UNDERSTANDING AND APPROPRIATING THE LIFE OF GOD

By Lemuel Baker, PhD

In the text below, Jesus Himself is speaking and the topic is life and more importantly life that overflows. Understanding John 10:10 is most important to every Christian because it determines life or death or really living compared to mere physical existence devoid of real life. If we are not careful we could live most if not all of our Christian lives devoid of the functional Zoe life of Christ described by the Apostle James who stated it this way "Although he has looked carefully at himself, he goes away, and has immediately forgotten the sort of man he is."

James 1:24 is a sad situation of the Christian who is positionally converted but experientially as poor in spirit as an unregenerate person.

John 10:10 says "The thief cometh not, but for to steal , and to kill, and to destroy : I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNehXFc4NYw

Lets look at definitions of the Koine Greek words of John 10:10. Life or Zoë means life that is real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, Life that comes directly from God. Abundantly or Perissos means over and above, more than is necessary, superadded. Thief or Kleptes means embezzler, pilferer, false teacher, those who abuse mens confidence in order to gain financially from them. The context of John chapter 10 is the indictment of the leadership, motives and heart attitudes of the Pharisees who in contrast to Jesus, Moses and King David..Good Shepherds were evil shepherds or evil leaders. 

Many times we make the statement as follows: "life is in the blood," as we attempt to quote Leviticus 17:11. We omit three very important words when we quote this scripture which is extremely essential to our full potential in Christ. This scripture says "The life of the flesh is in the blood." The Old Testament sages already knew about the concepts cyanosis, hypoxia, clinical death and biological death, that human blood is crucial to the life of our human cells and that absence of oxygenated blood to any tissue cell causes the cell to die. Without human blood our bodies are decaying corpse and lifeless. The context of Leviticus 17:11 is there is a nexus between animal blood and the soul or life of an animal so definite that when the blood of an animal is removed the soul of that animal ceases to exist. In humans generally    >40% loss of blood without immediate rapid interventions, focused emergency resuscitation, lack of body compensation results in physical death clinically and then biologically. There is a strong correlation between physical blood and the soul.

In John 10:10 Jesus is talking about life but this time spiritual life. Physical blood cannot produce spiritual life but only physiological life. Jesus is talking about spiritual life described as Zoë life in the original koine greek. It is important to make the differentiation that Zoë life produces life after the Holy Spirit while human blood produces life after the nutrients that include oxygen delivered to our human cells by our erythrocytes. If we state "life is in the blood" we venture off to miss one of Gods most crucial benefits of Christianity and that is His vital spiritual life that changes our existence to vigorous spiritual and physical living.

In John15:5 Jesus stated "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." In other words without Gods spiritual Zoë life we merely exist only wearing a label that says Christian but unable to bear any fruit as a Christian because we are devoid of Gods spiritual life.

Genesis 2:7 is critical to understanding Gods spiritual life compared with the life that our human blood supplies to our flesh. Genesis 2:7 says "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

There is a lot being said in this verse that explains what Jesus is saying in John 10:10 as well as help explain the chemistry of Jesus' own blood that was one of a kind, divine, innocent and incorruptible. The Holy Spirit directly fertilizing the ovum of Mary and using the body of a virgin was critical to producing divine, innocent and incorruptible blood that was acceptable to pardon the sin committed by Adam that infected the blood of the entire human race.

When Adam sinned and mankind fell as a result, his blood that was originally divine, innocent and incorruptible changed and took on sin thus no longer innocent, and was then subject to decay thus no longer incorruptible.

According to Howell's Textbook of Physiology, Second Edition, pages 885 and 886, Williams' Practice of Obstetrics, Third Edition, page 133, "Nurse's Handbook of Obstetrics" by Louise Zabriskie, R.N., Fifth Edition, page 75, in natural conception it is only when the male element enters the ovum that blood can develop. There is no blood that passes from the woman to the unborn child or from the child to the mother. All food and waste that are interchanged between mother and child are exchanged through vessels that are not dedicated to blood flow.

Thus in the case of Jesus Christ, He received His body from Mary and as a result was the matrilineal off-spring of David the current requirement within Judaism to determine if a child is Jewish, but received His blood directly from God when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit at that time, radically, as an event which happens only once in the life of every child in the womb, Jesus was alive in the womb of Mary and also at that time divine blood was initiated in Jesus' infant body as soon as the Holy Spirit interacted with the ovum in Mary's womb. All human beings receive 23 chromosomes from the mother and 23 chromosomes from the father. Because Jesus received His blood divinely from God by way of the Holy Spirit Jesus uniquely had 24 chromosomes, 23 chromosomes from Mary His mother and 1 chromosome from God The Holy Spirit. Remember Jesus did not have an earthly physical father but was conceived by The Holy Spirit. All human beings have 23 pairs of chromosomes or a total of 46 chromosomes with 22 of these pairs being autosomes that look alike and one pair of chromosomes that determine the sex of the baby. Female babies have 2 "x" chromosomes while male babies have 1"x" and 1 "y" chromosome as a pair. The Holy Spirit gave Jesus the "xy" pair that determined His gender.

