What is Life?

Bible question #1

copyright@2009

Richard Eric Gunby

It’s amazing to me how large a percentage of

people go about the business of living without ever
specifically asking, “What is life?” They perform
their tasks, earn their pay, enjoy their play, and
kind of don’t care, or at least don’t evidence much
interest. This posting is written for those in the
other camp, people who do care. We will seek to
answer the question as clearly as possible. Just
exactly what does it mean to be a living human
being? It is not easy to answer; or rather the
answer is quite involved, as in complicated.
Thankfully we don’t have to speculate or grasp at
straws, hoping against hope to secure or ensure an
answer, as the Bible is quite fully detailed
regarding this vital subject matter. The answer to
what human life is can be broken down into several
categories in order to help us best get a sound
perspective and grasp some of the meaning of
what we are doing –as in living. “What’s it all
about, Alfie?” Oh my.

Life is animation

To live is to breath. Breathing is used by the Bible

to represent life. Good choice, right? Right! That
breathing is equated with living in a primary way
almost goes without saying. Obviously, we all tend
to think of life as ending when someone stops
breathing, permanently. Breathing was the first
outward evidence of life in the very first human
being. God formed man, a lifeless body, and
breathed the breath of life (i.e., the life principle, or
life-force) into him, and man became alive, a living
creature. Man is an animated body; a body made
alive; the living body, if you will. The Bible refers
to man as an air-breathing living creature. Some
further ways in which the Bible encourages us to
understand life include: to live is to stand erect,
man has standing, so to speak; to live, is also to
move, walk, speak, see, touch, and hear. To live is
to eat and drink, in order to renew the vital life
forces within us. Man is a creature designed to do
these things; designed for sense reception in the
earth environment from which he was created and
in which God placed him to live his days.

God “himself gives all men life and breath and

everything else. From one man he made every
nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole
earth,” Acts 17:25-26. Breathing is living. Life is
animation.
 Life is personhood

Man enjoys personhood; God gave it to him; it is a

gift. Personhood is a unique level or kind of
experience of life. Every human being is a person,
and experiences life as a person. God enjoys
personhood, too. Indeed, the Bible reveals that
within the Godhead there are three persons: God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
God is one; the Scripture is emphatic on that. God
is one in being, in essence, in Spirit; in all that
makes God, God, He is one. That the one God has
revealed His singular being (the “God-Being” if you
will) –to be understood as existing in the union of
three persons (one Being, three Persons) is
foundational to sound Biblical theology. The three
persons of the Godhead relate to each other in
perfect harmony, one person to another person,
and one to the many; this relationship is the
relating of persons. Personhood means relating to
other persons one on one and one to many. It is
the enjoyment of communication, recognition, and
communion, experienced as one person to another
person, and one to the many. It is central to what
it means to be God, and thus also to being a
human. Indeed God created man to share and
participate in this unique and special kind of life,
with others and especially with Him. Man, who is
made in the image and likeness of God, reflects
this personhood ability, this capability of fellowship
and participation in multiple ways and kinds of
relating. God and man relate and have
relationship (fellowship, communion,
communication) solely because of mutually
enjoyed personhood. Personhood is not a
substance; rather it is a level or form or way of
living in connection, or in conjunction with others
(as in other persons). Thus, personhood and
relationship are almost effectively synonymous in
this discussion, in the practical sense. Accordingly,
we have seen that image (man being an image
bearer) involves the express purpose God had in
making man, man. That purpose is wonderfully
portrayed in the philosophical and social concept of
relationship. God is the relational Creator, man is
the relational creature. Image, in its practical
outworking finds man in dynamic relationship.
Image is not static; rather it is dynamic (living).
Man has four primary relationships:

Man in relationship to God (as image

bearer)

Man in relationship to himself (self-

recognition)

Man in relationship to others (like

him)

Man in relationship to his environment

Man was created to reflect God’s image as he lived
life in this world relating in these four primary
spheres of interaction. Man or woman can relate
to other men and women precisely because they
all have personhood. And as we have learned,
such relationships can also serve as reflecting the
image of God because God too is in relationship
within the Trinity. Life is personhood.

Life is fellowship with God

In the original creation Man had fellowship with his

Creator. Man occupied a high position in the
creation as having dominion over the rest of
creation, under God. Man sinned and fell from his
position and fellowship with God. We lost the
finest and highest quality of life possible: personal
relationship with the Living God. There is only one
way whereby our fallen status might be restored,
and our destiny of death permanent, might be
overcome. That way is to be saved by Jesus Christ.
Salvation restores the relationship lost and secures
its future.

Life is a gift; life is destiny

Acts 17:24-28a (NIV):

24
"The God who made the world and everything
in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does
not live in temples built by hands. 25
And he is
not served by human hands, as if he needed
anything, because he himself gives all men life
and breath and everything else. 26
From one
man he made every nation of men, that they
should inhabit the whole earth; and he
determined the times set for them and the
exact places where they should live. 27
God did
 this so that men would seek him and perhaps
reach out for him and find him, though he is
not far from each one of us. 28
'For in him we
live and move and have our being.'”

Life is accountability

Man has accountability. What does that mean?

Once again we need to start by learning a little of
what God is like, in order to find the answer to
what man is like. God is free, he enjoys full
freedom. God is fully and sovereignly free; nothing
hampers him, nothing invades his total self-
freedom. God is the only personal being that
possesses full freedom. This means God
determines everything, including what He is, and
what He will be, so to speak. God is in charge of
who and what He is or will be. In point of fact, He
even names Himself incorporating this very truth!
The name God reveals as his own, in the giving of
the Ten Commandments, at Mt. Sinai (Exodus
3:14), is “Yahweh” (YHWH, the Tetragrammaton).
“I Am” as it is most often translated, is the proper
Hebraic formal and royal name of God. We might
remember too that Jesus appropriates it to himself
in John 8:58. The literal essence and meaning of
Yahweh is,

“I Am What I Am”, or, “I Will Be What I Will

Be;” or

“I Am Who I Am,” or, “I Will Be Who I Will

Be.”

Each nuance offers a slightly different shade of the

actual total thought the original Scripture is
attempting to convey. It most specifically and
literally means,
 “He [who] brings into being.”

God, as we have seen, has total freedom and

choice unto Himself. God is answerable to God and
God alone. Man has a certain limited freedom and
ability to choose, under God. This is a part of what
it means when we say man has dignity. Man has
dignity, worth, and value. However, with dignity
comes accountability. Thus man is answerable to
God. Hence the Bible teaches us that everything
we say, think, and do has meaning, relevance, and
consequence. All of life is significant, and Scripture
says each of us will give an account for every
thought, word, and deed in our lives. Life is
accountability.

*****
The above summaries offer us several perspectives
of what life is, and what life is about. Of course
this only scratches the surface. The Scripture also
speaks of life quantitatively and qualitatively. Most
of the time, surprisingly, when the Bible speaks of
eternal life or life eternal, it is a reference to the
quality of life. Eternal life is life in the enjoyment
of relationship to and with our God –a high quality
of living, indeed. On the other hand, when
Scripture uses the term or concept of immortality,
there it refers most especially to the quantity of
life, life continued. Life understood in these two
distinct but related points of view, qualitatively and
quantitatively, is a large portion of what the Bible
teaches about.