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ABUNDANT LIFE IN CHRIST
A. Introduction: We live at a time when there are all kinds of varying and even contradictory ideas about Jesus
—who He is, why He came to this world, how He wants us to live. We’re taking time to look at what the
New Testament says about these issues. Right now, we are focusing on why Jesus came.
1. If you don’t understand why Jesus came and what He did for us, you could be working at cross purposes
with Him. You may be trying to achieve things in your life that Jesus didn’t come to provide. And you
may be frustrated and upset with Him because He isn’t doing for you what you expected Him to do.
a. For the last few weeks we’ve been looking at a statement Jesus made that is often misused to say He
came to give us a wonderful life in this life: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I
(Jesus) came that they (my followers) might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10, ESV).
b. We’ve made the point in the last couple of lessons that Jesus was not talking about our quality of life
in this life. He was talking about eternal life, the life in God Himself—uncreated, eternal life.
1. Because of our sin, human beings are cut off from God, who is life. We are “dead, doomed
forever because of (our) many sins” (Eph 2:1, NLT).
2. Jesus came to abolish death by dying as a sacrifice for sin. Through His death He opened the
way for men and women to receive Him, His life, into our being: Jesus…broke the power of
death and showed us the way to everlasting life through the (gospel) (II Tim 1:10, NLT).
A. Jesus talked a lot about eternal life while He was here.. We have summarized what He
said thusly: Believe in me and I will give you eternal life. I will indwell you so that you
have life. I am that life. I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6, KJV).
B. John the apostle (one of Jesus’ closest followers and the one who recorded John10:10),
wrote: Jesus Christ…is the only true God, and he is eternal life (I John 5:20, NLT).
2. There is a present and a future aspect to eternal life. When a man or woman believes on Jesus, God
indwells that person by His Spirit, right now, in this life.
a. John wrote: God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has
God’s Son has life; whoever does not have his Son does not have life. I write this to you who
believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life (I John 5:11-13, NLT).
b. Eternal life is also future. It means that we will live with God forever in His home, first in the
present invisible Heaven and then on this earth, once it has been cleansed, renewed, and restored
into what is called the new earth, in connection with the second coming of Jesus. Rev 21-22
1. At that time, the Lord will establish His visible, forever kingdom on this earth and reunite all
His people with their bodies raised from the grave. Their bodies will be made immortal and
incorruptible so they can live on earth again—this time forever. I Cor 15:52-54
2. John 5:28-29—Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their
graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good
will rise to eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to judgment (NLT).
3. In this series, we’re focusing on the present tense aspect of eternal life—God in us by His life and Spirit.
We have more to say tonight.
B. Jesus was born in Israel, into first century Judaism. These people understood eternal life to mean rising from
the dead to live with God forever in His kingdom on earth. Matt 19:16; Dan 2:44; Dan 7:27
1. Over the course of Jesus’ three plus year ministry leading up to His crucifixion, He gradually revealed
the fact that He was going to indwell men and women by His Spirit and give them eternal life, His life.
a. Words fall short when it comes to describing how a Transcendent, Omnipresent God can indwell
finite (limited) beings. However, Jesus used several word pictures as He taught to describe the life
He came to bring, and made specific points about something that is beyond our full comprehension.
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1. Jesus referred to what He came to bring to those who believe on Him as an unending source of
water and bread that takes away hunger and thirst. John 4:14; John 6:35
2. Jesus said: If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the
Spirit, who those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had
not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (raised from the dead) (John 7:37-39, NIV).
b. These concepts were hinted at in the writings of the Old Testament prophets. Note these passages.
1. Isa 12:1-3—In that day you will sing: Praise the Lord…God has come to save me. I will trust
in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has become my
salvation. With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation (Isa 12:1-3, NLT).
2. Joel 2:28-29—Then…I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will
prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. In those
days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike (NLT).
c. The point of all these word pictures is the idea that the salvation God provides will mean indwelling
strength and provision for His people,
2. The night before Jesus was crucified, at the Last Supper, as He prepared His apostles for the fact that He
was soon going to leave them, He stated: The Father and I will send the Holy Spirit to you.
a. Jesus told them that the Holy Spirit would be in them—You know him, for he dwells with you and
will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you (John 14:17-18, ESV).
b. He continued: Just as the Father is in me, I will be in you by my Spirit—(When I am raised to life)
you will know [for yourselves] that I am in My Father, and you [are] in Me, and I [am] in you
(John14:20, Amp).
1. Jesus then gave them another word picture to illustrate what was going to happen. He referred
to Himself as the Vine and His followers as the branches, indicating union and shared life, with
outward evidence of that indwelling life.
2. John 15:5—I the Vine, you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him, bears much
(abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me—cut off from vital union with Me—you can do
nothing (Amp).
c. Then, on resurrection day, just three days after promising to send the Holy Spirit, Jesus breathed on
His apostles and said: receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:21-22
3. Note, Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be in them, and that He Himself would be in them. And, on an
earlier occasion Jesus said that the Spirit of their Father would be in them (Matt 10:20). Which is it?
a. Remember the material we covered earlier this year about the nature of God. The nature of God is
beyond our comprehension. God is Triune. He is one God who simultaneously manifests as three
distinct, but not separate, Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
b. These Persons are not three Gods. They are one. They co-inhere or share one Divine nature. The
Father is all God, the Son is all God, and the Holy Spirit is all God. Where the Father is, so also is
the Son and the Holy Spirit. We simply accept it and rejoice in the wonder of God.
c. Words fall short when we talk about how a transcendent God interacts with finite human beings.
The point is that, through His sacrifice, Jesus made it possible for Almighty God to indwell His sons
and daughters by His Spirit and life. God indwells us as an unending source of life. 4.
God indwelling us by His Spirit is the beginning of a process of restoration and transformation that will
will ultimately restore us to all that we were created to be—sons and daughters of God who are fully
glorifying to Him, sons and daughters who bring praise and honor to Him. Eph 1:4-5
a. To appreciate why Jesus came into this world, we must understand the big picture. God created
human beings to become His sons and daughters who partake of Him, the uncreated life in Him.
1. Sin has disqualified us from our created purpose and cut us off from life in God. Jesus came to
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earth to die as a sacrifice for sin, and open the way for sinful men and women to be restored to
their created purpose through faith in Him. I Pet 3:18
2. When we believe on Jesus, God by His Spirit and life indwells us to restore us to what we were
always meant to be—sons and daughters of God who are Christ-like in character, sons and
daughters who are holy and righteous in every motive, thought, word, and action.
b. God not only obtains His family through Jesus’ sacrifice, Jesus is also the pattern for God’s family:
1. Rom 8:29—For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn (preeminent, supreme) among many brothers (NIV); For
God, in his foreknowledge, chose them to bear the family likeness of his Son (J. B. Phillips).
2. Jesus is not only our Savior, He’s our example in moral character (doing what is right in our
behavior): Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did (I John 2:6, NLT).

C. Paul the apostle wrote the above statement about being conformed to the image of Christ. He was not one of
the original twelve. Paul became a believer in Jesus when the resurrected Lord appeared to him as he was on
his way to arrest and jail Christians. Jesus appeared to Paul a number of subsequent times and personally
taught Paul the message that he preached. Acts 9:1-6; Gal 1:11-12
1. Paul wrote 14 of the 27 New Testament documents. In his writings he emphasized the importance of
living with the awareness that God is in believers by His Spirit and life.
a. In one of his epistles (a letter written to Christians in the city of Colossae) Paul stated that Jesus
revealed a mystery to him (a previously unrevealed aspect of God’s plan). Col 1:27—For this is
the secret: Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in his glory (NLT),
b. Paul then stated the goal that he and the other apostles strived for as they preached the message God
gave him: That we may present every person mature—full grown, full initiated, complete and
perfect—in Christ (Col 1:28, Amp).
c. Note how Paul stated the goal of his work in a letter to the church at Ephesus: That (believers) [we
might arrive] at really mature manhood—the completeness of personality which is nothing less
than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection (Eph 4:13, Amp).
2. Note what Paul wrote to Christians who lived in the city of Philippi. Paul had established this group of
believers. He wrote in part to remind them of what he taught them when he was with them.
a. In this letter Paul urged them to treat each other with humility and kindness, and stated that they
should have the same attitude (or mindset) that Jesus had (lessons for another day).
b. Paul urged them to act like Jesus. He was an obedient Son and a servant of His fellow man. Christ
-like Christians are obedient sons and daughters and servants of their fellow man (future lessons).
c. In that context, Paul wrote: And now that I am away you must be even more careful to put into
action God’s saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and fear (Phil 2:12, NLT).
1. Salvation is much more than getting a ticket to Heaven and an escape from Hell. Salvation is
the complete restoration of human nature (everything that we are as human) by the power of
God on the basis of Jesus’ sacrificial death.
2. This restoration is a process that begins when we turn from living for ourselves to living for
God. Jesus “died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves,
but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake” (II Cor 5:15, Amp).
A. This restoration will be completed when our bodies are raised from the grave and glorified
or made immortal and incorruptible in connection with Jesus’ second coming. I John 3:2
B. Right now, we are to grow in Christ-likeness and become increasing like Jesus in our
character (attitudes and actions). That’s what it means to work out your own salvation or
put into action God’s saving work in your life..
d. Paul went on to say that we should do this with an awareness that God is in us by His Spirit, to help
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us as we choose to obey the command to walk as Jesus walked: For God is working in you, giving
you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him (Phil 2:13, NLT).
1. Note the very next thing that Paul wrote—a specific instruction about how Christians should
behave: In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can
speak a word of blame against you (Phil 2:14-15, NLT).
2. He continued: You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of
crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them (Phil 2:14-15, NLT).
A. We let the light of Christ shine in our life by acting as He would. (Jesus)…gave himself
for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very
own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:14, NIV). Good means what is morally right.
B. The point for now is that as we choose to obey God and act in a Christ-like way, God in us
by His Spirit, provides the strength we need to follow through on our choice.
3. Living with the awareness that God is in you should affect how you see yourself as well as how you live.
Consider another place where Paul urged Christians to live with the awareness that God is in them.
a. In the context of exhorting Christians not to engage in sexual sin Paul wrote: I Cor 6:17—But the
person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him (Amp).
b. Then Paul said: Are you not conscious that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you,
whom you have as a gift from God (I Cor 6:19. Williams). You do not belong to yourself, for God
bought you with a high price (I Cor 6:19-20, NLT). So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in
your body (I Cor 6:20, Amp).
D. Conclusion: We haven’t said all we need to say, but consider these points as we close. Jesus didn’t come to
make this life the highlight of our existence. Jesus came to give us eternal life, abundantly. John 10:10
1. The Greek word translated abundantly means superabundant in quantity or superior in quality. Paul
used this same word in his epistle to the Christians in Ephesus.
a. Eph 3:20—Now to Him, Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work
within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we
[dare] ask or think (Amp).
b. We see what Paul meant by the power in us a few verses above his statement, when he prayed for the
Ephesians: May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and
reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the (Holy) Spirit [Himself]—indwelling your
innermost being and personality (Eph 3:16, Amp).
2. The point is that if you are a follower of Jesus, if He is your Lord and Savior, then God is in you by His
Spirit to restore you to what He intends you to be, and to empower you to do live as He wants you to live.
a. We need to develop and learn to live with the awareness that God is in us by His Spirit to strengthen
and change us. This helps us see, not only the value we have to God, but the responsibility we have
to live in a way that brings honor to His name.
b. Jesus said: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence…and
honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven (Matt 5:16, Amp).
3. Abundant life is being restored to our created purpose by becoming a partaker of God’s Spirit and life,
and then, by God’s Spirit in us, being conformed to the image of Christ—becoming Christ-like in
character, a son or daughter who is fully pleasing to our Father God. More next week!