"...I am come that they might have life, and with they might have it more abundantly. "(KJV) John 10: 10
Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (KJV) John 17: 1-3
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; (KJV) John 17: 21-23
To understand what life is we must have an understanding of what death is. At its lowest common denominator; at its very core death is being separate. This is fallen man's condition. We became a self and as such even in a room with hundreds of people we can know the despair of being all alone.
Life is the very opposite of being a self; life is being one with God. Jesus told us this over and over: I am the vine, you are the branches, why do you call me good, there is none good but the Father, I have meat that you know not of, etc. God sharing his life with us is not something we can form in us, but something we must trust and rely on being given.
Since these things are true; why do believers do things that are not Godly? Jesus said no man can serve two masters, also if a man would find his life(from self) then he would lose his life, but if he would lose his life(from self) for my sake, he will find his life(shared from God).
So how do we stop being a self? The fallen nature I have been referring to as self, Paul called the flesh. It is a word that applies not only to the individual but to any other man or society. In Romans Paul concludes that the flesh is crucified with Christ and that the life we now live is provided by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul gives us another key in the beginning of the same book "from faith to faith the righteousness of Christ is revealed in us"; showing that as we trust him he brings us to a greater trust in him.
So in this way we come to a place where it is no longer I (the self) that live but Christ (living) in me. So we are conformed to the image of him who is the express image of God, becoming one with him, a living word.
