By Dr. Anne Davis

We commonly think that “life,” as opposed to “death,” means exclusively eternal life that is future. In this life now we see ourselves “dead in sins,” although we know that our faith in Yeshua will make us alive some time when he returns. 

I do not dispute this common understanding of “future eternal life.” However, I suggest that most Christians are missing the very important element of “life NOW” in this world. We may be “dead in sins” but we don’t have to stay that way.

Turning to the Hebrew Scriptures, and the way the authors of the New Testament used these Holy Writings, we can better understand the two-fold nature of” life.” One is in the olam haba  (the world to come) and the other is in the olam hazeh (the world that is now). We rest with shalom in the knowledge of the olam haba. But now we are called to walk in the fullness of life as followers of Yeshua. Yet what is the “fullness of life now,” and how do walk in it?

When I was still stuck in my traditional understanding, I remember agonizing over Deuteronomy 30:15-20. There God sets before Israel a choice, “life and tov [that which is good], death and ra [that is, evil].” God’s requirement and following consequences are clear. You are to “love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply.” Alternatively, if we choose death and evil the consequence will be that “you shall not prolong days in the land.”  However, as Christians who focus on future eternal life rather than the fullness of life now, we are drawn to God’s exhortation in this passage, and the contrasting consequences, to “choose life so you may live, you and your descendants.”

Here’s the rub. The children of Israel knew they belonged to God, who called Israel His firstborn son (Ex 4:22) and referred to Himself as their Father (Deut 32:6). But what about Christians? They don’t have to be because they are already saved by their faith in Christ. They already belong to God (and “God is not a man who lies”).

Yes, those with faith in Yeshua will be saved (Rom 10:9-10). But what is “true” faith? Does it mean that one must demonstrate that faith? (that sounds alot like works). But can someone who lives in egregious sin really have true faith in Yeshua?

The solution to this uncertainty lies, in part, in the distinction between the promise of future eternal life (all those who belong to God including the people of Israel) and how we choose to live as children of God now. The first Christians, who were Jews, understood this principle of life in God quite clearly. Listen to Paul, who was speaking to the Greeks in Athens. “In Him [Yeshua] we live and move and exist” (meaning in our life now: Acts 17:28). And again, in his letter to the Romans, “If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (in our life now: Rom 8:13). Paul does not mean that we must be righteous in order to earn eternal life. He is talking about the fullness of life now.

And how do we live now in the fullness of life? Paul makes it quite clear. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:25). Walking by the Spirit is a fullness of life now.

If you want to know more about these matters, there are other teachings that might interest you. You will find them on the BibleInteract website – www.BibleInteract.com. Use the search feature to find these and other teachings.

No Longer Under the Law

Walking by the Spirit as Servants of God

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