2 Codependent 133-138 Christian Mental Health
The Torment of the Christian
Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (NIV).
Because man has not trusted God, he has looked to every other source in the world to find the answers to emotional health. But the more theories man comes up with, the more mental and emotional sicknesses that sweep down on our society. Year by year, as we have cast away God’s standards, we dove deeper and deeper into a crisis that is giving rise to every imaginable horror. The arrogant unbeliever insists that if we will just reject more of God’s standards, we will ultimately find the man made utopia.
Since there is not a single scientist that can explain the processes of the brain, much less the mind, I feel that I should reconsider whom I take my advice from. The only theories of man that have worked are the ones that have been consistent with the Word of God. Therefore, I must look to the Word of God for absolute information about the mind and emotions.
We must be careful to separate the teachings of the church and the teachings of the Bible. Unfortunately, many theories of the church are as inconsistent with the Word of God as the theories of the world. It has been these unscriptural, unworkable concepts of the church that have caused serious-minded people to look to another source for authoritative answers.
In Genesis, God created man’s body from the dust of the earth. He then breathed into man something of Himself, some of His own Spirit. When these two elements came together, man did not become a living body, as the medical world would have us to believe. Nor did he become a living spirit, as the religious world would have us to believe. God’s Word says that man became a living soul!
Gen 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (NIV)
Gen 2:7 and the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (KJV)
Man’s body is what keeps him alive to this world. He can feel thing in the physical world. Those physical feelings are turned into thoughts and emotions in the soul. Likewise, the spirit of a man gives him awareness of the spiritual world. That information also becomes feelings and emotions in the soul. Man experiences and interprets both spiritual and physical life in the realm of the soul.
Since God created man, He is the only one who really fully understands how real mental health should work. Everything we need to know about mental health should be found in the Bible and supported by scientific experimentation – if either of these two groups could give up their prejudices and work together. But, regardless of scientific validation, time has proven that the principles of the Word of God work consistently.
John 17:3 now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (NIV).
When the Bible talks about life, it talks about a particular quality of life. The Greek word is “zoe.” Zoe life is the quality of life as possessed by the one who gives it. In this case, we are speaking of the quality of life God has. This is what Jesus came to give.
Jesus said the quality of life would be the product of knowing God. Knowing God is the product of a relationship, not just a singular experience. While it is absolutely essential that we have a “born again” experience, that experience alone will not produce zoe. If we do not develop a relationship with God and find fullness of life, that experience can be frustrating and cause us to disbelieve.
In the OT, there were people who believed in God, but they never had the opportunity to experience this quality of life. This can only be found in the finished work of Jesus. By accepting the love of God as expressed through the Lord Jesus’ finished work, we can be brought into a realm where we experience zoe.
Through Jesus, we have complete peace with God. Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (NIV). True mental health is only found when man is at peace with God in his own heart. That peace only comes when one trusts the reality that Jesus has not only died to become their Savior, He has also risen again to become their righteousness.
This meets the deepest need that man has. This is the basis for all emotional health. This is the stabilizing factor that brings all of life together. But this is also the reality that the church and the world have rejected. Both groups have rejected the truth, neither one realizing the implications. Both groups have robbed man of the one and only thing that would bring him absolute stability and peace, the qualification for the total love and acceptance of God.
Romans, chapter 9, talks about Jesus being the stumbling stone. But it really doesn’t talk about him personally being the stumbling stone. It talks about the faith righteousness, which is found in Jesus being the stumbling stone.
Romans 9:30-33 30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith, 31 but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.” 33 As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (NIV).
The Gentiles were not looking for righteousness, but they found it. Why? They were willing to accept it as a free gift. Israel, on the other hand, was trying desperately to find righteousness so God could accept them. They could not find it. Why? They refused to believe it could be received as a free gift. They stumbled at the stumbling stone. Jesus as Savior is not the stumbling stone, Jesus, as our righteousness is the stumbling stone.
