Our Lives Are on Loan from God

“I came that they may have life.” JOHN 10:10

You may read these words of Jesus and think, “I already have a good life. I’m content and happy. I don’t need Jesus.” Yes, but your life is on loan from God, and what has been given to you can be taken away from you.

For Jesus it is different. The apostle John made this remarkable statement about Him: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Life is in Jesus. He holds it as His own possession: “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26). Life is in Jesus, and no one can take it from Him. He gives this life to whoever He wants to (John 5:21).

In the Old Testament, God made Himself known to Moses through a burning bush: “The angel of the LORD appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed” (Ex. 3:2).

A fire burns so long as there is fuel. Throw on more wood, and the fire will keep burning. It depends on the wood for its fuel, and when the wood is consumed, the fire will go out.

But Moses saw a fire that was self-sustaining. It burned, but it did not consume the bush, because it did not depend on the bush for fuel. In revealing Himself like this to Moses, God was telling us that He has life in Himself. No one gives it to Him; and no one can take it from Him.

If your life is loaned to you by God, then can you ever really say that you do not need Him?