A Matured Consideration of the Concept of Vivification, Part 4 (Conciliation Series, Part LX)

 Part IV: God’s Conciliation, Confirmed

We’re getting down to the last few uses of ‘vivification,’ here. Observe 2 Cor. 3:6–

[God] also makes us competent dispensers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter is killing, yet the spirit is vivifying.

The “letter” here is the law – while the “spirit,” of course, is Christ’s living spirit, vivifying all. The contrast between the law and the spirit are not limited to Romans. When we last read of a comparison between ‘law’ and ‘Christ,’ it was in Romans 8:3, where Paul wrote that the law was infirm in the flesh, and thus unable to condemn Sin in the flesh. In contrast, Christ was able to condemn Sin in the flesh, as He is not the law, but the Ruler of the law.

The law kills. This is evident, as we’ve read, in Romans 5:20. More clearly, Paul explained how the law kills in Rom. 7:7-13. The flesh is crushed under the weight of law’s righteousness, and is, in all ways, unable to match its glory. Sin uses this awesome power to obliterate us.

Christ, in contrast, is a proper Ruler, Who does not use the just law against you, but uses it as an escort to lead you to Him (Gal. 3:24.) An escort, friends, is not necessary after he has successfully guided you where you need to go. He ceases to be useful in your life. In this sense, Christ is the bike, and the law is the training wheels. When you learn how to ride without the training wheels – why would you put them back on??

Speaking of Galatians, here’s Gal. 3:21–

Is the law, then, against the promises of God? May it not be coming to that! For if a law were given that is able to vivify, really, righteousness were out of law.

Ah! Here’s that classic objection: “You must hate the law, then! It doesn’t have a place in your Bible, so you must be discarding it entirely!” This objection stems from a psychological issue called projection. Whoever is telling you this does not want to look in to what you’re saying, as they hate what you are talking about, and because it doesn’t sound like their pastor on Sunday, they get angwy and thwow a fit because Paul didn’t say they had to contwibute to their sawvation! I put a photo of a baby on the side to show exactly how the fake Christian ‘law-followers’ look to God. It would be adorable if they weren’t acting like they are sucessfully following the law, and that God will burn you alive forever if you don’t follow suite.

The law cannot vivify. If it were, you wouldn’t need Paul’s evangel. The law promised that, if you could follow every last bit of it, then you would live. This, obviously, is conditional upon the notion that you must follow every law, to a perfect degree, 100% of the time. You have no alternative option. It’s a sorry state of affairs. And, if you mess up once? Dead. The end.

Thank God for His evangel!

God’s evangel does vivify, because for man, a righteousness of God may be proclaimed through the law, but it is the faith of Christ alone by which a righteousness of God is manifest (Rom. 3:21.) God’s evangel vivifies on the sole basis that righteous folk are not subject to the penalty of death. With this, we see that the law does not impart life beyond the reach of death – whereas Christ does.

There are two more times that we see ‘vivification’ in Scripture: 1 Tim. 6:13, and 1 Pet. 3:18. Before I cover these uses, however, I want to take a moment and consider two other technical uses of this term, in Eph. 2:5 and Col. 2:13. I excluded these from the list of verses that discuss vivification because these are technically a separate word. As I discussed before, the elements of the word ‘vivification,’ in Greek (zoopoieo,) is “LIVE-DO.” These two uses in Paul’s prison epistles, however, are special. The Greek word is suzoopoieo, and carries the elements “TOGETHER-LIVE-DO.”

