When I was playing basketball in junior high, a friend taught me a new move that was called a crossover. You stop dribbling and plant both feet squarely. Your feet came down together, so either foot can be your pivot foot. As soon as your feet hit the floor, you step forward at a 45 degree angle with either foot to go past your opponent.
Jesus specialized in a different kind of crossover: “… whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24, NIV)
That is an eternal crossover. ”For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.” (John 5:21, NIV)
Both the Father and the Son are life-givers. They give life in four dimensions: Spirit-life, soul-life, body-life and social-life. God quickens dead spirits. He revives dead souls, He raises dead bodies. He restores dead relationships.
“The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing. … for in the same way that the Father raises the dead and creates life, so does the Son.” (John 5:19-21, MSG)
Jesus said that the sum total of what the Father is doing through the Son is giving life. God is love. Love gave life to the first human beings. Love is still giving life.
The hub of aliveness is spirit-aliveness. Any person who believes into Christ, “ has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.” (John 5:24, MSG) I took that giant cross-step of aliveness when I was eighteen.
What is God doing? He is offering His Life to everyone. What is God saying? Just what Jesus said to His friend Lazarus: “Step out of that deadness into my aliveness. “Don’t be so surprised! Indeed the time is coming when all the dead in their graves shall hear the voice of God’s Son …” (John 5:28, TLB) One day, every person who has ever lived will hear His voice. Please don’t wait until then. Hear it now! To hear, believe and obey is to live.
Life Spark: You are in God’s job description. (John 5:16-30)
Life-challenge: If making you more alive is part of God’s mission, what is His current ‘mission field’ in you? Where is He working to make you more alive?