(BIOS); the physical, biological life, the duration of a man’s existence, the physical means of life and livelihood.
(PSUCHE); the soul-life; the psychological life; the personality.
(ZOE); life in motion and in activity, life as the principle of life – in the absolute sense of being really life; hence, God’s life, the highest life, almost always with “the eternal” life.
An Exposition of New Testament Words, p. 167, W. L.
According to the Greek New Testament, there are three kinds of lives: the bios (physical) life, the psuche (psychological) life, and the zoe (eternal) life.
Stream, Feb. '73, p. 6, W.L.
THE TRIUNE GOD AS LIFE
GOD—THE SOURCE OF LIFE
John 5:26
For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son to also have life in Himself;
Ephesians 4:18
Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
CHRIST IS LIFE
John 11:25
Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live;
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.
Acts 3:15
And the Author of life you killed, whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.
Colossians 3:4
When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.
1 John 5:11-12
- And this is the testimony, that God 1gave to us eternal life and this life is in His Son.
- He who 1has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
The testimony of God is not only that Jesus is His Son but also that He gives to us eternal life, which is in His Son. His Son is the means through which He gives us His eternal life, which is His goal for us.
Because the life is in the Son (John 1:4) and the Son is the life (John 11:25; 14:6; Col. 3:4), the Son and the life are one, inseparable. Hence, he who has the Son has the life, and he who does not have the Son does not have the life.
1 John 5:11-12, Footnotes 111, 121, W.L.
1 John 5:20
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
CHRIST CAME TO GIVE LIFE
John 5:39-40
- You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me.
- Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
John 10:10
The thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.
John 10:28
And I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.
THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
Romans 8:2
For the 1law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.
...Life is the content and issue of the Spirit, and the Spirit is the ultimate and consummate manifestation of the Triune God after His being processed through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection and becoming the indwelling, life-giving Spirit, who is life to all the believers in Christ....
Romans 8:2, Footnote 21, W.L.
THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE
John 6:63
It is the 1Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
At this point the Spirit who gives life is brought in. After resurrection and through resurrection, the Lord Jesus, who had become flesh (1:14), became the Spirit who gives life, as is clearly mentioned in 1 Cor. 15:45. It is as the life-giving Spirit that He can be life and the life supply to us. When we receive Him as the crucified and resurrected Savior, the Spirit who gives life comes into us to impart eternal life into us. We receive the Lord Jesus, but we get the Spirit who gives life.
John 6:63, Footnote 631, W.L.
1 Corinthians 15:45
So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:6
Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
The Spirit, who is the ultimate expression of the Triune God, was not yet in John 7:39, because at that time Jesus had not yet been glorified. He had not yet finished the process that He, as the embodiment of God, had to pass through. After His resurrection, that is, after the finishing of all the processes, such as incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, that the Triune God had to pass through in man for His redemptive economy, He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). In the New Testament, this life-giving Spirit is called “the Spirit” (Rom. 8:16, 23, 26-27; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; 6:8; Rev. 2:7; 3:22; 14:13; 22:17), the Spirit who gives us the divine life (v. 6; John 6:63) and frees us from the bondage of the law.
2 Corinthians 3:17, Footnote 173, W.L.
THE WORD IS LIFE
John 6:63
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Acts 5:20
Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.
Philippians 2:16
Holding forth the 2word of life, so that I may have a boast in the day of Christ that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.
Different from the doctrine of dead letters. The word of life is the living breath of God (2 Tim. 3:16), the Spirit who gives life (John 6:63). We have the Lord Jesus as our pattern (vv. 6-11), we have God operating in us (v. 13), we are God’s children, having God’s life and the divine nature (v. 15), we are luminaries qualified to reflect the divine light of Christ (v. 15), and we have the word of life to hold forth, to present, to others. What a divine and rich provision! By such we are well able to carry out God’s salvation to its climax.
Philippians 2:16, Footnote 162, W.L.
LIFE IN THE EXPERIENCE OF THE BELIEVERS
THE PROMISE OF LIFE
2 Timothy 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus,
Titus 1:2
In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, 3promised before the times of the ages
This must be the promise of the Father to the Son in eternity. The Father chose us in the Son and predestinated us unto sonship through Him (Eph. 1:5) before the foundation of the world. It must have been in eternity that the Father promised the Son that He would give His eternal life to His believers. By this life the believers, who were given to the Son in eternity (John 17:2), would become His brothers (Heb. 2:11).
Titus 1:2, Footnote 23, W.L.
1 John 2:25
And this is the promise which He Himself promised us, 3the eternal life.
According to the context of vv. 22-25, the eternal life is just Jesus, Christ, the Son, and the Father; all these are a composition of the eternal life. Hence, the eternal life also is an element of the all-inclusive, compound indwelling Spirit, who moves within us.
