The Word of Truth Ministries

 
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Life and More Abundant Life-

John 10:10
[The Conclusion]

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  The other aspect of this spiritual life is abundant life. It is tragic that in today s modern American society when church people talk of abundant life they think of it from an American-Donald Trump perspective, not a Jesus perspective. Americans think that abundant  means money and modern artifacts material possessions. And these very material possessions are some of the very things that have made the American Christian church one of the most apostate of all churches.  American church-goers are characterized often by the Gospel of Wealth preachers who have taken John's letter to Gaius that said, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth, and they have detached prosper from the whole of John's statement, especially from that part about prospering as the soul prospers, and redefined the word prosper to mean money, financial gain, to have this world's goods--and lots of them. That is a corruption of scripture, as they blindly mix their alchemy of wealth to beguile the weakened people of God. To these church-goers this is to have an abundant life. But that is quite different from what Jesus meant. Jesus was talking about having a spiritually abundant life not a materially abundant life. [3 John 2]
     The craving for material things is indicative of an excessive and grotesque love of money that has infiltrated and inculcated itself throughout the body of Christ, even as it has swept over the world. Money and the things it buys, are the new gods of this world and the new church idolatry. [1Tim. 6:9-11] See our discussion of money and this Gospel of Wealth discussion.

     Jesus is speaking spiritually here, and to understand this spiritual abundance, look at the words of Peter: As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.  [1 Pet.2: 2] This is a lost topic among many once-born again and especially holiness Christians. Seemingly, they tend to think that once a person is born again he or she is ready for heaven and needs nothing else. This is teaching that defies God s word. Peter is calling for growth from babes to mature adults. We are born again so we can grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is something else we need, and it is to Leave the doctrine of Christ and go on to perfection.   That is the abundant spiritual life Jesus was referring to in this second dimension of his universal statement. But if you are honest, you will acknowledge that this doctrine, much touted in scripture, is all but forgotten or lightly touched church preaching.

     Yet, the perfection of the saints is crucial to the coming of Christ, and it ties in to the very hope of the believer the return of Christ for a glorious church without spot, wrinkle, blemish, or any such thing, but holy, which means a perfect church. [Eph. 5:27]  Only such a church will reign with Christ in the afterlife when this present system is dissolved. This message of perfection has been overlooked and most church members readily and almost gleefully say, as the world does, Ain t nobody perfect.  And they believe that because they limit others by their limitations, not being corrected in this behavior of thought. But remember that Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel, thinking he was the only prophet of God left, but God assured him that He had seven thousand who have not bowed their knees to Baal. [[1 Kings 19:14-18] Because you are not perfect that fact does not mean that God does not have saints who are perfect as He has commanded all believers to be. The thought of no one being perfect as God commanded is an insult to God s word, His righteousness, and to His glory.
     Jesus called for perfection while walking the earth and later through his holy apostles. [Mat. 5:48; 2Cor. 13:11; Eph. 4:11-15;Phil. 3:12-15;Col.4:12; 1Thes.3:10; Heb. 6:1-3; 13:20-21;James 1:4;1Pet.5:10;] It is not enough to be holy; we are holy from birth in Christ. But we must use that holiness to perfect ourselves in Christ. Know this, God has always called his people saints and always demanded that they behave like saints live holy. The struggle is not living free of sin, other than initially and occasionally; the norm is living holy, but the real struggle is to be like Jesus in every aspect of our being until we grow into him. That is why we must grow up into him, put him on, come to the fullness of the stature of Christ, etc. That is done by desiring and getting the sincere milk of the word when we are new born babes. But if we are still at the milk-level of the word after many years, something is wrong with our growth pattern retardation in our development has set in. Tragically too many Christians are at the retarded level and do not know it. [See my book on Correct Consideration of the Principles of The Doctrine of Christ for an extensive discussion of perfection.]

