John 10:7-10
7Therefore, Jesus said again to them, “Most positively, I say, I am the door of the sheep! 8All, as many as came, are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and he will come in and will go out and will find pasture. 10The thief does not come except so that he should steal and kill and destroy. I came so that they shall have Life, and they shall have abundantly!
Good Day Child of God! "Father? I open my heart to allow you to teach me right here and right now, please do." Ah, the great "Abundant Life"! We have such differing views on it that there are literally Sects of Christianity named as such, and then there are those that are so afraid of it because they don't understand it, it is rarely, if ever, spoken of in the hallowed halls of many church buildings.
Two words, not spoken of over and over again in the New Testament, in fact I do not recall them being mentioned together in the Old Testament, but do a computer search and see what you find. To save you the trouble, I did it, and you would be amused to know that somewhere between 15 and 21 verses use the words. Do you believe that? You would if you took words out of context, used different Bible interpretations, and tried your best to make a similar word work with one or the other of the two.
Today's easy lesson: Let's so if we can parse these two wonderful words, and come up with a simple to understand meaning for them. To do that we must understand what we gain from Jesus' sacrifice on the way to the Cross, and His death on the Cross. Then we must understand what we gain by the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. After all, these are the two main reasons for the coming of Jesus, and there is a third reason as well. We'll discuss that extremely important reason when the Father sees fit, whether now or later.
To get to the point quickly, what exactly do you receive from Jesus when you accept Him as your Lord and Savior? Anyone...forgiveness of sins. Is that true fellow Students? We have to be practical. Jesus went to the Cross for the forgiveness of sins for the world. In fact there were other times where there was no sin in the world. The Apostle Paul speaks of it in Romans. It was before the Father gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Sin was brought into the world before that when Adam and Eve were told not to...and they did. Big sin, cost them the Holy Spirit that was in them, and they would die. You know that, do you see it now? It doesn't say they will go to hell, it says they will die. The next time sin becomes an issue is when the Ten Commandments were put into place to give the Israelites something to focus on so their collective understanding of God would change from the worldly gods the Egyptians introduced to them. They had a way to gain forgiveness for each sin, it was spelled out, that way the Israelites would gain a conscience, and respect, and their thinking process would start to bend toward the God of Gods. Not some statue of one sort or another.
The Israelites never really got into the Ten Commandments, as they used them to sin, used their ability for forgiveness to sin, and in many cases still worshiped idols, especially the goddess Diana. Some just loved having a woman god. As God struggled to keep his fledgling, immature group together, the time came that some Israelites found a nice way to have a good life, make a few dollars, control the entire group, and do it all in the name of God, so they started Judaism. They kept the commandments, made themselves gods on earth, and the Father decided this had gone to far, so Jesus volunteered to come and fix the sin issue. That would take the power away from Judaism, God wasn't interested in a religion to begin with, He wanted a personal relationship with His Chosen. That is what the Gospels primarily show all of us. Jesus taking Judaism to task, trying to free the Chosen from worrying about their sins, and focusing on a loving relationship with the Father. Jesus accomplished His task by ridding the world of the sin issue by "completing the Law, for not one jot nor one tittle will be taken from it until it is completed." You see, you don't get forgiveness of your sins. You are already forgiven, you should be thanking Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. That would be proper and correct.
What do you get when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior if it isn't the forgiveness of your sins? Didn't Jesus also die on the Cross, and doing so did He also defeat death? Yes! So when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you get...Life. Going back to Adam and Eve, they sinned and lost the Holy Spirit and would surely die. By accepting Jesus, you gain the Holy Spirit and shall surely live. Not just now, here on earth where to live for the most part is to struggle, but more Abundantly, after you shed this biological body, you get a new body, you are free to go in passing Jesus and go out into the heavenly realms where there are no tears, or fears, hunger, or troubles of any kind. That my fellow Students is what the Abundant Life means. If that is not so, why are not all those that claim to want this or that, to be free from problems, have good health, and still they beg for those things, they have many problems, get sick, and they die? It is false teaching, and where our Father will take care of us in many ways, the suffering and Crucifixion, the death, burial and Resurrection of Jesus is about giving you Life, both here and after your body withers away. As for the third reason Jesus came, we will discuss it, but not now. Another time, and you will love it! Have a Grace Day!
