Mysteriously living is obvious when so many strive to have abundant life and yet fail to achieve it.

One of the greatest paradoxes of the mystery of grace is the enormous number of people that fail to experience the rich, full, and contented life. This failure is even more mystifying when it is understood that the strongest motivation within man is to experience that life. Ultimately, everything man does, he does it with the hope that it will produce the life he so desperately craves. Yet, even though man’s basic drive is to experience life in the fullest sense of the word, few people experience the life they desire. The mystery of mysteriously living is rampant throughout mankind.

For example, many people fail to experience abundant life even though Jesus said, “I am come that [men] might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Paul wrote, “. . . much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17). Peter stated, “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life . . . ”(2 Pet.1:2). James wrote, “. . . [every believer has the opportunity to] receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him” (James 1:12). Finally, Jesus said, “I am . . . life” (John 14:6).

Mysteriously living raises difficult questions.

Perplexing questions must be raised, “If everyone desires life and Jesus is life, why do people reject him?” How can people let life be received in vain, or frustrate the very life they desire so desperately? How can people have life within them and that life “profit [them] nothing” (Gal. 5:2) or that life “become of no effect unto [them]” (Gal. 5:4). How  can people who once have known God, now “[glorify] him not as God, [and not  be] thankful” for Him (Rom. 1:21)? How can so many people miss, even though it is their greatest desire, the “righteousness, and peace, and joy” that is found in the  kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17)?

First, it can be stated that most people, if not all, do not consciously reject life. No one by choice rejects the fullest possible expression of the one thing they so desperately desire. In essence, they actually spend every moment earnestly seeking the fulfillment of that life. Although they may reject Jesus, the Person (usually because of how He is presented), they do not consciously reject the life of which  he is. They simply are ignorant of Jesus being the source of the life they desire. They do not understand the mystery of the grace of God at work in their life.

In reality, you will reject God’s life more by going about trying to establish what you think can produce your life than by a conscious decision to reject his life. The life of Jesus is rejected because you accept what you perceive to be the way to life. Few, if any, reject Jesus by choice.

You are probably doing everything you know to do to experience life, which can only be experienced in Jesus. You actually have a zeal for life, but many times it is not according to knowledge. In this zeal for life, you often ignorantly frustrate the essence of the true Life that is within you. You frustrate the grace of God.

Although you work hard to experience life, you missed the One who can produce what you so desperately attempt to achieve. His grace is frustrated not so much in the activities that are being done but by the motivation that is the driving force behind those activities. In mysteriously living, the daily activities of your life may look similar, but there will be a different source of power energizing you.

Mysteriously living is a matter of truth and deception.

Failing to understand how to experience the grace of God, you will often become deceived by thinking that life can be controlled by daily events. While the actual events may be controlled (going to work or not going to work), you find it hard to control, it at all possible, how you react to those events. Paul wrote of this deception to the Romans:

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me (Rom. 7:9-11).

Amazingly, to have abundant life or not to have abundant life is not a matter of choice (or chance) but a matter of truth and deception.

Jesus said to his disciples “and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Paul said to the Romans, that the “wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18). The truth will set men free. Mysteriously living reveals that if truth is held in unrighteousness, it produces the wrath of God.

This holding the truth in unrighteousness is always a product of deception. Or, as Paul continued to the Romans, “Because that when they [the people who hold truth in unrighteousness] knew God, they glorified him not as god, neither were  thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart darkened” (Rom. 1:21). Their foolish heart did not become darkened by making a conscious choice to not live, or even a conscious choice to reject God. The wrath of God came upon them because they “became vain in their imaginations.” Their vain imagination led them into the deception.

According to Paul, the people who are experiencing the wrath of God are the ones “who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” Then, he added, “that which may be known (original word actually means “well-known”] of God is manifested [“to render apparent”] in them; for God hath shewed [“to render apparent”] it unto them” (Rom. 1:29). The people who are experiencing the wrath of God “hold the truth” and have “that which may be known of God” within their being.

Mysteriously living is mysterious because the abundant life man seeks is actually already within him.

