The Doctrine of Christ

LESSON THIRTY-SEVEN Life in Christ

1. God is the source of all life. Psalm 36:9; Jeremiah 2:13; Job 12:9, 10; Psalm 66:8, 9; John 5:26; Acts 17:24, 25, 28. TDOC 95.2

2. Life from God was imparted to man in the original creation. Genesis 2:7. TDOC 95.3

3. This life was forfeited through sin. Genesis 2:17; 6; Romans 5:12, 15, A. R. V. TDOC 95.4

4. The Son of God has life in himself, and he came to bring life to the human family. John 5:25; 14:6; Colossians 3:4; John 10:10, 27, 28; 5:21; 6:33, 48; Romans 6:23; John 17:2; 1:4; 1 John 1:1-3. TDOC 95.5

5. This life is received by receiving the Son of God. 2 Timothy 1:1; 1 John 5:11-13; John 3:15, ARV, John 3:36; John 20:30, 31; John 6:53-57; 1 Timothy 1:16; John 6:40; 4:14; 3:16. TDOC 95.6

6. Those who reject Christ choose death. Proverbs 8:36. TDOC 96.1

7. Every sinner who turns to Christ is saved from death. James 5:19, 20. TDOC 96.2

NOTES: Life from God alone

“Human nature has no enduring life apart from God. Separated from him ‘who only has immortality,’ our nature not only sinks into degradation, it is destined to ‘eternal destruction.’ Death has begun in every man who by his ‘trespasses and sins 1 has separated himself from the eternal fountains of life that are in God. The noblest elements of his nature are dead already, and unless he is raised from the dead, the death will extend until he is completely and irrevocably destroyed.” TDOC 96.3

Life through Christ

“One thing is plain-Christ’s exhibition of himself as the one source and indispensable support of life, spiritual and eternal.” TDOC 96.4

“Christ is the source of all nourishment. From him flows the lifeblood which feeds the whole, and by which every form of supply is ministered whereby the body grows.” TDOC 96.5

Life from the head

“Popular physiology regards the head as the seat of life. So the fundamental idea in the familiar metaphor [the head], when applied to our Lord, is that of the source of the mysterious spiritual life which flows from him into all the members, and is sight in the eye, strength in the arm, swiftness in the foot, color in the cheek, being richly various in its manifestations, but one in its nature, and all his.” TDOC 96.6

A new life

“Those united with Christ are through grace delivered from their state of death, not only in the sense that the resurrection and exaltation of Christ redound to their benefit as divinely imputed to them; but by the life-giving energy of God they are brought out of their condition of death into a new and actual state of life.” TDOC 96.7

The Bread from heaven

“The bread from heaven, the life-giving Bread of God, was not some new doctrine, some higher truth, some occult religious observance: it was Jesus himself. They were to come to him and believe on him. Christ was to become their spiritual sustenance; from him their souls were to receive all the life and strength and satisfaction that food imparts to our natural bodies.” TDOC 96.8

Christ our life

“To be a Christian, then, is to live a Christian life; not only to hold certain doctrines, to adopt certain principles, but to live like Christ. But for this we must take Christ as our life.” TDOC 96.9

“We are born again the moment we believe. Then we become members of Christ and share his life as the branches share the life of the vine. This is a great mystery. In experience, thank God, as simple as can be, we know that as we trust in Christ new strength to overcome, new patience to endure, new love, new purity, new hope, new joy fill our hearts. Christ does become our life.” TDOC 97.1

“We share the resurrection life that starts from the atoning death. Christ from Bethlehem to Calvary is our example. Christ risen and ascended and yet present in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, is our life, our food, our spiritual sustenance.” TDOC 97.2

Love through life

“Because we are by nature so wholly without heavenly affection, God, through the indwelling Spirit, gives us his own love with which to love himself. Herein is the highest credential of discipleship: ‘By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.’ John 13:35. As. Christ manifested to the world the love of the Father, so are we to manifest the love of Christ,-a manifestation, however, in only possible because of our possessor ship of a common life.” TDOC 97.3

Life through the Spirit

“In his intimate union with his Son, the Holy Spirit is the unique organ by which God wills to communicate to man his own life, the supernatural life, the divine life, that is to say, his holiness, his power, his love, his felicity. To this end the Son works outwardly, the Holy Spirit inwardly.” TDOC 97.4

Christ the truth and the life

“Christ, then, is ‘the truth’ because he is the revealer of God. In him we learn what God is and how to approach him. But knowledge is not enough. It is conceivable that we should have learned much about God, and yet have despaired of over becoming like him. It might gradually have become our conviction that we were forever shut out from all good, although that is incompatible with a true knowledge of God; for if God is known at all, he must be known as love, as self communicating. Put the possibility of having knowledge which we cannot use is precluded by the fact that he who is the truth is also the life. In him who is the revealer we at the same time find power to avail ourselves of the revelation.” Read the “Source Book,” pages 315-331. TDOC 97.5