Read Chapter 2.1: The Living God

In the Bible, God is repeatedly described as the living God, the God who lives, He Who lives forever, and He Who lives forever and ever. God Himself claims He lives and that He lives forever. He is described as the living redeemer and the living Father. Jesus is called the bread of life, the light of life, the Prince of life, the Word of life, the living stone, the ever-living Word, life, eternal life, the One Who was dead but now lives, and the One Who was dead but now lives and lives forever. Life is clearly one of the attributes of God Himself.

In creating the physical world to illustrate His invisible attributes (Rom. 1:20), God created organisms to illustrate His attribute of life. God created plants (Gen. 1:11-12) and living ‘creatures’ (‘created’ beings) in the sea (Gen. 1:20-21), the air (Gen. 1:20-21), and the land (Gen. 1:24). Even now, all living things are in His hands (Job 12:9-10) and are held together by ‘the word of His power’ (Heb. 1:3). God created and holds together everything that biologists study (Col. 1:16-17).

Created Life

Different Types of Life

Intuitively, most people seem to have a sense that there are fundamental differences between plants and animals and further distinctions between the life of animals and the life of humans. Animal life seems to deserve more respect than plant life, and human life seems to deserve even more respect than animal life. Even aside from biblically-defined morality, there are also legal distinctions between killing a plant, killing a cheetah and killing a human. Could this be because plants and animals and humans differ in some fundamental manner?

Divine Life

Because life is part of the very nature of God, He has always lived and will always live. Life is an attribute of God. It is also important to remember that God is completely distinct from His creation and not to be confused or considered equal with it. Likewise, His attributes are distinct from similar qualities in His creation. The life of God is uncaused. It had no beginning, no cause, and no creator. The life of God is also autonomous. It is dependent upon nothing else for its continued existence. And, because God Himself is infinite, the life of God is probably infinite and unbounded in quality.

Consequently, the first great division of life is divine life on the one hand, possessed only by God, and creature life on the other hand, which is all other life. Whereas divine life is uncaused, autonomous, and infinite, creature life was created by God, is completely dependent upon God for its continued existence, and is limited in quality. This distinction is our first indication that not all life is the same, and a hint that even among creature life there might be different types of life.

The Life of Spirit Creatures

God created both physical beings and non-physical (or spiritual) beings (“…by Him were all things created… visible and invisible…”: Col. 1:16). Among the invisible things, the Bible describes spirit creatures that God created (e.g. angels, cherubim, seraphim). Among them, only the cherubim are explicitly described as living (Ezekiel 1:5-25; 3:13; 10:15-22). The other spirit creatures are nowhere explicitly described as ‘alive’ or ‘dead’ or ‘dying’.

However, the activity of these spirit creatures, as well as other similarities to what we know to be living beings, would suggest that these spirit creatures are living beings as well. Since no reference is made to the death of any of these spirit creatures (even in the lake of fire), the life of spirit creatures is probably unending. And, since these are spirit creatures—not having (or having need of) physical bodies—it is likely that they possess a different kind of life from living creatures with bodies, so it is listed here as a distinct type of creature life.

Nephesh Life

Creatures that do have physical bodies were brought into being in four different creation events in Genesis 1: plants on Day Three; sea creatures and birds on Day Five; land animals on Day Six; and humans later on Day Six. Of these, the Bible explicitly describes several of them as living—and dying. Animals of the sea are described as living and dying. Animals of the air, such as birds and bats are described as living and dying. Animals of the land are described as living and dying. Among the animals of the land, even creeping things, like insects, amphibians, and rodents are described as living and dying. Humans are described in various places as alive, dead, or dying, even those newly born (II Sam. 12:18-23; I Kings 3:18-27) and those in the womb (Ex. 21:22-25).

More specifically each category of beings is described in the Hebrew as nephesh hayim (translated as ‘living creature’ for water creatures and birds in Gen. 1:20-21, ‘living creature’ for land animals in Gen. 1:24-25, and ‘living soul’ for humans in Gen. 2:7). Thus, according to Scripture, humans and animals possess what might be described as nephesh life (or soul life). Nephesh life would then be a type of creature life found in creatures that by nature have both bodies and souls.

It is also likely that there is a different life possessed by humans and animals, for the Bible treats them as very different types of organisms. Some of the differences include: animals and humans were created in separate creation events; humans were formed directly by God, rather than by divine command (compare Gen. 2:7 with Gen. 1:20 and 24); God breathed life into humans directly (Gen. 2:7b); humans, and only humans, are the image of God; humans were made rulers over the animals; and the human soul continues forever, whereas the soul of animals apparently dies at the death of the animal’s body (Eccl. 3:21). So, it is likely that there are at least two very different types of nephesh life: human life and animal life.