Get a Life!

Posted On August 16, 2002
With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? – Micah 6:6-8. (See also Romans 8:5-6.)

Elvis lovers and impersonators are coming out of the closet with the 25th anniversary of his death. Some people still are unable to believe that he is dead and some are still making bets that he is still alive. Some people watching from afar would say a lot of those people just need to get a life. Elvis impersonator Steve Murphy at the Professional Elvis Impersonators Association’s convention in Las Vegas has a different view, “People say get a life. Well, I got one – it’s just somebody else’s.”

For the child of God having life, real life is not rocket science. The way to having quality life is spelled out in much detail in the Bible but the problem for many is that it seems too simple. Give us a mountain to climb, or as they were saying during Micah’s time let us sacrifice our first-born child. We want to do something really difficult to prove our love, to prove we have done something to merit, to deserve eternal life. However, to have real life begins with believing the sacrificial work that was done by Christ and receiving Him as our Savior. As human beings we want to get the glory, to get the gold but to have real life, we must instead “walk humbly” with our God and give Him the glory.

Once we know Christ as our Savior, we must begin to live “somebody else’s” life. Not Elvis’ but the life of Christ Jesus. In Galatians 2:20 Paul explains, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” So, in order to have life after receiving Jesus as our Savior, we must begin to live like Christ.

How would Jesus be living if He were you? He would be walking humbly with God and everything He did would be right, good, just, and merciful. Do you get it? To have life we just live “somebody else’s” life – the life of Jesus, who lives within us. In allowing Jesus to come forth in our life, we will experience the “abundant life” that Jesus promised. We will find that living as Jesus lived is really the only way to live and the only way to really have life. Why not get a life? Get the life of Jesus!

(For the child of God having life, real life is not rocket science. The way to having quality life is spelled out in much detail in the Bible but the problem for many is that it seems too simple.)