I am come that they might have life, and…have it more abundantly— St. John 10:10
This famous statement by Jesus Christ abounds throughout Christendom. The phrase "abundant life" seems to pop up almost everywhere from church doors to graffiti in church rest rooms.
The reason is obvious. To most people, the idea of having abundant life certainly sounds better than the alternative of being dead and gone forever. Even devout Christians, for the most part, aren’t in any hurry to depart from the land of the living any sooner than necessary.
St. John 10:10, indeed, seems sometimes to be taken to mean "Party hearty" or
"Let the good times roll" until Jesus returns.
Maybe that’s okay, but let’s look a little closer at the Lord’s words.
I am come that they might have life
This really means that people on earth did NOT have life before Jesus came. "We had the sentence of death in ourselves," writes St. Paul in Second Corinthians I:9. "We were dead in sins" —Ephesians II:5.
Why were we dead? Well, it all goes back to the Garden of Eden…
But maybe that’s a story for another day…
see more of "Abundant Life" under "recent pages" at right of blog
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