Life and Life More Abundant

John 10:10b says: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
1John 5:13 says: These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

God uses the physical to teach about the spiritual.  In the physical realm, life that starts at conception. Birth is when that life is brought into the world.  People might deny an early pregnancy but they cannot deny life once it is born.  Then, after birth, that newly born life needs to be taught how to become a productive adult.  This is true for all forms of life and we see this pattern most clearly with mammals and humans.

Spiritual life is similar.  That is why physical life is used to teach us about spiritual life. What we call being saved is having God's life in us.  Our spiritual life starts at our spiritual conception when we accept Jesus as our personal Lord.  However, our spiritual life does not end at our spiritual conception.  Just like physical life, we need to have a spiritual birth and growth of that spiritual life.  Our habit of saying I was saved on some certain day gives people the wrong impression that everything was completed at the time of our spiritual conception.  However, that is not what the Bible teaches.  The Bible teaches us that there needs to be a true spiritual birth whereby people see a God-caused changed in you.  In addition, there needs to be ongoing spiritual growth whereby we become more like Jesus Christ.  In John 10:10, we read that Jesus came to give us life more abundantly.  An adult can enjoy this life far more than a new born child.  Likewise, a child of God enjoys spiritual life more and gets more blessings from God the more they mature spiritually and become more like Jesus Christ.

In the physical world, the activity of Mom and Dad is totally different when we compare what they are doing at conception and what they do to teach a child how to be an adult.  In addition, the activity done to teach a child to become an adult has nothing to do with conception.  No reasonable person would claim that conception cannot happen unless the child does certain activities after physical birth.  Likewise, it is just as foolish to claim that people must do some religious activity, such as be baptized, in order to receive God's life, which is our spiritual conception.

Look at the word and in John 10:10.  This word is used in the Bible for the mathematical function of addition.  You cannot add something to itself.  When you add, you are adding something different to what you already have.  That means that Jesus said that he came to give people God's spiritual life and then to add the life more abundantly by causing spiritual growth after we initially receive God's life.

Look at John 1:12, which says But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.  The word received is past-tense.  The phrase to become is future-tense.  This means that becoming the sons of God happens after we received him and were saved.  As we learn to become a son of God, we receive the life more abundantly and, once more, we see that this is added after our initial spiritual birth.

Think about this.  It is impossible to do any work using a body that does not exist.  However, ask any mother if her baby moved, and kicked her once it had a body even though it was not yet born.  In fact, if the baby stops moving before birth, then it is called still-born and considered to be born dead.

Likewise, the Bible uses these same concepts to teach us about spiritual life.  We cannot do anything spiritually before we receive God's life but we will do things spiritually after we truly receive God's life.  Look at Ephesians 2:8-10, which contain two sentences, both of which start with the word for.  That means that we are given two reasons why what was written before those sentences is true.  Before these sentences we are told how God changes the saved and what God gets from saving us.  These sentences tell us how God saves us.  People like to quote the first sentence while leaving out the second sentence.  That is following the way of Satan.  When Satan tempted Jesus he quoted scripture.  There was nothing wrong with what he quoted, the problem was that he left part out, took the quote out of context and perverted the message of scripture.  When men do the same that are following the way of Satan.

In Ephesians 2:8-9 we are told about our spiritual conception.  Notice that it says: Not of works.  We do nothing for our spiritual conception just like we do nothing for our physical conception.  However, Ephesians 2:10 tells us what happens after our spiritual conception and it matches what we find after physical conception.  Notice that Ephesians 2:10 says: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.  The word are is a verb of ongoing existence.  Saved people have God working in their life so long as they are still alive.  Not only that, but our reference tells us that God is working in Christ Jesus unto good works.  God is working in our ongoing personal relationship with Christ Jesus to try and produce good works in and through our lives.  God wants to provide evidence to the world that His children truly are His by changing their lives to make them more like Christ Jesus.

Some people claim that we have all of the blessings from God at our spiritual conception and nothing more is required from us.  However, while God gives us some spiritual gifts when we receive Jesus as our Lord, we need to develop those spiritual gifts by using them.  For example, many professional athlete has said that they knew people with more natural talent than they had but the person with the talent failed to become professionals because they refused to do what was required to fully develop that talent.  Likewise, saved people cannot fully develop their spiritual gifts, and enjoy the fruits of those developed gifts, unless that use those same gifts and cause them to grow.

