Biblical meaning of life in God’s plan for the ages is mysterious.

Biblical meaning of life has man, after his creation, partaking in what he thinks can be a grand and noble venture. Although he is experiencing life because he is experiencing God, he foolishly perceives that he can manipulate the life he is experiencing. Desiring the sensations of living through experiencing certain desired circumstances that he attempts to create, he becomes a slave to his own passions. He becomes depraved. Mysteriously, this depravity is necessary before man can come to experience the true Biblical meaning of life. Man must first come to understand what life is not before he can be brought to know, to experience, and to revel in the true life that is of God. Amazingly, man must first experience evil before he can know good.

God’s plan for the ages – the biblical meaning of life is to bring salvation to man’s depravity.

It is to this depravity that Peter preached the second message that Luke, the historian, records in the life of the early followers of Jesus. The context of the message begins when Peter and John meet a lame man at the gate of the Temple. As they were entering the Temple at the hour of prayer, a beggar got their attention. Although Peter and John had possibly seen this beggar many time previously (he had been lame from birth and was carried daily to the Temple to ask for alms), something unique would occur on this day. The man would not receive alms from Peter and John but a miraculous healing of his physical body (Acts 3:1-8).

When Peter told the man to look at John and himself, the man’s attention became focused upon them. Expecting to receive alms from them, he knew nothing of the miracle that was about to occur. Peter, making one of the great statements recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, said,

Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee . . . (Acts 3:6).

Peter had experienced the Biblical meaning of life. He had Jesus Christ abiding within him. Moreover, Christ had been raised to become the essence of Peter’s life. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit, Peter was living in the power of the risen Christ (Biblical meaning of life). He said,

. . . in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk (Acts 3:6).

The resurrected Christ, through the mouth of Peter, told the man to stand to his feet and be healed. The man immediately rose to his feet to walk for the first time in his life.

Biblical meaning of life brings the focus of life back to Jesus Christ.

Standing, leaping, walking, and praising God, the man who was healed caused much astonishment and bewilderment among the people. They ran with amazement to Peter and John who was being detained by the healed man. Peter then makes a second profound statement. He said,

Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk (Acts 3:12)?

There seems to be something within man that always makes him susceptible to the temptation that he himself has the capability to produce the wonders of life. Peter, who had been taken to his martyrdom by the Holy Spirit (John 21:18,19), however, knew that it was not his power or his holiness that had produced this miracle. It was Christ now being manifested in his life for he had been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Peter saw, spoke, and thought from a different realm of existence. The Biblical meaning of life for Peter caused him to be an entirely different person.

The Christ within Peter was the means of the miracle. As Peter said to the people, concerning the lame man walking,

The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus (Acts 3:13).

The wonder of walking, the wonder of a man walking as he should walk, is always produced by God through his Son Jesus Christ. When Jesus becomes the Christ, the Holy Spirit baptizer (Mark 1:8), in one’s life, right steps will always be taken by man.

The revelation of the risen Christ is the power for the Biblical meaning of life.

It is not a coincidence that the healing of the lame man at the gate of the temple occurred on this day. The miracle was not just the physical miracle of a lame man being healed. It was also the revelation that the risen Christ is the means by which all men can be turned from their evil walk to the life of righteousness (Acts 3:26). It indicated the power of the Holy Spirit to save man from his depravity.

The certainty of man being saved from his iniquities is the message of the Biblical meaning of life, the message of being baptized with the Holy Spirit. With a new way of seeing, a new way of speaking, and a new way of thinking, man can enjoy the life God intended for him to experience. As Peter said, following the miracle, that God would send Jesus to man that man might have “perfect soundness” (Acts 3:16). Jesus will come into the life of every man to give him the abundant life for he is the “Prince of life” (Acts 3:15).

Peter told the bewildered crowd that the Jesus whom they had crucified and slain God had raised from the dead. Peter and John were witnesses to that fact not only because he appeared unto them before he ascended but, more importantly, because he had returned to them in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would enable them to experienced the Biblical meaning of life. In their martyrdom (the coming to the end of themselves as indicated by their behavior after Jesus was crucified [Luke 24:11; John 20:19; Mark 16:10,11]), Jesus would come to them and be raised out of them in the free flow of the Holy Spirit in their lives (see Jesus Returns Spiritually).

The power to make a lame men walk is only in the name of Jesus Christ. The faithfulness of Jesus to do what he said he would do is the means by which all men can be made perfectly sound. As Peter said, “the faith which is by him (Jesus) hath given him (the lame man) perfect soundness” (Acts 3:16). Jesus Christ is the only man that has ever been faithful. He is the only one that can produce perfect soundness in man.