Brother Glenn
Complete New Testament Grace Studies link: http://gracehouseministry.blogspot.com/
7Therefore, Jesus said again to them, “Most positively, I say, I am the door of the sheep! 8All, as many as came, are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and he will come in and will go out and will find pasture. 10The thief does not come except so that he should steal and kill and destroy. I came so that they shall have Life, and they shall have abundantly!
Good Day Child of God! "Father? I open my heart to allow you to teach me right here and right now, please do." Ah, the great "Abundant Life"! We have such differing views on it that there are literally Sects of Christianity named as such, and then there are those that are so afraid of it because they don't understand it, it is rarely, if ever, spoken of in the hallowed halls of many church buildings.
Two words, not spoken of over and over again in the New Testament, in fact I do not recall them being mentioned together in the Old Testament, but do a computer search and see what you find. To save you the trouble, I did it, and you would be amused to know that somewhere between 15 and 21 verses use the words. Do you believe that? You would if you took words out of context, used different Bible interpretations, and tried your best to make a similar word work with one or the other of the two.
Today's easy lesson: Let's so if we can parse these two wonderful words, and come up with a simple to understand meaning for them. To do that we must understand what we gain from Jesus' sacrifice on the way to the Cross, and His death on the Cross. Then we must understand what we gain by the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. After all, these are the two main reasons for the coming of Jesus, and there is a third reason as well. We'll discuss that extremely important reason when the Father sees fit, whether now or later.
To get to the point quickly, what exactly do you receive from Jesus when you accept Him as your Lord and Savior? Anyone...forgiveness of sins. Is that true fellow Students? We have to be practical. Jesus went to the Cross for the forgiveness of sins for the world. In fact there were other times where there was no sin in the world. The Apostle Paul speaks of it in Romans. It was before the Father gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Sin was brought into the world before that when Adam and Eve were told not to...and they did. Big sin, cost them the Holy Spirit that was in them, and they would die. You know that, do you see it now? It doesn't say they will go to hell, it says they will die. The next time sin becomes an issue is when the Ten Commandments were put into place to give the Israelites something to focus on so their collective understanding of God would change from the worldly gods the Egyptians introduced to them. They had a way to gain forgiveness for each sin, it was spelled out, that way the Israelites would gain a conscience, and respect, and their thinking process would start to bend toward the God of Gods. Not some statue of one sort or another.
The Israelites never really got into the Ten Commandments, as they used them to sin, used their ability for forgiveness to sin, and in many cases still worshiped idols, especially the goddess Diana. Some just loved having a woman god. As God struggled to keep his fledgling, immature group together, the time came that some Israelites found a nice way to have a good life, make a few dollars, control the entire group, and do it all in the name of God, so they started Judaism. They kept the commandments, made themselves gods on earth, and the Father decided this had gone to far, so Jesus volunteered to come and fix the sin issue. That would take the power away from Judaism, God wasn't interested in a religion to begin with, He wanted a personal relationship with His Chosen. That is what the Gospels primarily show all of us. Jesus taking Judaism to task, trying to free the Chosen from worrying about their sins, and focusing on a loving relationship with the Father. Jesus accomplished His task by ridding the world of the sin issue by "completing the Law, for not one jot nor one tittle will be taken from it until it is completed." You see, you don't get forgiveness of your sins. You are already forgiven, you should be thanking Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. That would be proper and correct.
What do you get when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior if it isn't the forgiveness of your sins? Didn't Jesus also die on the Cross, and doing so did He also defeat death? Yes! So when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you get...Life. Going back to Adam and Eve, they sinned and lost the Holy Spirit and would surely die. By accepting Jesus, you gain the Holy Spirit and shall surely live. Not just now, here on earth where to live for the most part is to struggle, but more Abundantly, after you shed this biological body, you get a new body, you are free to go in passing Jesus and go out into the heavenly realms where there are no tears, or fears, hunger, or troubles of any kind. That my fellow Students is what the Abundant Life means. If that is not so, why are not all those that claim to want this or that, to be free from problems, have good health, and still they beg for those things, they have many problems, get sick, and they die? It is false teaching, and where our Father will take care of us in many ways, the suffering and Crucifixion, the death, burial and Resurrection of Jesus is about giving you Life, both here and after your body withers away. As for the third reason Jesus came, we will discuss it, but not now. Another time, and you will love it! Have a Grace Day!
Brother Glenn
Complete New Testament Grace Studies link: http://gracehouseministry.blogspot.com/