Thus we see that conception and growth have different activities while dealing with the same life.  Also, the results from those activities are different.  Spiritual conception and spiritual growth have different activities while dealing with the same life that we receive from God.  The results of spiritual conception cannot provide the results of spiritual growth and the activities for spiritual growth cannot provide spiritual conception.

Please pay attention to the word and found in both of our verses.  This is the mathematical function of addition.  If you remove either side of an addition, you change the answer.  Likewise if we remove either side of an and that is found in the Bible, then we change the message from God and lose the blessings from God.  In both of these verses we see that one side of the and deals with spiritual conception while the other side of the and deals with spiritual growth which is to occur after spiritual conception.  In addition, we see that spiritual conception is dealt with first while the spiritual growth is added to the conception because there can be no growth until life already exists.

Starting with spiritual conception, we read in John 3:7 - Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.  Again, John 3:5 says: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  When we are physically born, our mother's water had to break.  Thus we see that Jesus told us that we need a physical birth and a separate spiritual birth if we want to enter into the kingdom of God.  We need a spiritual birth because we were born with a spirit which does not have God's life in it.  We are born with a dead spirit because of the change caused by the sin of Adam and Eve.  The evidence of that is simple.  Adam and eve talked with God face-to-face until they sinned by disobeying the commandment of God.  They sinned by doing what they wanted instead of doing what God commanded.  Their sin not only affected them but also affected all of their descendants.

Think about this truth.  None of us see or talk to God face-to-face like Adam and Eve did before they sinned.  Also, we all want to have things our own way.  That is why we have fighting and wars.  It is foolish to think that God is going to let us into His personal home, called Heaven, and make the same type of mess there.  No, we must agree to let God change us when He saves us so that we will stop our sinning and making a mess because of our natural selfish nature.  When we refuse to obey God and we insist upon having our own way, we sin.

Now some think 'my sin isn't that big'.  The only thing that Adam and Eve did was disobey once and all of the pain and destruction of all time was the result.  It is foolishness to insist that our sin only affects us.  There is too much evidence that the opposite is true and we affect the lives of other people.  If we are to be honest then we must look at all of the long-term results of our actions including our influence on others.  Our sin can cause the same results as the sin by Adam and Eve.  Thus, the claim that 'my sin isn't that big' is a lie which is believed by people who follow the devil, who is the father of lies.

Returning to our verse, we can see that if we don't enter into the kingdom of God then the Bible says that we will spend eternity in a lake of fire with the devil because we refused to let God save us.  Romans 3:23 which says: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.  Since we all have come short of the glory of God, we are not good enough to meet the minimum standard to get into Heaven.  In addition, since all have sinned, everyone has violated God's law and must pay the penalty, which is going to Hell until we are sent to an eternity in the lake of fire.

That's the bad news.  However, most people know John 3:16 (For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life).  While people know this verse they don't think about what it means and especially don't think about what it requires them to do.  If you do not do what the Bible means by believeth in him then you will go to an eternity in the lake of fire.  When we believeth in him we have an ongoing belief in the person who is God in Human flesh.  John 14:6 says: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.  The only way that we go to the Father in Heaven is Jesus Christ personally giving us God's life and to get Him to do that we must accept Him as our Lord, which means we agree to obey Him.  We see this in Romans 10:13, which says: For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord is what gives us God's life which last for ever.  That is our part in the action of spiritual conception.  The only thing we do is exercise our free will and accept God's offer of a free gift.  However, as already discussed, that is not the end of things.

Once we have God's eternal life, we need to have it grow.  We increase our spiritual life by believing on the name of the Son of God, as our original verse tells us.  That is, as we obey our personal Lord and believe His promises, He increases our spiritual life through the process called sanctification.  However, as already mentioned, God gave us a free will and will not force us to accept sanctification.  If we refuse sanctification then God withholds blessings and, if that isn't enough, then God brings punishment which can include sickness and death.  If we obey our personal Lord and let Him sanctify us, then He also gives us additional blessings which result in the abundant life which our original verses spoke about.  The main thing to understand about this abundant life is that it requires us knowing what the Bible says and obeying it.  Unfortunately, too many people know what their religion says is in the Bible, but they have not studied their Bible enough to separate the word of religious liars from people who tell you the truth.  While there are many ways of telling these two people apart, there is one simple way that always works.  People who preach religion tell you to believe them because of their man given credentials.  However, people who have the power of God on their life show approval from God.  These are the people that the Bible tells you to follow.

