Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:2-5)

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:30-31)

Most people consider aging an unavoidable journey into weakness and decline. They resign themselves to the idea that, with each passing year, the human body must inevitably grow frail, and that vigor must give way to sickness and decay. This view is grounded in the expectation that we live under the law of sin and death, an unavoidable consequence of the fall of man. However, Scripture presents a different reality for those who are in Christ. Believers are not meant to live under the same set of rules as the rest of the world. They are not subject to the natural course dictated by sin and death. Instead, they are able to live by the power of God through faith, which changes the very nature of how they age.

The law of sin and death binds humanity to the inevitability of sickness and decline, a fate wrought by Adam’s disobedience. As the Bible says, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men.” But those who belong to Christ have been set free from this law and have entered into a new reality. As the Bible also says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Christians no longer have to live according to the principles that govern the fallen world. They are no longer bound by the inevitability of decay that sin imposes, and death means something different to them. They live by a different set of rules — the laws of faith, power, and life in Christ.

Because this is true, then age should not make a difference for those who live by the Spirit of God. Since God gives and sustains life, and since his Spirit infuses our beings, then the passing of time should not mean the deterioration of strength. On the contrary, it should mean that divine power and energy permeate our bodies more and more. Instead of conforming to the expectation of decline, those who have faith can experience an increasing measure of God’s strength, growing stronger as the years advance.

Caleb serves as an example. At the age of eighty-five, he declared, “I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. I am just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.” Caleb did not conform to the expectation that age must bring weakness. Instead, he lived by faith in God, and his strength remained undiminished. Even in his old age, he was ready to take the mountain that God had promised. Remarkably, he achieved this under a religion of types and shadows, before the reality arrived in Jesus Christ. Even a religion that merely anticipated Christ enabled Caleb to live without sickness and decline. How much more should we who live in the reality of Jesus Christ and who are infused with the Spirit of God grow stronger with age, shedding even the weaknesses and diseases that we might have had when we were young! Caleb’s story stands as a testimony to what it means to live by a different set of rules, not undergoing the natural decay that comes from sin, but growing stronger by the supernatural power that comes from faith in God’s word.

This perspective requires a reorientation of the way most people think about aging. The world tells us that aging is synonymous with decline. It is a descent into irrelevance and impotence, a process that ends in death through sickness. This is indeed true when we refer to those who live without God and without faith. But the gospel of Jesus Christ offers a different path. Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, but the Bible says, “His eyes were not dimmed, and his strength was not diminished.” He was sustained by the presence of God, so that his body defied the laws of sickness and decline. The same is true of Abraham and Sarah. By the power of God, they received physical health and renewal to conceive a child long after it was assumed to be impossible.

For those who had faith in God, it was never necessary for sickness and decline to come with age even before the coming of Jesus Christ. How much more should Christians live with increasing health and energy now that Jesus has taken our infirmities and carried our sicknesses, and that the Spirit of God has infused us with divine life and power. This is a present reality for us. The power that sustained Moses, the strength that kept Caleb ready for battle, the vitality that enabled Abraham and Sarah to receive their promise, that power is the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead and who now dwells in us. As the Bible says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” It is true that we will be raised to life in the resurrection, but the Holy Spirit who would make that happen is already living in us. The life of faith entails not only a spiritual awakening, but also physical quickening. It is a life infused with resurrection power in every part of our being.

The Christian’s perspective on aging should be fundamentally different from that of the world and that of faithless religion. Instead of expecting to grow weaker, we should expect to grow stronger. Instead of looking at each passing year as a step closer to frailty, we should see it as an opportunity for God’s power to be more fully displayed in us. Our strength does not depend on the flesh, but on the inexhaustible power of God. Each year that passes should find us more vigorous in faith, more resolute in spirit, and physically enhanced by the supernatural power of Jesus Christ, who conquered sin, sickness, and death.

For the followers of Jesus Christ, aging should be a process into deeper dependence on God, and a walk into an increasing manifestation of his supernatural power. We are not governed by the law of sin and death, but by the law of spirit and life. Like Caleb, we can be ready to take on new mountains regardless of our age, because the God who promised is faithful, and the effects of his power within us can increase with time. The world and faithless religion live under the expectation of decline, but faith enables us to live by a different set of rules. As we walk in faith, God’s power will not only increasingly renew and strengthen us, but it will also overflow more and more from us to others, resulting in an increasingly spectacular ministry of signs and wonders, and a ministry of healing and prophecy.