I was 13 when “the Jesus revolution” (not the film, but the real thing) began to sweep through my home town of five thousand people. Like new movies, this Holy Spirit movement reached us two or three years after “release,” but when it came, it was enthusiastically received. Now, small town people know most of the others, or at least we know of them, and I began to see lives change. Drastically. Once-steely faces now shone in newfound gratitude. Rebellious hearts became humble, their testimonies overflowing in eager hopes that others might also discover new life in Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit. I kept waiting for people to “change back” to their old selves, but few ever did. So, I wanted the joy that she had, the peace that he had, and the certainty that they had. But what exactly was this change, this apparent newness of life?
In the New Testament, we find three Greek words translated “life” in English. “Bios” [bee’-os] refers to the physical body (think “biology”), and “psuche” [psoo-khay’] refers to the breath that gives life to our bodies, and also our feelings, desires, and emotions (think “psychology”). With these we are born, and without them we die. But the life Jesus brings us is very different; in Greek it is “zoe” [dzo-ay’]. This is the very life of God—it is His by nature, it was His before creation, and He sustains it through His ever-enduring being. It is this life—God’s own “zoe” life—that is born in us when we place our faith in His Son. Jesus said that if He is not in us, we have no [zoe] life in us, but if He lives in us through faith, we have eternal [zoe] life, and He will raise us up on the last day.1 We who are in Him will always live, because He who is in us will never die.
Jesus once said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and are [zoe] life.”2 It is, perhaps, a deeper glimpse into Jesus’ assertion of this from Deuteronomy, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”3 God speaks His Word—His life—into our very being. Knowing this, why would we ever deprive ourselves of His Word? For through it, God speaks life to us—the new and forever life of joy, peace, and certainty.
“In Him was [zoe] life, and the [zoe] life was the Light of mankind.”4
Father, You are my life and before You I quiet my soul. Speak that I would hear Your words of spirit and life—Your “zoe” life. In Christ I pray. Amen.
1 John 6:53-54
2 John 6:63 NASB
3 Matthew 4:4 NASB (cf Deuteronomy 8:3)
4 John 1:4 NASB
Paul Nordman—Author 