Connecting With Zoe

 "I have come that they might have zoe, and have it more abundantly."  (Jesus)

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (zoe)."  (Jesus)

In English, unfortunately, we do not have a way to distinguish between the 2 Greek words for "Life:"  bios and zoe.    Bios, obviously, refers to our biological life or energy.  Zoe refers to vitality, energy, enthusiasm, connectivity, alertness, overflowing......I will give you a spring welling up to eternal life (Jesus to the woman at the well.)

Most of us probably connect the words "eternal life" to the idea of biological life without end  --- with the result that many people consider that heaven and eternity might become boring after a few thousand years! But what if we could read the Gospel with the distinctions that are made in the Greek original between bios and zoe?  I once made a study of these words in the Gospel of John and regret now that I did not make the distinctions in my bible.

At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus said, "The one who believes in me will never die!"  Quite a statement!

In his book Enchanted by Eternity, William Slattery proposes a future for each human person in a resurrected body in a new heavens and a new earth, connected to God Himself, to one another, and to the earth/nature itself.  According to him, that future can begin now.

When we refer to "God," we tend to think of Him as another object in the universe.  There's plants, there's animals, there's people, and then there's God.  But actually, God is not an object, however exalted; He IS LIFE itself --- and our life is actually participation in HIM!  In Him we live and move and have our very being (Acts 17:28).  In fact, the word enthusiasm literally means "God within"  (en theos).  Whenever we are living our lives with enthusiasm, or participating fully in life/energy, we are connecting to the Source of Life Itself.  

Slattery does not use the term "God" in his book, but rather Creator, Lover, Rescuer ----because that is how we experience God.  "God" is the answer to "what;" Creator, Lover, Rescuer is the answer to "Who."   In Him, all things hold together (Col.1:17) ---- Jesus Christ is the sustaining force of the entire universe --- all creatures, all peoples, all visible and invisible life.

C. S. Lewis once wrote: If you want to get warm, you must stand by the fire; if you want to be wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, peace, power, eternal life (zoe), you must get close to, or even into the thing that has them.....they are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you; if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?