The Abundant Christian Life, Does It Work?

“Dad, what’s it all about? Why are we here?” my 16-year-old son suddenly asked as we drove down a Sacramento street a number of years ago.
I caught my breath. How do you come up with an instant answer to the eternal question of the universe, especially one that relates to a teenager?
The answer to that simple, yet profound, question is tied directly to a simple, yet profound, word…: life. God’s plan for us involves life.
In John 10:10 Jesus tells his followers that he has come that they might have life and have it in abundance. John reinforced this when he wrote, “these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).
God clearly wants to give us life.
If we are not careful, we can easily overlook the tremendous depth of this truth. Or, worse still, its meaning becomes trivialized in our experience or relegated to a distant time of future importance. Too many think of the life referred to in John 10 as a quality of life. We think of the Christian life as a happy life, a life where our sins are forgiven, and a life style of trying to please God. In the process, our basic needs are met, God is on our side and we are on our way to live forever in heaven. This is sometimes described as “the abundant Christian life.”
What about the Abundant Christian Life?
While sounding good, that concept of the Christian life isn’t what God has in mind for you. If your goal is simply to live an outwardly successful Christian life, you will not experience on this planet the fullness that God has in mind. You were created for more.
In your efforts to have the “abundant life,” you may have worked hard to become happy and secure. But you find yourself unfulfilled. Bible reading becomes a chore; prayer is something you claim to do but don’t; church attendance becomes routine; your relationship with Christ becomes distant; your relationships remain shallow.
In addition, life has dealt you some major setbacks. Even though you earnestly want to follow Christ, you experience disappointment and disillusionment with your walk with him and your experience with other believers. In your heart you feel defeated, to think that you have somehow let the Lord down, or that he has let you down. But outwardly you wear a happy face knowing that Christians are not supposed to have problems. If you can relate to that, take heart. There is a richer experience of Christ available.
The fact is that the life God wishes us to have is far different than outwardly looking successful. It’s time to restore the deeper meaning and experience inherent in the word “life.” John reveals what God has in mind. John 1:4 tells us that Jesus Christ was unique in the entire universe when it says, “In him was life and the life was the light of men.”
Jesus Had Divine Life
Did you catch that? In describing Jesus’ life, John was talking about a totally different kind of life. John was referring here to divine life, the life of God, himself. There was a type of life in Jesus that was different than the life that was in anybody else. In Christ was the divine, supernatural, spirit life of God the Father. In the light that emanated from that life, the darkness of all mankind became evident.
Consider John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believed in him should not perish but have eternal life.” When it comes to this verse, we think, “Okay, that means I believe in Jesus, and when I die, I’m going to go to heaven where I’m going to live forever in a big mansion on a street of gold.” While that may be the perspective of many, God was thinking in a different direction.
What the Lord was talking about was the life that was in him, the type of life that he had. Jesus walked on planet earth exhibiting heavenly behavior because in him there was a heavenly life. It’s divine life. John 3:13 says “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes may, in him, have eternal life.” Whoever believes in the Son is going to get the heavenly life that he has. That is much different than you and I trying to please God by outward performance. If you are tired of that exercise, its time to get a new understanding of this heavenly life that was in Christ and that he offers to us. Why doesn’t trying to live the abundant Christian life work? Because you’re drawing from the wrong well. It’s time to find a new source from which to live out your faith. Stay tuned: our next blog will take you further in that direction.