor. Selah ... 11 When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely every man [is] vapor. Selah"

The penalty for sin is thus described:

[2 Thessalonians 1:9 NKJV] "9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,"

[Matthew 10:28 NKJV] "28 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

[Psalm 104:35 ESV] "35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the LORD, O my soul! Praise the LORD!"

[Zephaniah 3:8 ESV] "8 "Therefore wait for me," declares the LORD, "for the day when I rise up to seize the prey. For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger; for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed."

[Matthew 13:40 ESV] "40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age."

There is no greatness and power in us to withstand the coming of the LORD. There is simply no way sinners and transgressor can stand before the eternal God who is a consuming fire. He hates sin and His holiness demands the life of the sinner; the destruction of their soul and body. It is to be brought to ashes. Only the righteous can remain in this fire:

[Isaiah 33:14-16 ESV] "14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: "Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" 15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, 16 he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure."

This is what we are by nature; vanity:

[Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 ESV] "5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun."

I think this makes it very clear that we have simply no life in ourselves. We are destined for death and eternal destruction. This death is like a perpetual sleep; nothingness. Complete blackness. 

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in the fire and after that they are as if they never were. In this way Gods victory over sin will be complete.

But if life is really that vain and if this is to be our end; why are we still here? Is there any way in which we can stand before God if we are not righteous?

There is only one Way. There is One who is called the Word of God. This is the Eternal God Himself. His Person has eternal value and He alone can pay that infinite price for sin with His own life and still stand resurrected.

This is Jesus, the Christ:

[1 Peter 1:24-25 ESV] "24 for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this Word is the good news that was preached to you."

[John 11:12-14, 25 ESV] "12 The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died, ... 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,"

[John 1:1-5 ESV] "1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

The darkness of death could not hold the Light of life. 

In ourselves we are but nothing. When we die, it will be like a sleep just like Lazarus.

But when we believe in Christ His righteousness and His life is imputed to us as if it's our own. 

What wonder! We have been transferred from a position of being counted as dead, as dust and a vapor to being counted as the eternal Word of God Himself. Thus eternal life is not found in our soul or in our righteousness, but in the life and righteousness of another:

[1 John 5:12 ESV] "12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life."

[John 3:16 ESV] "16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

[John 6:53 ESV] "53 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."

The resurrection of Christ is the surety of every believer. Our surety is not in some kind of energy or life in ourselves that goes to heaven when we die. No!

Our surety is in Christ alone! And only when that Sun of Righteousness comes back in great glory with His beams of life we will arise out of our sleep and be with Him forever. Only then we will ressurect because He is our life:

[Colossians 3:4 ESV] "4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

[1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ESV] "13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words."

[Daniel 12:2 ESV] "2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

This is how death is described. We are but dust and nothing. We deserve eternal destruction. 
Christ, who came to bear this penalty, shed His blood for this very cause. He did not come to be tormented in fire in our place, but He came to die the death of the sinner. Death in itself can only matter if it is like a perpetual sleep. If death itself is not the end and if we still live on as a soul; how can we say that Christ paid the price for our sins? What does it matter that He died in our place? Isn't death nothing more than a seperation of the body and the soul were the soul still lives on?

The atonement only makes sense with this doctrine. The glory of men can only be truly layed to the ground when we understand that in ourselves we have no life, but that this life can only be found in our eternal High Priest Jesus Christ. The lie of Satan that we will not surely die and these fantasies of human greatness, divinity and immortality in any way has to stop. 
This is our message; Christ is our life and Christ is our righteousness and there is no one else who can have this reality. Immortality is only found conditionally in Him.

This is the Gospel of Life.