Faith righteousness is the best-kept secret in the church. Preachers preach day and night trying to get people to work harder to be more righteousness so they can be accepted of God. It is this load that the Jews could not carry, and neither can we. This is why Jesus came. We didn’t just need a way to get to heaven; we needed freedom from the guilt of sin and the burden of righteousness. By making us righteous, we now have complete peace with God.
It is this burden of responsibility that has made the world turn its back on God. The world was smart enough to know that no one could ever be righteous enough to please a perfect God. Laboring under that load has driven many people completely crazy. So the world said: “Nobody can do this, so why try? Lets erase the mention of God from our memory so we can be free from trying to please Him. Then maybe we can get on with life” The church and the world have both stumbled over the stumbling stone: Jesus Christ, our righteousness.”
The human mind can only function optimally when it is at peace. The absence of peace is destructive to both body and soul. Peace is only found in a meaningful, loving relationship with God through the Lord Jesus. It is found in a place where we accept the finished work of Jesus. We have received Him as Lord, Savior and righteousness. Nothing else brings absolute peace.
Many Christians have lost emotional stability believing that Jesus was Lord, but not knowing if God would accept them.
Trying to qualify is the torment of the Christian.
Trying to qualify destroys self worth.
Trying to qualify makes a statement to the heart that says, “I am not qualified.”
This is the cause of condemnation, the Christian insanity.
Condemnation is the expectation of judgment. If one is not fully convinced that Jesus met all of our qualifications for righteousness, he will only have one other source of comfort and peace: his performance. This means one must become a totally deceived, self-righteous legalist or ride the roller coaster of performance. When we perform well, we are self-righteous; when we do not perform well, we feel guilty. Guilt has to do with punishment. When one feels guilty, they expect things to go wrong. It is this fear that becomes the breeding ground for physical and emotional instability.
Neither the totally false concepts of the world, nor the warped religious concepts of the church have been able to provide man with the peace and stability offered in the Word of God. Both systems are failing and neither one wants to admit it. The world may ignore God, but the need that every man has to know and feel the love of God will not go away. The incidence of addictions, immorality, violence, insanity, and other social ills will continue to grow as the world moves farther from the God that loves them.
The religious church will continue to be an impotent force in the world. It will hold out promises that are not fulfilled in this life. It will only experience small degrees of victory. Fortunately, the church may fail a man in this life, but it will not fail in eternity. The world system may bring some relief in this life, but it will fail in eternity.
Either of these extremes, however, will prevent a man from knowing God and finding zoe’ a quality of emotional and physical life that can only be found in God.
2198 zao { dzah’-o} a primary verb; TDNT - 2:832,290; v AV - live 117, be alive 9, alive 6, quick 4, lively 3, not tr 1, misc 2, vr live 1; 143 GK - 2409 { zavw }
1) to live, breathe, be among the living (not lifeless, not dead)
2) to enjoy real life
2a) to have true life and worthy of the name
2b) active, blessed, endless in the kingdom of God
3) to live i.e. pass life, in the manner of the living and acting
3a) of mortals or character
4) living water, having vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul
5) metaph. to be in full vigour
5a) to be fresh, strong, efficient,
5b) as adj. active, powerful, efficacious
2222 zoe { dzo-ay’}
from 2198; TDNT - 2:832,290; n f
AV - life 133, lifetime 1; 134
GK - 2437 { zwhv }
1) life
1a) the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animate
1b) every living soul
2) life
2a) of the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic “logos” and to Christ in whom the “logos” put on human nature
2b) life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever.
For synonyms see entry 979, bios.
