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Why Christ Came: To Give Abundant Life

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Why Christ Came: To Give Abundant Life 

I love how Jesus describes his purpose in coming into the world. He left His Father’s throne above and came into this broken world on a mission. 

Listen to how Jesus describes his mission in John 10:10:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (ESV). 

In order to appreciate what Jesus came to give us, we need to realize that apart from him we are dead in our sins. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for us so that we can be filled with the life-giving breath of his Spirit. A Christian is someone who has been raised from the dead, and in this we greatly rejoice.

But Jesus did not come to give us the mere existence of life — he came that we may have life and have it abundantly.

Life comes in degrees. Some people have life, but it’s like a flickering candle. Other people have life that is like a raging furnace — bright and robust and powerful.

Hospitals are filled with living people, but they are sick. Nurseries are full of infants and toddlers who are very much alive, but they have yet to grow into full maturity. Prisons are full of living people, yet their lives are miserably confined and limited.

Too often we settle for a less abundant life than Christ came to give us. We remain weak, when Christ would have us be strong in Him. We stay at the infantile level in our thinking, when Christ would have us grow up into the full stature of maturity in Him. We entangle ourselves in sin and fear and pride and self-righteousness, when Christ came that we might be free indeed.

Charles Spurgeon lamented this reality when he told his congregation, “Beloved, do you not see how great a difference there is between some Christian men and others? Are not some of them spiritual invalids? They believe, but their favorite prayer is, ‘Lord, help my unbelief!’ They hope, but fear is almost as fully in possession of their hearts. They have love to Christ, but they often sing, ‘Do I love the Lord or not? Am I His or am I not?’ They need medicine and nursing. Give them any work to do for the Lord and how soon they grow weary! Discourage them a little and they are in despair! Oh that the Spirit of God would give them life more abundantly! I am afraid that a very large proportion of Christian men in this day are on the sick list.”

If we take Jesus at his Word, we shouldn’t settle for that kind of Christianity. This Advent season, Jesus wants you to realize afresh that life in Christ is brimming-over with abundance — not the material, fleeting wealth of this world, but the spiritual riches that will never fade away.

Jesus did not come to give you a mere existence. He did not come to give you more time to fill. He came to give you life beyond all you could ask or imagine; life lived for the glory of God; a life of glad obedience; a life of zeal; an energetic, persevering, vibrant life that is radiant with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is the life of Christ in you, the hope of glory.

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12, NIV). 

Grateful for our abundant life together in Christ,

Pastor David Sunday