In the New Testament language there are two completely different words for the German word “life”: bios and zoä . Bios means the biological life of humans, but also of all non-human creatures. This life passes quickly and fleetingly like a river, like a dream, like a flower that is about to wither (Ps 90:5; Ps 103:15). In Job 14:1-2 we read: “Man, born of a woman, lives a short time and is troubled; he grows like a flower and falls; he flees like a shadow and does not remain”. Escaping lives were compared to clouds of vapor: “What is your life for? You are vapor that lasts a short time, but then disappears” (James 4:14).
For Otto v. Bismarck said, “Life is a skillful extraction of teeth.” You always think that the real thing has to come until suddenly you see that it is all over.” The poet Chr. F. Hebbel said, “Life is a bitter almond wrapped in sevenfold gold paper,” and the essayist Adolf Reitz defined life as “a cesspool of hopes and disappointments.” The Bible, on the other hand, offers us a completely different perspective: when people discover their life as a good gift from God and mold them into following Jesus, it takes on a new dimension, with the Greek “zoä.” Zoä is life from God, that essential, indissoluble and eternal life. So it is not only linked to his person; in him we directly find eternal life. Jesus says in John 14:6: “I am… the (eternal!) life” (Greek zoä ).The apostle John also testifies to this identity of Jesus and eternal life: “And the (eternal) life appeared (Greek zoä ), and we have seen and testify and proclaim the eternal life, which was with the Father and appeared to us” (1 John 1:2).Whoever believes in Jesus and has Him as Lord also has eternal life (1 John 5:12).With the promise of eternal life (1 John 2:25), our temporal life has an eternal basis.Only from this is it understandable that Jesus’ disciples suffer persecution, imprisonment and torture and even die for the sake of their faith, but do not deny their Lord. Eternal life will only become evident in all its fullness after the resurrection: “And many… shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to everlasting reproach and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2).In this life we not only have the promise of eternal life, but we already share in the fullness of life, existence and glory of God and Christ.When faith appears, we will see Jesus and the Father face to face.