See entry 5821 for comparison of synonyms.[1]
E. The Concept of Life in the NT.
- Natural Life. In the NT zoµeµ and zeµn refer first to natural life as distinct from natural death. This life is corruptible and limited but involves movement and ability. To live sometimes means to be healthy (Mk. 5:23; cf. Rom. 7:8). Figuratively things that are efficacious may be called living, e.g., words (Acts 7:38), hope (1 Pet. 1:3), and sacrifice (Rom. 12:1). Power is of the essence of life. Life is a supreme good (Mk. 8:36-37). Jesus puts forth his power to save or restore it (Mk. 5:23; Mt. 9:18). Sinners lose it (Acts 22:22). It is sustained but not assured by food, resting also on the pneuŒma as the power of the God who has life intrinsically (Jn. 5:26), who lives eternally (Rev. 4:9-10; cf. 1 Tim. 6:16), who is Lord of life and death, who judges the living and the dead (1 Pet. 4:5), and who makes alive through his life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Life is thus dependent on God. It is fulfilled, however, in the manner of leading it, and may thus be qualified adverbially (cf. Lk. 15:13; Gal. 2:14; Tit. 2:12, etc.). béŒos can be used for zoµeµ in this sense (1 Tim. 2:2), but zoµeµ does not first take on meaningful content in béŒos (as in Greek thought), for it is responsible before God. Believers do not live for self but for God or the Lord (Rom. 14:7-8). Living for self is living for sin and death (Rom. 6:2). Life stands always under the question of its origin and goal.[2]
2. True Life according to the General NT View. Death is not just a natural phenomenon. It is not self-evident but a punishment for sin. True life, the life of God, is indestructible. Thus the life that is subject to death is only provisional (1 Cor. 15:19). It is life in the flesh (Gal. 2:20). Those who are bound to it are “dead” (Mt. 8:22-23; Eph. 5:14; Rev. 3:1). The true life is future (1 Tim. 4:8). This is zoµeµ in the absolute (Mk. 9:43), or zeµn (Rom. 1:17). Being indestructible, it is eternal (Mk. 10:17; Rom. 2:7; Gal. 6:8, etc.), and is linked with salvation. It is inherited, received, or entered (Mk. 10:17; 10:30; 9:43-44). If we may be worthy of it (Mt. 7:13-14), we have no control over it; as natural life is given by creation, true life is given by resurrection. There is no immortality of the soul. God sovereignly ordains to eternal life (Acts 13:48, and cf. the book or books of life in Rev. 13:8; 17:8).
3. The Grounding of Life in Jesus Christ. The new feature in the NT is that the future act of awakening is grounded in the enacted resurrection of Christ. The heart of the Christian gospel is the Easter message that he who was dead now lives (Lk. 24:9; Rom. 6:10; 14:9; 2 Cor. 13:4). This life of his is eternal (Rev. 1:18), and death is thus robbed of its power. Faith in a future zoµeµ no longer rests merely on a general concept of God. The concept of God is radicalized, the result of sin is shown to be deeper, and the claim of humanity is more sharply negated. God’s gift of new and true life is by a free and gracious act of salvation (Rom. 5:15; 1 Pet. 3:7) without which we would be lost. Hope rests on faith in this act (Rom. 1:17). To believe in Jesus is to have life (Jn. 3:15-16). Jesus has brought life and immortality to light (2 Tim. 1:10). He is the author of life (Acts 3:15). We are saved by his life (Rom. 5:10). He is our life, a life hidden with him in God (Col. 3:3-4). In him is life (Rom. 8:2). He is the resurrection and the life (Jn. 11:25), the way, the truth, and the life (Jn. 14:6), the true and eternal life (1 Jn. 5:20).
4. Life Future and present. If future zoµeµ is established by Christ’s work, this work has already taken place and the resurrection of the dead is simply the consummation of the replacing of the old aeon by the new. Thus zoµeµ is not just hoped for; we have it already. It is still future in the teaching of Jesus and throughout the NT. Yet the present is seen in the light of it, and since it is grounded in a completed act, our hope is sure and living (1 Pet. 1:3). In Rev. 2:7, 10 the present is sustained by this certain hope. In Col. 3:3-4 zoµeµ is already present but hidden as yet in God. In 2 Tim. 1:1 it is given in Christ. In 1 Tim. 6:12 we are to lay hold of it; it is manifested in the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10). Earthly conditions no longer apply to it (Mk. 12:25). It is a life of joy and glory (Mt. 25:21; 2 Tim. 2:10), free from suffering and decay (Rev. 21:4). Yet it is not wholly different from life as it now is.[3]
