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All humans have life, but true Christians have unique life. This unique life is received through a divine encounter usually after a person has believed in Christ Jesus. And that is the foundation of the faith of genuine believers.
To encounter Christ is to receive of His life which is eternal. It is wrong for us to tell people to give their lives to God for them to be saved. People do not give their lives to Christ Jesus to be saved. Rather, it is Christ Jesus who gives His life to us to be saved.
“…even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give to GIVE HIS LIFE as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
As already indicated, a believer receives Christ’s life through a divine encounter. A divine encounter is not an emotional experience, but the inward work of the Holy Spirit at the moment of new birth — when a person truly believes in Christ and is regenerated by His Spirit (John 3:5–6; Titus 3:5).
In other words, it occurs during the new birth experience also called born again experience or regeneration. You cannot encounter the Lord and remain the same. He will definitely impart grace to you to receive His life. Jesus Christ alone is the source of a Christian’s life. He is the basis of eternal life.
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When CHRIST WHO IS YOUR LIFE appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).
The Scripture above says a Christian’s life is Christ Jesus. Without Christ, a Christian has no eternal life. Real life is found in no other person than our Saviour. Only the Lord Jesus Christ provides eternal life.
“Jesus said to her (Martha), I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die… (John 11:25-26, emphasis mine).
Look at His words well. Christ the Lord did not say He IS A life. He authoritatively said He IS THE life – the source of life. He is the Creator. All living things draw their life from Him alone. Without Jesus Christ there will be no life. “IN HIM WAS LIFE, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).
Sometimes when I think about the fate of people who ridicule, mock and reject Jesus Christ my heart breeds within me. I wonder where they can obtain salvation without the Lord. Jesus Christ is the only One who died and resurrected, demonstrating power and authority over death. He conquered death and proved to be the source of life. God the Father Himself testified that eternal life is in our Lord alone.
“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. WHOEVER HAS THE SON HAS LIFE; whoever does not have the Son does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12).
Salvation is not about religious effort but a heart-level faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, leading to a public confession of His Lordship. When a person truly believes, the Holy Spirit imparts the very life of Christ into that person — and this life is eternal.
How then can a person have Christ Jesus in order to have this life? An unbeliever can have Christ the Lord only by sincerely believing in the message of the death and resurrection of Christ with his heart and confessing his belief with his mouth.
To believe in the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is to receive Him into your heart. You cannot sincerely confess with your mouth what you have not actually received into your heart. This means whoever is converted, having had a supernatural encounter with the Lord has the life of God.
By James Quansah