     To put on Christ is not just a wonderful Bible expression, or some of the loose church talk that goes on in many churches, but it is a command of God and the goal of all those who call themselves Christians; Christ came that we might have life and it more abundantly; now that cannot be achieved without perfection. In the realm of perfection God uses us in new ways; He is able to get more pleasure from our lives. And we should never fail to remember that we were made for the glory and pleasure of God.
     What God did with Job was only done because Job was a perfect man. [Job1:1; 2:3] What God was able to achieve with Jesus was only because he was perfect. The spiritually abundant life can only be attained when we attain the perfection of Christ. Again, in that realm, you will see abundant spiritual adventures and use by God; you will see and exercise the abundant power of God. Oh the adventures of God!  The abundance and manifold blessings and communications! The insights and revelations of God to those who want the abundant spiritual life! This is beyond merely living holy, as all saints should; this is a life not of begging God, because all your needs are met, as he said they would be if you sought the kingdom of God and His righteousness first, but a spiritually abundant life of constant communion and praise of God; a life of knowing that all things are well with you and your savior; a life of knowing that He will do nothing except he reveal his secrets to his servants, the prophets; a life so rich with God that you command the attention of a rich and generous God who gives before being asked. And you have defrauded no man, you have grinded no man s face into the dirt; a life that He will give you peace even among those who hate you for waking up in the morning, for being fit with the intelligence and righteousness of God; a life that you can work the works of God not in simplicity but in reasonableness; a life that all men will see  that you are of Christ; a life so spiritually abundant and rich that God will take you and use you and say that you please Him.

     This abundant life is so grand in God that it will cause your heart to pant for God as the deer pants for the water brook. An abundant life that will enhance that after-life that is to come.

Level Three
And there is another level that the profound words of Jesus touch on as well. That is life that is eternal, which is to come at the end of all things. This will be the very essence of spiritual life, for our mortal bodies must put on immortality, and our vile bodies will be fashioned as is his glorious body, hence this body that we now inhabit and that is a dying and sickly will be changed into a glorious spiritual body. No more flesh and blood because flesh and blood cannot live where we will live. As it was spirit in the beginning, so shall it be spirit in the ending. We will be totally like the Lord in form: Just spiritual beings with the Eternal Spirit! This will be the most fulfilling aspect of all our lives, and this will be the most abundant life that one can ever have. Our minds cannot really begin to see the full glory of God and His absolute grace that shall be poured out upon those whom He loves.

     But let us begin to scratch at and try to see through this dark glass before us as we peer inside at our future. Yes, when doing a careful study of His word, we are face to face with that which is to come, but we cannot perceive it all clearly it is given to us in analogies, symbols, and dark expressions. Furthermore, we have not seen anything like the world to come, so we are at a lost to imagine it. But that which we can see, let us see with all the sight and imagination we have, even as a little child looks through pictures of Disneyland that he has been promised. For there are such thrilling glimpses of our tomorrow that move us to say, Come Lord Jesus! 

     We know that we (Christians) must stand before the Judgment (Bema) Seat of Christ and account for our response to his word while on this earth, to the deeds done in this body He has entrusted us with, to the ministry He has given us, etc. And we will be given various rewards for what we have done with the gifts He has given us. And how we function down here will also prescribe certain condition in the new world to come.

     Do you recall that the mother of two of Jesus  disciples went to him asking that her two sons sit on the right and on the left hand of Jesus when he comes into his glory? Jesus said that such a request was not his to give, but it will be given to whom it is prepared. Nevertheless, he asked whether they could drink of the cup that he drank or be baptized with baptism he is baptized with. In another version of that same event, those disciples said, Yea, Lord.  And Jesus said that indeed they must do. This scripture tends to suggest, along with other scriptures, that much of our work down here will help determine our crowns and abundant life in the new heaven and earth. Indeed, Paul tells Timothy in 1Timothy 4 of preaching the truth and how we would be blessed down here and the world that is to come. Furthermore, the scholarly Apostle Paul chided the Corinthians about their immaturity of judgment and carnality, saying that we shall sit in judgment of angels and kings in the world with the Lord Jesus in his glory.

     As far back as Daniel, God clearly shows the saints of God in that abundant spiritual life being given a kingdom that is everlasting and glorious: Daniel saw in his night vision one like the son of man (such a one was not Jesus, but his glorified church. Jesus is the Almighty God, the Ancient of Days to whom the church, having married Christ and having therefore taken on his name, is coming to. Notice what Daniel said, Thrones were set &.  Indeed, we shall reign with Christ in a life that is beyond our imagination. Of course, to the unbeliever that is foolishness, but to us who believe that is the very essence of the believer s hope in Christ. For us and anyone else who would venture to imagine this life to come and its splendor, Paul states that our eyes have not seen, our ears have not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the good things God has for those who love Him. But Paul assures us that the short suffering we will see down here is not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall follow.

     This final life is the quintessence of an abundant life! So when Jesus spoke and said, I came that you might have life and that more abundantly,  his words were so multi-dimensional that I have taken up this space, and I could have easily taken more, to give you a glimpse of his profundity.

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