5. Paul’s View of Life as Present.
a. Paul uses present terms to describe life. The old aeon has given way to the new. Christ is the second Adam, the author of a new humanity, its firstfruits or firstborn (1 Cor. 15:20; Rom. 8:29). If there is a future fulfilment (1 Cor. 15:20ff.), there is also present renewal (Rom. 5: 12ff.). The pneuŒma is a pledge of the future (Rom. 8:11). Yet the pneuŒma also means a new manner of life as Christ is present and active in believers, so that their zoµeµ is a historical reality here and now. The life-giving pneuŒma differs from the living psycheµ (1 Cor. 15:45) and is already present, so that if we hope for zoµeµ (Rom. 5:1ff.), we also have it, like doŒxa (Rom. 8:30; 2 Cor. 3:6ff.).
b. zoµeµ is not present in an ideal béŒos (as in Stoicism), nor as a substance conferring immortality (as in Gnosticism). For Paul the pneuŒma is not the nouŒs but the power of God, and the presupposition of reception of the pneuŒma and zoµeµ is the word that proclaims a historical event and that belongs to this event. The word, as God’s power to salvation (Rom. 1:16), is the word of life (Phil. 2:16; cf. Acts 5:20). Hence the gospel destroys death and manifests immortality (2 Tim. 1:10). Faith corresponds to the word; it grasps the righteousness of God and the remission of sins which are necessary for life. Thus the pneuŒma is not our possession but implies that we cannot live on our own. Our true life is Christ living in us (Gal. 2:20). His life is in us (2 Cor. 5:20-21). We live in him (Rom. 6:11). Christ is our life (Rom. 8:2). We have life in relation to his work for us.
c. This true life in the Spirit is at work in the concrete possibilities of life (1 Cor. 7:29ff.). It is freedom from death by identification with Christ’s vicarious death. This freedom comes to expression in daily dying, for “dying, behold we live” (2 Cor. 4:8ff.). By living and dying we glorify Christ; our death is gain and our life in the flesh is fruitful labor (Phil. 1:20ff.). Since we belong to God and serve him, our living and dying are relativized, and our possibilities are only mediately such through faith. We walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4), i.e., righteousness (6:12ff.). The first fruit of life in the pneuŒma is agaŒpeµ (Gal. 5:22-23). The walk itself, of course, is not zoµeµ, for zoµeµ propagates itself by the word and is not limited in time, the teŒlos of zoµeµ being also zoµeµ (Rom. 6:22). If right conduct alone makes us worthy of eternal life, this conduct springs from the life that is already given and that confers freedom from the law (2 Cor. 3:17), and from sin (Rom. 6:18). Thus zoµeµ is both present life and future blessing. The implied transformation (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:16) is not by natural process but by divine action (1 Cor. 15:36ff.) linked to a dramatic cosmic event (1 Th. 4: 13ff.).
d. As future life, zoµeµ defies full definition. It is both salvation (Rom. 5:10) and glory (2 Cor. 3:6ff.). Transcending earthly possibilities, it is still somatic (1 Cor. 15:35ff.). It brings with it righteousness, peace, and.joy (Rom. 14:17), face-to-face vision (1 Cor. 13:12), perfect knowledge, and being with Christ in abiding faith, hope, and love.
