“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”— John 10:10.
THE abundant life, of which our Lord spoke to His disciples, is life in the energy of the Holy Spirit. It is that eternal life which we receive at new birth, and which, therefore, all Christians possess (1 John 5:12). But it is more than that. It is life controlled by the indwelling Holy Spirit, whom God has given to all who obey Him (Acts 5:32). This refers to the obedience of faith (Rom. 1:5) by which we appropriate the promises of God. As we yield ourselves to the Spirit’s guidance we enter into and lay hold of that which is really life (1 Tim. 6:12, lit. trans.). Apart from the new birth, this is impossible. There must be a life communicated, by which we are to live, before we can live the life. But when truly regenerated (Titus 3:5) we are rewed by the Holy Spirit day by day as we reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11).
“Now I live— ‘a new creation,’
Death, and judgment, past to me.
Jesus bore the condemnation—
Bore the cross and set me free.
Once I stood of sin convicted,
Waiting thus the sinner’s doom.
Judgment was on Christ inflicted.
God has raised Him from the tomb.
Now I have a life in union
With the risen Lord above;
Now I drink in sweet communion,
Some rich foretastes of His love.”
—G. W. F.