The Spirit Of Life

The Spirit of Life

Read: John 6:53-66

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.”

John 6:63

“The future life only brings to fruition the seed sown here.”

—Geoffrey B. Wilson

IN WORD In one terse response to His disciples, Jesus boils it all down. God’s kingdom is so encompassing, so eternal, so all-consuming that it means everything. It is life—the source of life, the abundance of life, the destiny of life. All flesh—this world that we see with our eyes and spend most of our lives obsessing about—means nothing as an end in itself. It exists as a very good part of God’s creation, but it has no value—none at all—apart from life in the Spirit.

Disciples of Jesus must eat and drink of the eternal, absorbing everything that Jesus is as part of their daily diet. They must take on His spiritual nature and not give in to the flesh. They must live with eternal perspectives, considering themselves citizens of a spiritual kingdom. They must understand that the Spirit gives life and that the flesh counts for nothing.

IN DEED This may be as hard to hear for us as it was for Jesus’ disciples. We are physically oriented. We must eat and drink of the earth in order to survive. We see the world around us clearly, while our faith in the promises of the kingdom is “evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV). Though we set our minds on Christ, our eyes are riveted on the things around us and how we will get by in our world. The flesh is compelling.

But Jesus tells us to partake of Him. His is the life that we must take upon ourselves; His words are the Spirit that gives us His life (v. 63). We must daily reorient ourselves from the life of the flesh to the life of the Spirit. All of our decisions must be spiritually appraised from an eternal, kingdom-conscious perspective. Like Peter, we must acknowledge to Him: “You have the words of eternal life” (v. 68). Life can be found nowhere else.