1 John 2:25, Footnote 253, W.L.
THE GIFT OF GOD—ETERNAL LIFE
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 5:11
And this is the testimony, that God gave to us eternal life and this life is in His Son.
APPOINTED TO ETERNAL LIFE
Acts 13:48
And the Gentiles, hearing this, rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
LIFE THROUGH THE GOSPEL
2 Timothy 1:10
But now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who nullified death and brought 3life and 4incorruption to light through the gospel,
The eternal life of God, which is given to all believers in Christ (1 Tim. 1:16) and which is the main element of the divine grace given to us (Rom. 5:17, 21). This life has conquered death (Acts 2:24) and will swallow up death (2 Cor. 5:4). It was according to the promise of such a life that Paul was an apostle (v. 1). This life and the incorruption that is its consequence have been brought to light and made visible to men through the preaching of the gospel.
Life is the divine element, even God Himself, imparted into our spirit; incorruption is the consequence of life's saturating of our body (Rom. 8:11)....
2 Timothy 1:10, Footnote 103, 104, W.L.
REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE
Acts 11:18
And when they heard these things, they became silent and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also God has given repentance unto life.
BELIEVING INTO THE SON UNTO ETERNAL LIFE
John 3:15
That every one who believes into Him may have 1eternal life.
This is the divine life, the uncreated life of God, which not only is everlasting with respect to time but also is eternal and divine in nature. So in vv. 16, 36.
John 3:15, Footnote 151, W.L.
See note 103 in 2 Tim. 1.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.
John 3:36
He who believes into the Son has eternal life; but he who disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.
John 6:40
For this is the will of My Father, that every one who beholds the Son and believes into Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day.
John 6:47
Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes has eternal life.
John 20:31
But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.
1 Timothy 1:16
But because of this I was shown mercy, that in me, the foremost, Jesus Christ might display all His long-suffering for a pattern to those who are to believe on Him unto 2eternal life.
The uncreated life of God, the ultimate gift and topmost blessing given by God to those who believe on Christ.
1 Timothy 1:16, Footnote 162, W.L.
PASSING OUT OF DEATH INTO LIFE
John 5:24
Truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life.
1 John 3:14
We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. He who does not love abides in death.
JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE
Romans 5:18
So then as it was through one offense unto condemnation to all men, so also it was through one righteous act unto justification of life to all men.
WALKING IN NEWNESS OF LIFE
Romans 6:4
We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.
LAYING HOLD OF ETERNAL LIFE
1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold on the eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.
1 Timothy 6:19
Laying away for themselves a good foundation as a treasure for the future, that they may lay hold on that which is really life.
EATING THE BREAD OF LIFE
John 6:33, 35
- For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
- Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst.
EATING THE TREE OF LIFE
Revelation 2:7
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
Revelation 22:14
Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.
DRINKING THE WATER OF LIFE
John 4:14
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water gushing up into eternal life.
Revelation 21:6
And He said to me, They have come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely.
Revelation 22:17
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.
This verse [v.14] can be considered a promise of the enjoyment of the tree of life, which is Christ with all the riches of life; and the second half of v. 17 can be considered a call to take the water of life, which is the life-giving Spirit. Thus this book ends in a promise and a call, both of which are for eating and drinking the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit.
Revelation 22:14, Footnote 141, W.L.
LIFE OPERATING IN THE BELIEVERS
2 Corinthians 4:12
So then death operates in us, but life in you.
LIFE MANIFESTED IN THE BELIEVERS
2 Corinthians 2:15-16
- For we are a fragrance of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:
- To some a savor out of death unto death, and to the others a savor out of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
2 Corinthians 4:10-11
- Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
- For we who are alive are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
SAVED IN HIS LIFE
Romans 5:10
For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled,
REAPING ETERNAL LIFE
Galatians 6:8
For he who sows unto his own flesh will reap corruption of the flesh, but he who sows unto the Spirit will of the Spirit reap eternal life.
REIGNING IN LIFE
Romans 5:17
For if by the offense of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
THE CROWN OF LIFE
James 1:12
Blessed is the man who endures trial, because when he has become approved by testing, he will receive the crown of life, which He promised to those who love Him.
Revelation 2:10
Do not fear the things that you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison that you may be tried, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
OUR NAMES WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE
Philippians 4:3
Yes, I ask you also, genuine yokefellow, assist them, since they contended with me in the gospel, as well as with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Revelation 20:15
And if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:27
And anything common and he who makes an abomination and a lie shall by no means enter into it, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
LIFE DISPENSED INTO THE TRIPARTITE MAN
THE SPIRIT
Romans 8:10
But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.
THE SOUL—(MIND)
Romans 8:6
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.
THE BODY
Romans 8:11
And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.