1Corinthians 11:1 says Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.  I am going to tell you of a couple of ways that you should be able to see the power of God in my life and challenge you to do what I did so that people will also see the power of God in your life.  You cannot honestly claim that you have abundant life unless you have evidence of the power of God in your life.  However, if you do like I have done then it will take several years but before you die you will also have evidence of the power of God in your life.

The first thing is that 5 times in my life I was dying and the doctors said that they could not save my life.  Twice I have died and been revived.  I think that it would be pretty hard for people to deny that this is evidence of the power of God in my life.  In addition, the fact that I can drink Filipino water when it makes other Americans sick is also evidence of God's blessing.  Now I could go into lots of Bible verses but I will make things simple.  The Bible warns that God uses sickness and death as a punishment when His children refuse to obey.  The number one neglected ministry in America is soul winning and the number two neglected ministry is missions support.  The number one prayer request in American churches is for sickness, death and other medical problems.  Now, not all of those are a result of punishment by God but a lot are.  If you want to avoid the same then get personally involved in the 'Great Commission', which is to be done at home and away from home at the same time according to Acts 1:8.  It is preaching the gospel to the lost, according to Mark, and to teach God's people to obey God's word according to Matthew.  If you wait until you have stage-3 cancer then it is too late.  So, the time to get involved is now.

In addition to avoiding punishment by God, you will get blessings from God as I have testified that I have received.  You should always carry tracts and pass them out when you can.  You should try to be involved in any mission trip that is available.  As a minimum you should read every report from your missionaries so that you can pray for them on a regular basis.  Realize that Paul never asked for money but always asked for prayer.

The second way to get God's abundant life is to prove that you are dependent upon God for everything that you need and not on things of this earth.  When Moses sent twelve spies into the promised land, ten returned with a bad report because they looked at the physical.  They saw giants that they could not defeat and they led their entire generation into death and defeat.  The other two spies looked at it spiritually and saw how God could get glory by doing what they could not do.  They led the next generation into victory.  So, the question is are you willing to look at things spiritually or are you going to accept defeat by keeping your eyes on the physical?

Those who claim to be spiritual must prove it in the little things before God has you prove it in the big things.  Luke 16:10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.  God wants His people to praise and thank Him for all of the little things that He provides before He gives us big things.  If we will not praise and thank Him for all of the little things then we will not praise and thank Him for the big things and God will not waste His big blessings on us unless God is building a record of our failure which will be used to condemn us.

While God wants us to praise Him, our sinful selfish nature keeps us from doing so unless we have something to remind us daily to do so.  That is why spiritual growth starts with becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ.  This requires us to start each day with Bible study and prayer that God will help us with the problems that we have that day.  The Bible Study is needed for God to show us what we need to apply that day and throughout our life.  Then, every night when we lay down, we need to review our day and thank God for how He helped us during the day.  This teaches us to be thankful.  Even lost parents give more the thankful children than they give to the rebellious.  Ending our day thinking about how God blesses us and proves His love for us also helps us to have a more restful sleep.

Now, let me summarize.  If you have not accepted the person of Jesus Christ as your personal Lord, whom you agree to obey and trust to take care of your sin, then you are still a sinner heading for Hell and the lake of fire.  The book of James, in the Bible, warns us that we do not know if we will be alive tomorrow.  Jesus called the rich man a fool because he did not know that he would die that day and did not prepare to meet God in judgment.  Right now is the time to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord if you do not want to be judged as a fool by God and sent to Hell.

If you have accepted the person of Jesus Christ as your personal Lord, then you still need to obey in order to get the abundant life.  If you refuse to obey then you not only will lose the blessings but, in time, will be cursed by God.  I gave you two specific ways to obey God and received the abundant life.  First, I told you to be personally involved in the 'Great Commission'.  That means soul winning, teaching the saved and supporting missions at the same time.  This is the best way to avoid sickness and death as a punishment from God.  The second is to become a true disciple with a daily disciplined relationship with Jesus Christ.

Jesus said: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  These require two different actions to receive them.  You must first receive God's life before you can add the abundant life but you must obey your personal Lord in order to add the abundant life and receive all that God offers.  Will you accept God's offer of His gifts today?

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