“He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err” (Mark
).
Sin and death are grim realities in the world, but these are only temporary intruders as it were. The God of Creation is the living God; and “Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew
) is our living Savior, alive forevermore. It is appropriate, therefore, that the term “living” is applied over and over again to great truths of the Christian faith.
For example, the Holy Scriptures are called “the lively oracles” (Acts
). “Lively” and “living” represent the same Greek word, zao; thus the Bible is God’s “living word.” Jesus Christ called Himself “the living bread which came down from heaven,” sent down by “the living Father” (John ,57). He also promised that all who believe on Him would find “living waters” flowing through their lives (John ).
He has opened for us through His substitutionary death and justifying resurrection “a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh” (Hebrews
). Furthermore, He has thereby “begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3).
The Lord Jesus is the foundation of the great house of the Lord into which we come through Him. “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (I Peter 2:4,5). In this holy temple we are therefore urged to “present [our] bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is [our] reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Our God is, indeed, the God of the living! HMM
