Life More Abundantly

MAY 28, 2024

 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: but I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill.” False teachers, whatever their stripe, do serious harm to the souls of men. In the end, they ruin and destroy those who are duped by them. The Lord Jesus, the true teacher of men, causes injury to none, and brings death to no one’s door. His teaching is full of goodness, kindness, and love, and it works most effectually for the benefit and happiness of all who hear Him. Error is deadly; truth is life-giving. Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

The coming of the old serpent brought death, but the coming of the woman’s seed has brought life. “I am come,” said our Lord, “that they might have life.” According to our text, Jesus is come, first, that His people may have life; and secondly, that where life is given, it may be enjoyed more abundantly.

We do well to realize that even the natural life of the sinner, the length of his days on earth, is due, in large part, to the coming of Christ. The barren tree would not stand so long if it were not that the dresser of the vineyard intercedes, and cries, “Let it alone this year also, till I dig about it, and dung it.” There can be no doubt that the interpositions of the Mediator accounts for the prolonged lives of great offenders, whose wickedness taxes the longsuffering of heaven. We hear our Savior praying for all who shall believe on Him through the Word. (John 17:20) Without exception, every believer must confess with the Apostle Peter, “the longsuffering of the Lord is salvation.” (II Pet. 3:15) If the prayers of the great Intercessor were to cease for one hour, the ungodly among mankind would perhaps sink down to hell as quickly as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram when the Lord’s anger broke forth upon them.

That, however, is not the drift of the text. Life in the sense of pardon and deliverance from the death penalty is the great result of Christ’s coming. All men in their natural condition are under the sentence of death, and they must shortly be taken to the place of execution, there to suffer the full penalty of the second death. If any of us are delivered at this time from the sentence of death and have now the promise of the crown of life, we owe the change to the coming of Christ our Redeemer, Who came to be a sacrifice for our sins. Through faith in Him, we pass from death to life.

Moreover, we who were “dead in trespasses and sins,” have received a new and incorruptible seed, implanted in us by the Spirit of God, which is akin to the Divine nature, and confers on us a new life. By this renewal, we are alive unto God, and to spiritual things. No one has this life except it be given him by the Spirit of Christ, who came that we might have life. This spiritual life is the same life that will be continued and perfected in heaven. Believers shall not, when they leave this earth, obtain a life that they do not now possess through faith in Christ.

Jesus came that we might have this new life by His Spirit, and it is for this very reason that we might have life more abundantly. Peter wrote, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” The more we pursue “all things that pertain to life and godliness,” the more abundant our life shall be. (See II Pet. 1:3-8)