Jesus had told those early believers that

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:2,3).

Then, he added,

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also (John 14:19).

Again, He stated,

At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him (John 14:20,21).

Finally, Jesus said,

If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23).

Biblical meaning of life is the promise of the Father.

The promise of the Father, the sending of Jesus Christ into to the lives of the believer in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, reveals the faithfulness of Jesus. He said that he must go away but that he would come again. The death, resurrection, ascension, and return of Jesus Christ into the lives of believers is the hope of every man. It is the hope that will enable the believer to experience the Biblical meaning of life.

It is always the ignorance of man that crucifies and entombs the life of Christ (Acts 3:17). It is always the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit that raises Jesus to life again (Eph. 2:1-9). The death of Jesus was necessary to fulfill the essence of what it means to be human. As Paul stated,

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:20,21).

The physical essence of creation does not have the capability to produce life, being created subject to vanity. All created beings experience life only as they continually die off to enable the essence of life within them to come forth. Jesus stated, as he approached his death,

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (John 12:24).

Jesus is not only stating the truth of his death and his resurrection but also the life principle of all creation:

He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal (John 12:25).

All the prophets had stated that Christ must experience his passion before God, the Father, could raise him (Acts 3:18). With Jesus being raised from the dead, all men now can experience that same resurrection power. They, too, can experience newness of life.

Experiencing newness of life in Christ Jesus is the Biblical meaning of life.

The newness of life for man can only come, however, with the death of the old life. Again, Peter stated to the bewildered crowd, after the miracle of the lame man walking,

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).

With repent meaning “to think differently, or afterward, i.e. reconsider,” newness of life can only come with a different way of thinking. The old way of thinking must come to an end before a new way of thinking can begin. Mysteriously, the Biblical meaning of life always requires death and resurrection.

It is only the presence of the Lord that brings the new way of thinking. With presence meaning, “the front (as being towards view), i.e. the countenance, aspect, appearance, surface,” the secret and mystery of life is once again revealed. From the first commandment of God given to Moses (“Thou shalt have none other gods before me” [Deut. 5:7]) to one of the last statement of God given to John (“And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads” [Rev. 22:4]), man is told again and again that he experiences life only when he is face-to-face with God. Man experiences life because he experience God.

It is only when Jesus Christ, the fullness of the Godhead, comes forth out of the life of man will man encounter the life that God intended for him to experience. As Peter said,

And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things . . .” (Acts 3:20,21).

Jesus Christ, who died, was resurrected, and ascended into the heavenly realm,  can be send back from heaven to indwell the believer for the Biblical meaning of life.

With restitution meaning, “reconstitution,” man can now be brought to the original intention for his life, the times of refreshing (literal meaning “a recovery of breath ) can be experienced. Jesus Christ must once again be the very breath of man. He must become man’s way of life. Again, as Peter stated when he quoted Moses,

A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you” (Acts 3:22).

Those who can hear this Prophet will be blessed. Those “which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people” (Acts 3:23). Once again the secret and mystery of life is given, hear Jesus and be blessed (Acts 3:25). You can experience the Biblical meaning of life.

Mystery and miracle of the Biblical meaning of life.

The blessings of God (experiencing the life of God) can flow freely because God has raised up his Son Jesus. The message of the early followers of Jesus was simple yet powerful. Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead. Jesus Christ had ascended into the heavenly realm. Jesus Christ had been sent back to them by the Father. It was more than just a message. It was a new way of life, the power of the Biblical meaning of life.

They were witnesses of Jesus. Encountering the martyrdom of their humanity, they were experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. They were living what the Father had promise. He had raised his Son from the dead, took him into heaven, and sent him back to bless them (Acts 3:26). The death, resurrection, ascension, and return of Jesus Christ was giving them a new way of speaking, a new way of seeing, and a new way of thinking. It would be Biblical meaning of life for every believer in every age.

Just as the lame man who was healed to walk physically, Jesus Christ enables believers to walk spiritually. They are being saved from their depravity. The risen Christ had come into their lives to be manifested as the essence of their thinking, their seeing, and their speaking. They could now walk as kingdom saints in the power of the Holy Spirit for the risen Christ had become their life. Jesus Christ, who ascended after his death “to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away . . .” (1 Pet. 1:4) could now be sent back by the Father (1 Pet. 1:12) into the life of every believer in every age enabling them to experience the Biblical meaning of life in their lifetime.