The body is finite. It is temporary. No amount of pranic living or wishful thinking will change that. Without water a person might live two excruciatingly painful weeks? But air and sun are all a person needs according to Breatharians the hot new lifestyle that graced the pages of the New York Post recently.

Breatharians are nothing new. They claim to have reached a higher stage where they are able to draw nourishment and energy from the air and sun. Underlying this philosophy is the Hindu idea of prana which is a Sanskrit word for life giving force. These Breatharians claim that being free from earthly purists of hunger and that allows them to be limitless and live healthier lives. But this is nothing new it is a rehash of old Hindu ideals and leads one to the path of pantheist religions. Pantheism identifies god with the universe. Everything is god. A chair, a tree, an animal, the air, light, or a planet. Starwars promoting the Jedi force is pantheism. Jedi could live a pranic lifestyle. One assumes that a Jedi might prefer the Breatharian model of life. Who does not want those mind over matter kinds of ability? The ability to tap into a god that flows through everything is an interesting allure. This is an idea that takes many forms and is taught in many ways. It is an idea that mankind can rise above the limitations of this body. Maybe even live forever.

But these ideas, this spiritual “think good thoughts” and live limitless, are contrary to reality and the history of the Biblical Genesis all people are forced to deal with. The Creator God confirms that these bodies for both men and women are finite, constrained, and broken. People, all people, including the pantheist trying to live a pranic life, are cursed and doomed to the limitations of a finite physical existence.

…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:17b-19 ESV

God put limits on the human condition. He promised his creation that it would not be physically immortal like some undead zombie or evil vampire. Now there is a curious truth about God that further proves the point and at the same time gives perfect hope in the future that God has for His creation.

That truth is the nature of who Jesus is and what he accomplished on earth. First is the nature of Jesus to understand who is this Jesus. Unlike the pantheist drawing energy from the air and sun the Christian follower of Christ embraces reality of the temporary nature of life. Christians follow Jesus and Jesus is no ordinary man. Jesus is the living incarnation of the creator God himself. Does that shock? Is that a surprise? Jesus is God and Jesus claimed to be God. Not a god or someone who tapped into the god spirit of the universe. Jesus is the one true God.

58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” John 8:58 ESV

Speaking to the Hebrew religious audience Jesus tells them before Abraham the first Hebrew was born that Jesus himself existed. This claim was taken as blasphemy by the audience. This claim is the excuse and the how for Jesus ending up dead on a cross. Look at the very next verse at the reaction to Jesus claiming divinity.

So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. John 8:59 ESV

This is the nature of Jesus. It answers the “Who” question. He is God in the flesh. God taking on the limitations of a human body. God come to man for reconciliation and restoration of the curse given to men at the dawn of creation. Understanding the nature of Jesus, who is God, now we can look at what he accomplished and how that accomplishment flies in the face of anyone, like the breatharians, trying to live infinite limitless lives in a finite limited world.

Jesus, who is God, is well known for fasting and focused times of prayer. Jesus clearly states that he and the Father are one because Jesus is God.

I and the Father are one. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. John 10:30-31 ESV

Jesus who is God, that is his nature, is also finite and limited. Jesus is constrained by the body he has taken. God limited himself when he took the form of a man. Jesus in accomplishing the restoring and relational ends of his ministry had to leave. He was on earth for a short season and then returned to his own house. Living forever without food or without limitations on this earth is not possible for people. Doing so is outside of God’s plans and is contrary to the curse given to our forefather at the beginning. Jesus was not limitless so how can any other person break that constraint?

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. John 16:7 ESV

Jesus told his followers, the disciples, that he would go away so that the Helper would come to them. Jesus, who is God, is limited by the constraints of flesh and time. Jesus, who is God, in the form of a man is limited. He cannot speak with all people or be in place to comfort every soul. What is needed for this is the Holy Spirit the third person of the trinity. The Holy Spirit is not bound by time, food, or physical constraints. The Holy Spirit moves among men in all places always.

17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Romans 14:17-18 ESV

Jesus then demonstrates the limited nature of man by first doing what we could not do for ourselves. That is paying the cost of sin by death on the cross and reconciling those following after him to God. And second by returning to the Father and providing the infinite Helper to those followers. The one Holy Spirit that moves among us at all times and all places even while we individually are constrained to the limitations of nature.

If being free from the constrains of this world are in your heart then repent of your rebellion and turn toward Jesus who reconciles the temporary broken people of creation to the endless perfect Creator.