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A deep dive through the Bible

God Is Life

Not just the giver of life. Life itself. From the tree in Eden to the tree in the New Jerusalem.

We usually talk about God giving us life, as if life were a gift He hands over and then we carry on without Him. The Bible says something deeper. Moses says, “He is your life.” Jesus says, “I am the life.” Life isn’t something God has; it’s who He is. To be close to Him is to be alive. To walk away from Him is to walk away from life itself.

Follow this thread through the whole Bible. Tap any Hebrew or Greek word to open its word study.

Life comes from God

Before we can choose life, we have to see where it comes from.

1. Genesis 2:7

   Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

   Adam is dust until God breathes into him. Every heartbeat since has been borrowed breath.

2. Psalm 36:9

   For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.

   Not a fountain God built, but a fountain that is with Him. Life flows out of who He is.

3. Jeremiah 2:13

   “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

   The saddest trade in the Bible: leaving the fountain of living water to dig our own broken cisterns.

4. John 5:26

   For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.

   Everything else that lives has life given to it. The Father has life in Himself, and so does the Son.

5. Acts 17:25

   Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

   He doesn’t need anything from us. We need everything from Him, down to our next breath.

Two trees

In the middle of the garden stood two trees. They are the two choices every person still faces.

1. Genesis 2:9

   Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

   The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, side by side.

2. Genesis 3:5

   “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

   The serpent’s offer: “You will be like God.” The tree of knowledge is the choice to decide good and evil for ourselves, to be our own god.

   The tree of life is a picture of receiving life from God, depending on Him. The tree of knowledge is a picture of taking life into our own hands. That was the devil’s way from the start: be your own god.

3. Genesis 3:24

   So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

   Mercy in the judgment: God guards the way to the tree of life so we won’t live forever cut off from Him. But the way is guarded, not erased.

4. Proverbs 3:18

   She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who lay hold of her are blessed.

   The tree of life shows up again: God’s wisdom is a tree of life to those who hold on to her.

Choose life

Moses’ last sermon puts the two trees in front of Israel again.

1. Deuteronomy 30:19

   I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,

   Life and death, blessing and curse. God doesn’t only set the choice before them; He begs them to choose life.

2. Deuteronomy 30:20

   and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

   Choosing life means loving Him, listening to His voice and holding fast to Him.

   Look closely: Moses doesn’t say God gives you life. He says, “He is your life.” Choosing life and choosing God are the same choice.

The law could not give life

God’s law is good. It shows us the way. But it can’t make a dead heart alive.

1. Galatians 3:21

   Is the law, then, opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come from the law.

   If any law could make us alive, righteousness would come by the law. None can.

2. 2 Corinthians 3:6

   And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

   The letter kills; the Spirit gives life. Same Greek word: the law can’t make alive, the Spirit does.

3. Romans 8:3

   For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,

   What the law was too weak to do, God did Himself by sending His Son.

Righteousness leads to life, and to God

Being made right with God isn’t a ladder we climb. It’s a road that leads home.

1. Proverbs 12:28

   There is life in the path of righteousness, but another path leads to death.

   There is life on the path of righteousness.

2. Romans 5:21

   so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Grace reigns through righteousness, and it leads to eternal life.

3. Romans 8:10

   But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

   If Christ is in you, your spirit is alive because of righteousness: His righteousness, given to you.

4. 1 Peter 3:18

   For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,

   Why did the Righteous One die for the unrighteous? “To bring you to God.” Righteousness leads to God, and God is the source of life.

   Choose life → the law could not give it → righteousness leads to life → righteousness leads to God → God is the source of life. It all ends in a Person.

Jesus: I am the life

Then Life walked among us and said so out loud.

1. John 1:4

   In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

   In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

2. John 6:35

   Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.

   The bread of life. Not a meal you finish, but a Person you keep coming to.

3. John 10:10

   The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.

   The thief takes life. Jesus gives it overflowing. Abundant life isn’t more stuff; it’s more of Him.

4. John 11:25

   Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

   Said at a funeral. Death doesn’t get the last word when Life Himself is standing at the tomb.

5. John 14:6

   Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

   Not a way, a truth and a life. The way, the truth and the life, and the way leads to the Father.

6. John 3:16

   For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

   Why He came: not to perish, but to have eternal life.

7. John 17:3

   Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

   Jesus defines eternal life Himself, and it isn’t a place or a length of time. It is knowing God.

   This is the tree of life again. In Eden, Adam and Eve could eat freely from the tree of life: life with God, knowing God. Eternal life is that same life, given back.

8. 1 John 5:12

   Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

   As simple as it gets: whoever has the Son has life.

From sinner to son

Jesus told a story about a son who took his life out of his father’s hands, and a father who wanted him home.

1. Luke 15:19

   I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.

   The son’s rehearsed speech: “I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” He plans to come home as a servant.

2. Luke 15:22

   But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

   He is honest that he has sinned, but the father won’t let him come home as a servant. Before the speech is over: the best robe, a ring, sandals. Those belong to a son.

   We need to own our sin to come home. But sin is not who we are anymore. As long as I see myself only as a sinner, I’ll keep trying to come to my Father as a hired servant. He wants a son.

3. Luke 15:24

   For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found! So they began to celebrate.

   Listen to the father’s words: “dead … alive again.” Coming home to the father is coming back to life.

4. Romans 6:11

   So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

   So stop identifying with sin: count yourself dead to sin and alive to God.

5. Galatians 4:7

   So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.

   No longer a slave, but a son, and an heir.

6. 1 John 3:1

   Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

   Called children of God, “and that is what we are!”

Putting your life back where it belongs

We say we “give our life to God.” But it was His all along.

1. Matthew 16:25

   For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

   Hold on to your own life and you lose it. Let it go into His hands and you find it.

2. Galatians 2:20

   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 up for me.

   I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

3. Colossians 3:4

   When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

   Paul doesn’t say Christ gives you life. He says Christ is your life, just like Moses said.

4. 1 Corinthians 6:19

   Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

   You are not your own. That isn’t a loss; it’s coming home.

   Ironically, we pray to give our life to God, when God is the source of life. We should never have taken our life out of His hands. Coming to Him is putting your life back where it belongs.

Back to the tree

The Bible ends where it began: at the tree of life, open again.

1. 1 Peter 2:24

   He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”

   He bore our sins in His body on the tree, so we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds we are healed.

2. Revelation 2:7

   He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.

   The promise to everyone who overcomes: the right to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God.

3. Revelation 22:2

   down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

   The tree of life stands by the river, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.

   The Greek word for the tree of life here, xylon, is the same word the apostles used for the cross. The way back to the tree of life runs through the tree Jesus died on. The healing in 1 Peter 2:24 and the healing in Revelation 22:2 meet.

4. Revelation 22:14

   Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.

   The guarded way from Genesis 3 is open: blessed are those who wash their robes, so they may have the right to the tree of life.

Life isn’t something you get from God and then manage on your own. He is your life. Every other tree, whether success, control, being good enough or being your own god, is a broken cistern. Today you can choose life by coming back to Him as His child.

Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain).

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