6. John’s View of Life as Present.
a. As the eternal Son and Logos, Christ has life in himself (Jn. 1:4), for he is God’s creative power. He yields up his human psycheµ to death (10:11) but his zoµeµ (which is the light of men, 1:4) cannot be destroyed. As himself zoµeµ, he reveals the God whose command is eternal life (12:50). Giving life to believers, he is the bread of life (6:35) and the light of life (8:12), he gives the water of life (4:10-11), his words are spirit and life (6:63) or the words of life (6:68), and he has come to give life to the world (6:33).
b. Believers in Christ already have life in faith (3:25). They have passed from death to life (5:24). With his word, the hour comes (5:25). He is the resurrection and the life, so that believers in him will live though they die (11:25). He has already given them glory (17:22). Yet this zoµeµ has an eternal future (4:14; 6:27) and there is the promise of a new vision of glory (17:24). Express references to an eschatological future occur in 5:28-29 and 6:51ff.
c. By depicting life as present, John does not spiritualize it but radicalizes it. Christ’s coming is the decisive event. Life comes by commitment to him. It thus stands under the command of love, for abiding in him is abiding in love (15:1ff., 9ff.). Our love is grounded in God’s love (13:34; 1 Jn. 4:7ff.). Love of the brethren shows that we have passed from death to life (1 Jn. 3:14-15). Inwardly, life means an assurance or confidence that drives out fear (1 Jn. 4:18) and a joy of asking (Jn. 16:20ff.) that overcomes sorrow. These are part of the abundance (Jn. 10:10) that comes with the life that is knowledge of God in Christ.
d. If this view seems to resemble the Hellenistic concept, it does so only in a complete radicalizing and restructuring (as in the related issues of truth and knowledge). For it points away from speculation and mysticism to the historical revelation of God in Christ. The egoµ eimi sayings are significant in this regard. If the zoµeµ of creation is light, it is so in actuality even though the cosmos resists it (Jn. 1:4-5). The question of zoµeµ is an urgent one even in darkness, for all things owe their being to the Logos. People may wrongly think they have found life (5:39-40), but revelation leads from false life to true life. Thus common necessities and metaphors of life (water and bread) are adopted, and the fact that in themselves these do not satisfy the quest for authentic life turns them into a question that the incarnate Logos answers as the one in whom alone real life is to be found.
anazaŒoµ. This rare word, meaning “to become alive again,” “to rise again,” is used figuratively in Lk. 15:24 (the prodigal) and Rom. 7:9 (sin), and literally with reference to Christ’s resurrection in Rom. 14:9 and that of the dead in Rev. 20:5.
zoµon. This word for “living creature” (whether the animal or human) is used for animals in Gen. 1:21; Ps. 104:24; Ezek. 47:9; Heb. 13:11. Heretics are compared to irrational creatures (animals) in Jude 10; 2 Pet. 2:12. A special use is for the four heavenly creatures of Ezek. 1:5, 13ff. and Rev. 4:6ff.; 5:6ff.
zoµogoneŒoµ. Attested from the time of Aristotle for “to make alive,” this word normally has reference to nature or animals, and ultimately to deity. God makes alive in 1 Sam. 2:6. Another use, with humans as subjects, is for “to leave alive” (Ex. 1:17-18; Judg. 8:19; 1 Sam. 27:9ff.). God gives life to all things in 1 Tim. 6:13, while the LXX sense “to leave or keep alive” occurs in Lk. 17:33; Acts 7:19.
zoopoieŒoµ. This word, too, means “to make alive” (animals, plants, deity). God is the usual subject in the LXX (2 Kgs. 5:7; wisdom in Eccl. 7:12). In the NT the term acquires a distinct soteriological sense. The law cannot give life (Gal. 3:21). God gives life to the dead (Rom. 4:17). He will give life to our mortal bodies (Rom. 8:11; cf. 1 Cor. 15:22). He raises Christ (1 Pet. 3:18). This life-giving can have a present reference: God (and Christ) in Jn. 5:21; Col. 2:13; the Spirit in 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:6; Jn. 6:63. [R. Bultmann, II, 855-75][4]
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[1]Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1995.
[2]Kittel, Gerhard, and Friedrich, Gerhard, Editors, The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company) 1985.
[3]Kittel, Gerhard, and Friedrich, Gerhard, Editors, The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company) 1985.
[4]Kittel, Gerhard, and Friedrich, Gerhard, Editors, The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company) 1985.