The United States Library of Congress provides from it's files historical accounts by Roman Governors and pagan historians contemporary to Jesus who describe what Jesus looked like while Jesus was here on earth. Their descriptions help corroborate the chromosome count and uniqueness of Jesus' blood. These excerpts also help us understand the support Jesus had from various components of God's invisible kingdom available to all Christians today.

Gamaliel, the HaNasi (President) of the Sanhedrin, grandson of Hillel, wrote the following about Jesus' appearance:

"While he is nothing but a man, there is something about him that distinguishes him from every other man. He is the picture of his mother, only he has not her smooth, round face. His hair is a little more golden than hers, though it is as much from sunburn as anything else. He is tall, and his shoulders are a little drooped; his visage is thin and of a swarthy complexion, though this is from exposure. His eyes are large and a soft blue, and rather dull and heavy...."

Publius Lentullus, President of Judea, as was the custom of Roman governors to keep Roman Caesars abreast of what was happening in their territories, wrote to Emperor Tiberius the following:

"A man of stature somewhat tall, and comely, with very reverent countenance, such as the beholders may both love and fear, his hair of (the colour of) the chestnut, full ripe, plain to His ears, whence downwards it is more orient and curling and wavering about His shoulders. In the midst of His head is a seam or partition in His hair, after the manner of the Nazarenes. His forehead plain and very delicate; His face without spot or wrinkle, beautified with a lovely red; His nose and mouth so formed as nothing can be reprehended; His beard thickish, in colour like His hair, not very long, but forked; His look innocent and mature; His eyes grey, clear, and quick. In reproving hypocrisy He is terrible; in admonishing, courteous and fair spoken; pleasant in conversation, mixed with gravity..In proportion of body, most excellent; His hands and arms delicate to behold...A man, for His singular beauty, surpassing the children of men."

Pontius Pilot writing to Caesar wrote the following:

"His golden colored hair and beard gave to his appearance a celestial aspect. He appeared to be about 30 years of age. Never have I seen a sweeter or more serene countenance. What a contrast between Him and His bearers with their black beards and tawny complexions!"

Pontius Pilot further wrote to Jesus requesting an interview and the following was documented by Pilot to Tiberius Caesar as a result of this private meeting with Jesus:

"When the Nazarene made His appearance I was having my morning walk and as I faced Him my feet seemed fastened with an iron hand to the marble pavement and I trembled in every limb as a guilty culprit, though he was calm. For some time I stood admiring this extraordinary Man. There was nothing in Him that was repelling, nor in His character, yet I felt awed in His presence. I told Him that there was a magnetic simplicity about Him and His personality that elevated Him far above the philosophers and teachers of His day. Now, Noble Sovereign, these are the facts concerning Jesus of Nazareth and I have taken the time to write you in detail concerning these matters."

The concept of a virgin conceiving a child or an emaculate conception is not so hard to understand if we go back to Genesis 2:7 and understand that a similar process took place at creation. In Genesis we see the Holy Spirit hovering over the earth and interacting with the clay body God formed from the dust portion mixed with the clay in the Garden of Eden recorded in Genesis 2:7 which reads God formed the body of the man (Ha Adam) from the dust (apar) of the earth (Ha Adamah), breathed into man the breath (neshamah) of life and the man (Ha Adam) became a living soul (L'nephesh.) Similar to the conception event whereby the Holy Spirit over shadowed and interacted with the body of the Virgin Mary causing her to conceive, so did the Holy Spirit cause blood to enter Adam's empty veins, empty arteries and empty capillaries at the creation event when God breathed into mans clay body the breath of life. At this event man became a living soul, a living being, a living personality, a living spirit empowered to perform like God and received divine, innocent and incorruptible blood until man sinned at which time this innocence changed to sinful and this incorruptible state changed to decay.

Conception by the Holy Spirit Summary:

1. At Creation the Holy Spirit initiated blood in the empty blood vessels of Adam upon breathing into Adam the breath of life.

2. At the conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and caused conception including the initiation of divine blood in the baby in the womb.

3. In every conception in the human race blood is initiated in the conceived baby as soon as the male element fertilizes the ovum.