With “that which may be known of God,” being the “revelation of God,” Paul is stating that the Word (Son of God) is actually within these people. Or, as John  said, the Word is “the true Light which lighted every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). Isaiah recorded, “Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein” (Isa. 42:5). In addition, the writer of Proverbs stated, “the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord . . .” (Pro. 20:27).  Mysteriously living reveals that the Son of God, the essence of life for man, is in all.

By the established fact of creation, every man has life because the spirit of God was breathed into his nostrils. The essence of life is given to every man that is born into the world. Or, as Paul wrote to the Romans, concerning his desire and prayer that his people might be saved,

For Moses describeth the righteousness [life] which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness  [Life] which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (That is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what saith it? The word is night thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart (Rom. 10:5-8).

The people who are in need of being saved, in need of experiencing abundant life (Israel, in the day of Paul) do not understand that “the word is nigh [them], even in [their] mouth, and in [their] heart.” In ignorance, being deceived, they frustrate the grace of God. They frustrate the Life that is within them. Mysteriously living requires the free flow of the grace of God.

There is nothing that can be done to bring forth Christ into one’s life. He has already been brought forth. He is nigh every man, “in [their] mouth, and in [their] heart” even the ones who need to be saved. By the established fact of how man was created, Christ, the Anointed One, is the essence of the life of all men. Whether they understand or not, all men live, move, and have their being in Christ.

For example, when mankind was created, there was nothing Adam and Eve had to do to achieve the life they experienced. As John wrote, “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3) . . . “the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). Every man has nothing to do but to experience the Life that came into him at his birth. Life, the Son of God, was given and is given to every man.

Mysteriously living is revealed in experiencing the righteousness of God.

Although nothing could and was needed to be done by man to enable him to experience life, something could be and is done to destroy that life, to frustrate the grace of God. When the loss of the abundant life begins to be experienced in the fall of every man, man has begun to do something. As Paul would later say of Israel, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness [Life], and going about to establish their own righteousness [life], have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness [Life] of God” (Rom. 10:3).

In the garden, the fatal deception of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” would work its course. Like Paul, who “was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and [he] died . . . for sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived [him], and by it slew [him]” (Rom. 7:9), the fatal deception of the law (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden) brought death to Adam and Eve. They lost the abundant life when they began to perceive that they could produce life themselves by their own knowledge. They could not experience mysteriously living because they began to try to experience it by their own mind.

Again, Paul wrote to the Romans concerning this fatal deception,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth [the Son of God as manifested in Jesus Christ] in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God [the Son of God as manifested in Jesus Christ] is manifested in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that were made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools (Rom. 1:18-22).

Mysteriously living, again, reveals that life and death issues are not matters of choice (or chance). They are matters of truth and the vainness of man’s imaginations — matters of deception.

For every fall from the abundant life of which man so desperately desires to experience always begins with an overactive imagination. In the discussion (actually meaning of the word translated imaginations in “vain imaginations” of the mind), deception spins it deadly tale. For what mind would not perceive the fruit of the knowledge  of the tree of good and evil as something that would make it wise. Sadly, however, desiring to make itself wise, it becomes a fool. The vainness of man’s imaginations brings darkness to his heart, darkness to the Spirit of Life that dwells within him. He now “hold[sl truth in unrighteousness.” He is not controlled by the Spirit of  life, but by the thinking of his own mind. Once again, he has failed to understand the mystery of mysteriously living.

Mysteriously living can only be understood by overcoming the deception of the mind through Jesus Christ.

There is only one remedy for the fatal deception of the vain imaginations of man. He must be turned again to glorify God and be thankful for “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). The writer of Genesis described  the true light as “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7). Job described it as, “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life” (Job 33:4). Man must once again live only of “deeds . . . that . . . are wrought in God” (John 3:21).

All that God wants of you is the realization that Christ is the essence of your life. The true Light can give every man salvation from the deception of his mind that keeps bringing distress, despair, a since of being forsaken and destroy that comes from an over active imagination. Jesus Christ can enable every man to experience the life of which he so desperately desires. You are entitled to that life for that life actually dwells within you. A simple call, “Jesus, I need you today,” will bring his presence to the forefront of your mind. Jesus has the power to produce your life as it was meant to be: in peace, joy, and a sense of that which is right. It is the mystery of mysteriously living.