How We Pass From Death to Life

At birth an amazing thing happens in the heart of an infant. Before birth the arteries are arranged so as to bypass the lungs which are very small and not yet inflated. Miraculously, immediately after the trauma of being forced through the birth canal, the two valves which had been diverting blood flow away from the not yet inflated lungs immediately open up and direct blood flow from the beating heart to the now inflated lungs, and within five days the artery which was used to bypass the lung shrinks and becomes a ligament which simply holds the aorta to the heart.

What has happened, in type upon the very first breath of that baby, is that it “passed from death unto life”. That newly born child, in a very short period of time, went from living only on liquids, the blood of its mother, to living on air and getting oxygen into its blood from its own lungs. The fact that five days are required for the artery which bypassed the lungs to completely close up and become a ligament speaks of the work of “grace… through faith” which births all men into the realm of spiritual life (Eph 2:8-10).

Now that the new born child is breathing through his own lungs He is now burning and oxidizing the nourishment required for life, and he is doing so independent of his mother’s blood.

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 
1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 
1Jn 3:16  Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 
1Jn 3:17  But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 

Later in this same epistle, John expounds upon what it means to be “passed from death unto life”:

1Jn 5:10  He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
1Jn 5:11  And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1Jn 5:12  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 

Having life is having Christ and knowing His doctrine. The previous chapter tells us how we know we have His words, His breath, His doctrines and His words, life eternal:

1Jn 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 
1Jn 4:3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 
1Jn 4:4  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 
1Jn 4:5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 
1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 
1Jn 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 
1Jn 4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 
1Jn 4:9  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 

Lest we believe that ‘love’ is a weak noun and not a strong verb, we are plainly told what John means when he uses this word:

1Jn 5:1  Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 
1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 
1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 
1Jn 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

John tells us all of this “that [we] may know that [we] have eternal life.

1Jn 5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 

In spiritual type, the inflation of the lungs typifies the receiving of the spirit of God, which brings light and life to us out of darkness and death. Coming into life is coming to know the mind of Christ. Knowing Christ and His Father is the very Biblical definition of life:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.  

This natural process is a reflection of the spiritual reality which is taking place within us. There is no going back into the darkness of the womb. There are those who do taste of life, and who do go back and the result is always the same. The life-giving spirit must leave, and the darkness of death must return:

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. 
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: 
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. 

Once we begin breathing in the air through our lungs, we cannot return to the darkness of our mother’s womb. From that moment on we must begin living only on the air we have now begun to breath. This is how that is explained in spiritual terms:

2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 

Col 3:10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 

Here is how Strong’s defines the Greek word:

G341
ἀνακαινόω
anakainoō
an-ak-ahee-no’-o
From G303 and a derivative of G2537; to renovate: – renew.

Total KJV occurrences: 2

This same thought is expressed with another Greek word in:

Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;  

Here is how this Greek word is defined:

G365
ἀνανεόω
ananēoō
an-an-neh-o’-o
From G303 and a derivative of G3501; to renovate, that is, reform: – renew

Both words mean basically the same thing, and putting these verses together we are to “renovate, reform, and “renew… the inward man… day by day”, just as we must breath to remain alive, we must also breathe in of His spirit and renew our new man day by day.

We are so very blessed to know what it means to breathe of the life-giving spirit and to be renewed day by day. This is what His spirit is:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 
Joh 6:64  But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. 
Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. 
Joh 6:66  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 
Joh 6:67  Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 
Joh 6:68  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 
Joh 6:69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. 
Joh 6:70  Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? 
Joh 6:71  He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. 

God’s words express His mind, and it is having that mind and knowing how that mind works which “is life eternal”:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? 
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: 
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. 

When we hear and do not do the things the Lord tells us to do, we are spiritually suffocating and dying to the things of the spirit. Whether we breathe or suffocate and die, it is all being worked by the Lord “after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).

Job 12:10  In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. 

Even our physical breath is of the Lord:

Job 33:4  The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. 

Psa 104:29  Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

It is by the Lord’s breath that we pass from death to life, and that happens only when our old man falls into the ground and dies, whether that takes place in this life or in the resurrection to judgment in the second death/lake of fire/Tophet.

Isa 30:33  For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Now we must come to understand that our spiritual possession of life in this age is but in down-payment form and in hope of the “possession of the inheritance”, which comes to us in its fullness only when we are born into the kingdom of God in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”:

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. 

“The rest of the dead” will be given the breath of birth after those of the first resurrection have ruled and reigned with Christ over the kingdoms of this world for a symbolic thousand years.

They will be given life “in [their] own order (1Co 15: 22-28). That ‘order’ for physical ‘Israel’ is to be raised up “when Sodom, and Samaria return to their former estate” (Eze 16:53-55).

Eze 37:11  Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 
Eze 37:12  Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 
Eze 37:13  And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 
Eze 37:14  And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

The scriptures tell us of the glory and joy of the actual first resurrection, “the inheritance of the purchased possession”.

Rom 8:12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 
Rom 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 
Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 
Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
1Pe 1:4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 
1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 
1Pe 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 
1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 
1Pe 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 
1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.