Obviously, ‘together’ is the meaning of the prefix su, and gives a plural nature to the term. I hesitated to reference these two uses, as they don’t explicitly enlighten us as to what ‘vivification’ is, but both uses definitely further clarify the context by which ‘vivification’ is used. As such, I want to show you these verses, to delight in them, but I don’t want to comment on them much right now. Observe Eph. 2:4-6–

God, being rich in mercy, because of His vast love with which He loves us (we also being dead to the offenses and the lusts), vivifies us together in Christ (in grace are you saved!) and rouses us together and seats us together among the celestials, in Christ Jesus…

As we can see, vivification is, in the highest unfoldings in Scripture, still just a means to an end! Not only can we see that ‘vivification’ and ‘rousing’ are two separate matters, but we can begin to see a clear goal as to what the process of vivification effects. In this case, we read that the goal of vivification is to seat us among the celestials, in Christ Jesus. This was hinted at in Rom. 5:17, where we read that those obtaining the grace and conciliation will be reigning in life. Yet here we see a colorful detail that dramatically expands the scope of our understanding of this reign!

Take a look, also, at Col. 2:13–

Being entombed together with [Christ] in baptism, in Whom you were roused together also through faith in the operation of God, Who rouses [Christ] from among the dead, you also being dead to the offenses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He vivifies us together jointly with Him, dealing graciously with all our offenses…

Here again we do not see exactly what vivification is, but how it is impacting us. We see that we are dead to the offenses and uncircumcision of our flesh (justification,) and as such we are vivified together jointly with Christ (conciliation.) This vivification here speaks of our present vivification in spirit, whereas the 1 Cor. 15:23 passage speaks of our body being vivified later. Your life beyond the reach of death is just as real now, in spirit, as Christ’s was on the cross.

Thank you for indulging me! Let’s get back to another overwhelming statement, in 1 Tim. 6:13–

I am charging you in the sight of God, Who is vivifying all…

Look, honestly, before I began this study, I had no idea that this gem was sitting in the back of 1 Timothy. Yet here it is, yet again, more fuel to light the fact that God is vivifying all. There is no condition given in the passage, nor was this the case in 1 Cor. 15:22, where the same concept is spoken of. The vivification of all – that all will be given life beyond the reach of death – is one of the biggest secrets of all time. The most educated scholars in Scripture have no idea that this is the case (1 Cor. 2:6-7.) Even universalist religious folk do not see this term, to vivify, and understand it conclusively.

Alas, there is only one more time that we find the word vivify, and it is not written by Paul, but Peter. Observe 1 Pet. 3:18–

Christ also, for our sakes, once died concerning sins, the just for the sake of the unjust, that He may be leading us to God; being put to death, indeed, in flesh, yet vivified in spirit…

I want to dwell on this for a different reason. In truth, this use of the term directly affirms something we already learned from Paul, in 1 Cor. 15:22, that God vivified Christ first and foremost. However, unlike Paul, we do not read of the rest of humanity that will follow.

Why not?

Peter, unlike Paul, is given a separate message – one to the circumcised (Gal. 2:7-8.) The very beginning of Peter’s letter says that Peter is writing to the twelve tribes of the dispersion (1 Pet. 1:1,) that is: Israel.

Now: while the circumcision evangel is indeed true, it is limited in its scope, and cannot unveil the entirety of God’s plan. The circumcision evangel is true indeed in its context – while, in truth, the uncircumcision evangel is larger in scope, and contextualizes Peter’s evangel.

This is why we cannot see far enough in Peter’s letter. The contrast between how limited Peter is and how expansive Paul is cannot be understated! Here, we see Christ as the one vivified – and that’s it. It’s declarative, and beautiful, in the context of Peter’s letter, but it does not compare to Paul’s vision.

I love, personally, that this is the last use of ‘vivification’ in the text. We see Paul use the term the most, and in contrast, the circumcision evangel is sparse about this. Sure enough, those who adhere to the circumcision evangel are nearly silent on the topic of vivification, and the few that do are already apprehending Paul’s evangel, or seem to be on their way. This final use of ‘vivification,’ on Peter’s end, shows you and me how far we’ve come in our dwelling on life beyond the reach of death. Not only can we appreciate that God vivifies Christ, but that, through Christ, He is also vivifying all.

- GerudoKing