The process originally happened in the Garden of Eden but with Jesus Christ God gave His only begotten Son as the substitutionary sacrifice to redeem mankind back to Himself. Note that in every conception the blood of the child in the mothers womb is given by the male when the ovum is fertilized. This is a fixed rule. If Jesus received his blood through natural conception via Joseph his blood would have had the sin nature precipitated by Adams sin. God had to provide divine, innocent, incorruptible blood and only God could provide such blood after the "fall of mankind." Now, because Jesus' blood was innocent meaning sinless, He could never die thus He made a conscious decision to lay down His life voluntarily and then literally decisively picked up His life again in three days. It is impossible to die when there is no sin present. Remember sin causes death. Also because Jesus' blood was incorruptible, not subject to decay, His blood and flesh did not decay during the three days in the tomb. In Psalm 16:10 David, by the Spirit of God, also prophesied about the body of Jesus on the cross. " For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay."

We often ask what happened to Jesus' blood that was shed during His beating, crucifixion etcetera. Well, His blood could not decay because it was incorruptible and Jesus delivered His blood to the alter in the throne room of heaven in the Holy of Holies that is still there today speaking on our behalf. His blood was special indeed. In a natural sense if a specimen of Jesus' blood were available today although dehydrated and dry, if reconstituted with normal saline and placed under a microscope would be alive and verified as living with its uniqueness. It is logical to say Jesus' blood is incorruptible and cannot decay.

Now that we have discussed the efficacy of human blood and its life giving purpose to human cells, as well as the uniqueness of Jesus' blood we will now get to the point of understanding the Zoë life of God that Jesus speaks about in John 10:10, the same life God breathed into Adam at creation referenced in Genesis 2:7. The First Adam lost Zoe life flowing to every area of life thus he died spiritually and every area of his life began to decay as a result of the absence of God's life. In John 10:10 Jesus the Second Adam came to restore that life given to Adam so that all who accept Him will experience Zoe life as the First Adam did. This Zoe life is so important it determines whether we live a life that is charged with the life of God Himself compared to an existence where we merely go through ritual robotic motions day after day with no experience of heaven flooding our soul. Jesus came that we would have spiritual life that over flows, more than enough, reaching every part of our human spirit, every part of our soul realm, mind, will and emotions, reaching every part of our physical body, reaching every part of our finances, relationships and all that has to do with our temporal life and spiritual life.

Gods Zoe life is intended to influence every aspect of our human life. Zoe life is so important that if it is obstructed by sin to any area of our lives that area immediately starts to die just as any human tissue will die if the blood supply is obstructed from that area. The obstruction of Zoe life by sin is critical to understand because the fatal consequence is inevitable death as cells die that lack oxygenated blood. It was inevitable that Adam die when sin stopped the very Zoe life that brought life to him at creation and caused abundant life to fill every aspect of his life. Jesus returns this life to all of us at salvation. Our job is to protect this Zoe life blessing at all cost. When we receive Zoe life at salvation we immediately begin to experience the fellowship, the elevation of feelings and sensitivity Adam enjoyed at creation. We then at salvation can identify with what Adam enjoyed before the fall because Jesus re-connects us to that experience at salvation. Here is the statement of a life time. "Your born again experience is identical to the experience Adam and Eve had every day, awake or asleep all day long."  If it isn't so then it should be because the born again experience is a restoration of the wonderful life Adam had where the leaves of the trees looked greener, the colors of flowers were rich and vibrant in color, the sky wonderfully blue, the sounds of the birds bring joy, and we enjoy heaven on earth.

The critical test for all Christians is to examine if the ever flowing Zoe life of God has been obstructed from flowing freely to areas of our lives that are struggling or dead and need resurrection. If there is a need for wisdom, self control, spiritual healing, soulical healing, financial healing, marital healing, relational healing, intellectual healing the answer is located in John 10:10 whereby we open ourselves to God in humility and repentance asking Him to remove all obstructions to His abundant flow of Zoe life to each or all of these areas that are dying or not being productive. It is time to get understanding about John 10:10 and to begin living life to the full. Remember all of us perish for a lack of knowledge and in all our getting we must get understanding.

Will you join me as I pray? Let us pray together!

Dear Father in Heaven, Lord Jesus Christ, I humble myself and acknowledge that your Zoe life abundantly that is ever flowing like an ocean is once again flooding the following areas of my life: spirit, soul, body, finances, relationships and intellect. I repent for not having faith in God as you instructed me to. I open myself to you without fear enjoying once again the ocean of your love and Zoe life abundantly to my spirit, soul, body, finances, marriage, relationships, my job, my children and all areas I cannot mention to others. I give them all to you right now, casting every care on you, opening up all of me to your mighty divine Zoe life. As of this moment there is no area of my life that is not being abundantly supplied with your divine energy and with your divine life. As of this moment there is no area of my life that I withhold from you. With all brokenness I give you every area of my life. I now ask you to let your Zoe life flow to every single area of my life. I give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen

Chinese Version

理解並運用神的生命 作者：雷米爾‧貝克博士 在下面的文字中，耶穌親自說話，主題是生命，更重要的是滿溢的生命。理解約翰福音 10:10 對每個基督徒來說都是最重要的，因為與缺乏真實生命的純粹物質存在相比，它決定著生或死或真正的生活。如果我們不小心的話，我們的基督徒生活中的大部分（如果不是全部）都可能缺乏使徒雅各所描述的基督的功能性佐伊生活，他這樣說：「雖然他仔細地審視了自己，但他卻走了，並立即忘記了他是什麼樣的人。 雅各書 1:24 是基督徒的悲慘處境，他們在地位上已經歸正，但在經歷上卻像一個未重生的人一樣精神貧乏。 約翰福音10章10節說：“盜賊來，無非要偷竊、殺害、毀壞；我來了，是要叫羊得生命，並且得的更豐盛。”約翰福音 10:10 影片 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNehXFc4NYw 讓我們來看看約翰福音 10:10 中通用希臘文單字的定義。生命或Zoë意味著真實的生命，積極而充滿活力的生命，奉獻給上帝的生命，直接來自上帝的生命。豐富或 Perissos 的意思是超過、超過、超過必要的、額外的。小偷或盜賊意味著貪污者、偷竊者、假教師，以及那些濫用人們的信任以從他們那裡獲取經濟利益的人。約翰福音第10章的背景是對法利賽人的領導、動機和內心態度的控訴，他們與耶穌、摩西和大衛王形成鮮明對比。 很多時候，當我們試圖引用利未記 17:11 時，我們會這樣說：「生命在血中」。當我們引用這段經文時，我們省略了三個非常重要的詞，這對我們在基督裡充分發揮潛力至關重要。這段經文說：「肉體的生命在於血」。舊約聖賢已經知道紫紺、缺氧、臨床死亡和生物死亡的概念，人類血液對於人類細胞的生命至關重要，任何組織細胞缺乏含氧血液都會導致細胞死亡。沒有人類的血液，我們的身體就會腐爛，毫無生氣。利未記 17:11 的上下文是，動物的血液和動物的靈魂或生命之間存在著如此明確的聯繫，以至於當動物的血液被除去時，該動物的靈魂就不復存在。在人類中，如果沒有立即快速介入、集中緊急復甦、缺乏身體代償，失血率通常>40%，導致臨床上的身體死亡，然後是生物學上的死亡。肉體的血液和靈魂之間有著強烈的相關性。 在約翰福音 10 章 10 節中，耶穌談論的是生命，但這次是屬靈的生命。肉體的血液不能產生精神生命，只能產生生理生命。耶穌談論的是靈性生活，在希臘文中被描述為 Zoë 生活。重要的是要區分 Zoë 生命在聖靈之後產生生命，而人類血液在營養物質（包括紅血球輸送到我們人體細胞的氧氣）之後產生生命。如果我們說“生命在血液中”，我們就冒昧地錯過了上帝對基督教最重要的好處之一，那就是他至關重要的精神生活，它將我們的存在改變為充滿活力的精神和身體生活。 在約翰福音15章5節，耶穌說：「我是葡萄樹，你們是枝子；常在我裡面的，我也常在他裡面，這人就多結果子；因為離了我，你們就不能做什麼。換句話說，如果沒有神的屬靈生命，我們只是戴著基督徒的標籤而存在，卻無法結出任何基督徒的果子，因為我們缺乏神的屬靈生命。 創世記 2 章 7 節對於理解神的靈性生命與我們人類血液供應給我們肉體的生命的比較至關重要。創世記二章七節說：“耶和華神用地上的塵土造人，將生氣吹在他鼻孔裡，人就成了有靈的活人。” 這節經文說了很多內容，解釋了耶穌在《約翰福音》10:10 中所說的話，並幫助解釋了耶穌自己的血的化學成分，這种血是一種善良、神聖、無辜和不朽壞的血。聖靈直接使瑪利亞的卵子受精，並使用處女的身體，對於產生神聖、無辜和不朽的血液至關重要，這种血液可以用來赦免亞當所犯的感染整個人類血液的罪。 當亞當犯罪，人類因此墮落時，他原本神聖、純真、不朽壞的血就變了，帶上了罪，不再是純真，又朽壞了，不再是不朽壞了。 根據Howell's Textbook of Physiology，第二版，第885 和886 頁，Williams' Practice of Obstetrics，第三版，第133 頁，Louise Zabriskie, R.N. 的“Nurse's Handbook of Obstetrics”，第五版，第75 頁，在自然受孕中，只有當男性元素