Enriched Life

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

JOHN 10:10

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 CORINTHIANS 8:9

Jesus came that we might have abundant life. There is a vast difference between mere existence and abundant life. Every soul made in the image of God will exist forever. The human personality could no more cease to exist than God Himself could cease to exist. There was a time when you did not exist. There never will be a time, however, when you will cease to be. The human personality will go on—endless, timeless, dateless through all eternity.

While we have existence with our first (physical) birth, we have abundant life through our second (spiritual) birth.

 It is this abundant life that we all desperately need. There are some who think they want to live forever who do not even know what to do on a rainy afternoon. Jesus came not necessarily to add years to our lives, but to add life to our years. Some college students were asked to define life for the school paper. Here are some definitions that won honorable mention: 

“Life is a jail sentence that we get for the crime of being born.”

“Life is a disease for which the only cure is death.”

“Life is a joke that isn’t even funny.”

These young people were privileged enough to be in college, and supposedly they have fine minds. Nonetheless, they have gotten it backward. The Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ became poor that we might become rich. Our dear Savior left the splendors of heaven and was born into deep poverty. Heaven’s King was born in a barn—a Monarch in a manger. When He came into Jerusalem in what is known as His triumphant entry, He came riding on a borrowed donkey; and when He was buried, He was laid away in a borrowed tomb. Yet it is through His poverty that we have this abundant life. 

Christmas means a life abundantly rich. We are not talking about the gospel of cash and Cadillacs with the key to Fort Knox. We are talking about true riches. We are sons and daughters of God. We are kings and priests unto God. We possess all things that pertain to life and godliness. To understand how rich Christmas has made you, add up everything you have in Christ that money cannot buy and death cannot take away.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers