In John 10:10, does life more abundantly pertain to this life as well as eternal life in glory?  Yes.

The abundant life promised by the Lord Jesus Christ is both here now and later in eternity, as well.  The reason some preachers shy away from talking about the abundant life here is that a lot of prosperity preachers have manipulated the words to preach a super abundant financial life here.  Most of this kind of preaching is just rooted in covetousness, against which the Lord warned in Lk 12:15.  The trouble with the doctrine of prosperity preaching is that Paul had an abundant life and he only had a few possessions.  Jesus had an abundant life and died completely broke.

Our abundant life cannot necessarily be measured in money and an increase of possessions.  When the church (we are now in the Laodicean age) measures its abundance by wealth, of which it has abundance, it is in miserable shape.  Rev 3:14-19 says of the prosperous church of our age, “knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

When Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” he was talking about things like:

·      Jn 7:38-39, the overflowing presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives;

·      Heb 13:5, Phil 4:11-13, the abundance of contentment even in the absence of necessities;

·      Mk 10:28-30, the hundredfold increase "in this time" of some things that we forsake for the sake of the gospel;

·      2 Cor 12:7-10, Heb 4:16, the abundance of grace to help in time of need;

·      Rom 5:1, Phil 4:6-7, the abundance of the peace of God which passeth all understanding;

·      Jn 14:13-14, the abundance of prayer promises;

·      1 Jn 1:3:3, our abundant personal fellowship with God and Jesus Christ;

·      Jn 14:12, the abundance of greater works than Jesus did;

·      Rom 5:5, the abundance of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost;

·      Gal 5:22-23, the abundance of the fruit of the Spirit;

·      Jn 6:37, the abundance of assurance of our salvation;

·      and so forth and so on

There is a super abundance of LIFE in Jesus Christ right now according to 1 Jn 5:12, without which we have no life.  His very presence in us is the essence and fullness of life.  However, most of us get so choked by the things of this world that we never get there (Mk 4:18-19).  And thus, those choked lead anemic spiritual lives drained of all satisfaction in their salvation on this side of glory.  How sad.

Thanks for writing,

Pastor Welder

 

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