Appearance vs. Reality: What is Life?

@DailyNation screenshot, shared on Twitter.

This past week in Kenya, various articles have been written concerning the tragedy of lives lost during the attack on Garissa University College.  Perhaps the most gripping of these stories recounts the ongoing phone conversation that one young woman had with her parents during the last few moments of her life.  The Daily Nation newspaper on Friday, 10 April 2015 reported the news as their headline story.

What follows is the climax of the story, which is quoted from Daily Nation (10 April 2015, p.4):
"Between 11am and noon, Lydia called both her father and mother and told them she was safe but terrified as she could hear gunshots within her hostel [dormitory].  At about 12:45pm, Mrs. Obandi tried to call her daughter but the phone rang several times, prompting her to send a text message.  Lydia replied asking her mother not to call because the gunmen were near her room.  At 1:30pm, her father, Mr. James Obondi, called.  This time, Lydia was screaming, saying she was about to be shot.  'Dad, our lives are at the mercy of Al-Shabaab.  Don't call me again.  Bye,' she told him."

Before she hung up the phone, one of the terrorists grabbed the phone and taunted the father on the other end, saying essentially that he would never talk to his daughter again.  And then she was shot... in the face.  The wound was so devastating that it was difficult to identify her remains.

The reason this article was so gripping is found in the last few sentences spoken from daughter to father.  "Our lives are at the mercy of Al-Shabaab," she said.  Lydia thought her life was about to end.  Her father would have frantically agreed.  In those final moments, the terrorists believed they had control over such weighty matters as life and death.

Nowhere in the article is there any reference to the faith of the family, but due to the systematic identification, selection, and execution of Christian students, we can be somewhat sure.  So, was her life really in danger?  Was she truly about to die?  Did the decisions of armed gunmen really control her fate?  And, perhaps more importantly, what is life?

My favorite book of the New Testament, and probably of the whole Bible, is the Gospel of John.  Having heard it preached by pastors like John Piper and taught by scholars like D.A. Carson, I find myself constantly in awe of the theology and the artistry with which it is unfolded.  However, it does not take uniquely gifted pastors or scholars to flesh out these magnificent truths.  Anyone can see there is something special happening in the book of John.  One of the striking features centers around the repetition of themes in Genesis and the creation account.  John consistently touches on life, light, darkness, and the creative power of the Word of God (who, for the author, is Jesus the Son of God).

In speaking about human existence, we approach divine mystery in so many ways.  To the prophet Jeremiah, whose book bears his name, God says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you [to set apart, to make holy]" (Jeremiah 1:5, ESV).  This really negates the whole conversation of "life at conception."  For Christians, our ongoing interaction with abortion needs to be redefined.  In a very real way, life begins in eternity past within the hidden plan of the sovereign God.  There is a spirituality to life that we often fail to recognize.  The biblical definition of life stands in stark contrast to prevailing patterns of erroneous thought.  We turn back to the Gospel of John for more amazing insights.

John 1:4 says of Jesus, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men."  Life originates with God.  John 5, a profound passage about the reality of life beyond the physical illusion, confirms by saying, "As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will" and "For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself" (John 5:21 & 26, ESV).  At what point in time and space life originates with God is unknown.  Consistent with John's connection to creation, we notice from Genesis 2:7 that "the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature."  God imparts life to breathless humans... he empowers physical bodies to become living creatures.  So life is not merely the activity of moving parts, of flesh and blood.  Remember that we were created in the image of God, with something spiritual breathed into us... something that controls all the moving parts, both seen and unseen.  There is an eternal dimension to every person.  (note: this is not to suggest that all are saved and will live eternally in the new heaven and new earth.)

In response to religious leaders in Jerusalem who rejected the testimony of a healed blind man (John 9), Jesus begins a significant discourse about his identity as the Good Shepherd (John 10).  Talking to those who were physically alive... and, subsequently talking about those who were clearly alive, Jesus says, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10, ESV).  They were alive, but without Jesus they did not have life.  Paul echoes this kind of teaching in Ephesians, where he says, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:5, ESV).  The Bible repeatedly speaks of those who are physically alive as being dead, blind, and deaf.  So we must conclude that physical life apart from Christ is not life.  There is an element of illusion here.  What appears to be true in one light is actually not true at all.  Even within the Gospel of John, this teaching finds root.  "An hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live" (John 5:25).

John continues in chapter 10 by telling us that this life, this unique life as given by God (the life given through Jesus, producing eternal life in those who believe), cannot be taken away.  Jesus says, "I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand... and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand" (John 10:28-29, ESV).  There is no control over life outside of God.  Romans 14:7-9 speaks of Christ as the Lord of both the living and the dead.  He died as all men die, in the passing away of his physical body.  But the indestructible life of Jesus (Hebrews 7:16) was kept secure in the hands of the Father, just as the lives of those who, by faith, are connected to Christ are held securely forever.

So we conclude by answering some questions posed above.  Assuming that the young woman was truly a believer, was her life at the mercy of Al-Shabaab?  Emphatically... never.  Never.  Her body was killed by bullets, but her life was never in danger.  Her life had been hidden with Christ in heavenly places.  No one touches it.  No one snatches it away.  Was she about to die?  Obviously, we have to answer "yes" in one sense.  The nearly unidentifiable body in the morgue testifies.  However, the illusion often veils our eyes and confuses our minds.  Appearance is not reality.  Believers' lives are NEVER in danger.  The life that God gives them in Christ is eternal; it never ends.  Those who believe have "passed out of death into life" (1 John 3:14, ESV).  No man controls their destiny; no man controls their fate.

Finally, what is life?  As simply as we can know from the Bible, life is being united to Christ.  If you are united to Christ, you have life... you are alive.  If you are not united to Christ, you do not have life... you are not alive.  Or, better yet, let's allow the Bible to define it... again, from John the beloved disciple.  1 John 5:12 says, "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life."

Let us, then, as partakers in the Son of God, confidently proclaim in the face of any threat, "Dad, our lives are at the mercy of Your Son.  We're coming to see you face-to-face!"