God Is a Breathing God

Editor's Note: This post is an excerpt from Seven: The Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes by pastor Jeff Cook. For more information about Jeff, visit his blog at www.everythingnew.org. Enjoy.

Receiving and giving away is the basic motion of life. A constant in-and-out exchange animates both plant and animal life. Obviously, a failure to inhale is fatal, but so is a refusal to exhale. If the air we draw in is not released, carbon dioxide will build in our blood, the body’s internal oxygen level will drop, and if we continue to hold our breath, brain damage and death will soon follow. Those who fill their lungs without releasing the air perish in the same way as those whose lungs are empty.

The same is true of God’s mercy.

Twice Jesus was questioned about receiving God’s mercy—once by a rich young ruler and once by a legal scholar. Both asked the same question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” That is, what is required for God to show me mercy? Both men wanted to justify their lifestyles to themselves. Both men were given much, and as it turns out, both men were suffocating on what they had been given.

To the legal expert Jesus told a story of a Samaritan giving all he had to experience God for the needs of a wounded traveler he saw beside the road.

To the rich young ruler, Jesus simply said, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard Jesus’ response, he became sad and turned away. The answer exposed his cloven heart—torn between the desire for God’s kind of life and the riches of a world filled with holes. The man had come to Jesus wanting life. He wanted the God kind of life, the eternal kind of life, and so Jesus told him: you need to breathe.

“Sell everything . . .” (Exhale.)
“. . . then come, follow me.” (Inhale.)
“Sell everything . . .” (Exhale.)
“. . . then come follow me.” (Inhale.)

Jesus would not leave the man with nothing. Jesus would give him the only kind of life worth having...

God is a breathing God. In his mercy for us, the Father gave his Son; the Son gave his life. God exhaled mercy into a sin-drenched world, and when he inhaled again, his breath—the Spirit—collected all who would receive his mercy. In and out. God does not hoard but gives freely; and when he gives, God receives. Giving away and receiving is the kind of life going on inside of God.

Giving away and receiving is the eternal kind of life.

Life in Christ is all about breathing. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Love as I have loved you. Do to others what you would have them do to you. Be humbled and you will be exalted. Give and you will receive. And in the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” The merciful alone see and receive God’s mercy.

Comments

[Ann Voskamp]

I want to breath too.

Powerful writing, this.
Thank you.

[Paul]

give me a break. Stop trying to blend yoga/new age garbage with the truth. You can't eat out of the trash and the kitchen table at the same time. If you want to eat the trash at the kitchen table and call it a meal then help yourself.

[Joe]

Paul, please read the excerpt again. I think you're reading way too much into it. This is wonderful prose and metaphor that illustrates the truths of Gods Word.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”