By Pastor Don Schatz

Life In Jesus

 “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”

John 5:26  The English Standard Version 

Ancient theologians defined sin as ‘curvatus in se.’  Being curved in on oneself.  One is one’s own idol.  One is the center of one’s own world.  One lives, moves and has one’s being completely focused on oneself.  To the absolute disinterest in, and disdain for, all else.  Look at yourself in the mirror.  And never stop.  Why would you look at anyone or anything else?  You are all that matters.  Curvatus in se.

Humankind does not have life in and of itself.  We are not alive due to the nature of our being.  We are created.  From dust we were made; to dust we shall return.  Not so Jesus.  “In him was life…” (John 1:4).  Only life.   The Word Incarnate, Jesus the Christ, is pure life.  And it doesn’t stop there.  John 1:4 continues, “and that life is the light of humankind.”

The Lord God has aimed us at life, indeed eternal life, in and through Jesus.  The spiritual back, bent over and curved in to behold only oneself, is bent over because the back is burdened with its sack of sin, by definition.  How does one stand straight and tall before God and man?  In and through Jesus.  Jesus imparts forgiveness.  He who was bent by the burden of his cross as he trudged to Calvary stood straight as he emerged from the tomb.  And we stand straight in him.  Faith clings to Jesus.  Faith humbles one to confess sin; to receive the assurance of God’s forgiveness; to trust God’s promise.  Faith gives life.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado