ABUNDANCE OF LIFE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 20, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 16.

ABUNDANCE OF LIFE.

JESUS tells us that "the thief [the adversary of souls] cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." What life does He give in such abundance?—It is the life that only those can have who accept of Christ. It is the life spoken of in John 3:36: "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life." Christ never promised that His followers should have more of the life of which all partake than would be allotted to other mortals; rather, being put to death is one of the consequences of faithful service in the Gospel, and millions of disciples have had their lives cut short because of their faith.

The disciple of Christ is "born again," is a "new creature," born of the Spirit, and, therefore, imbued with spiritual life. This is a life which, once imbibed and fostered, incessantly becomes more abundant. The apostle's prayer for the Ephesians was, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God." Eph. 3:17-19.

The life of the natural man is sustained by material food, but the spiritual life is sustained and augmented by the Word of God. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Only the infinite Mind can comprehend the possibilities of a spiritual life. It can not be that in the limited state, where the people of God are on trial, they will reach in experience the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that awaits them in the future state. But of the carnal life inherent in the natural man, the Spirit says: "Man, that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble." Job 14:1. That this is not the life that comes of faith in Christ, the Lord showed when He said to the Jews, "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life." John 5:40. This was spoken to men who already had the ordinary animal life.

The life of the animal creation, of which all partake, is a blood life. "The life of the flesh is in the blood." Lev. 17:11, 14. But "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:5, 6. "Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." 1 Cor. 15:50. The blood life is a corruptible life because of sin. The blood life was forfeited as the penalty of sin; and the Spirit life is substituted to all who receive Christ by faith. They receive it mentally while in the blood life, and physically at the resurrection. The resurrection body will comprise "flesh and bones" (Luke 24:39), but not blood. This change will also take place in those who are translated at the coming of the Lord. See 1 Cor. 15:51-55, also the following:—

"If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second Man is of heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Verses 44-49.

So, then, the life which Christ desires to impart so "abundantly," is not merely a prolongation of a forfeited life, a life declared to be "corruptible," but it is that new life of the Spirit which we received by faith when we were "begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the Word of God, which liveth and abideth." 1 Peter 1:23.