Where can we find life? Not just life, but true life. How can we live an abundant and overflowing life, filled to the brim? The voices of our age offer many answers, often contradicting each other. There is no shortage of people promising us our best life now, both in the church and outside of it. Is the abundant life one full of possessions or people, maybe purpose, even power? From stuff to status, education to adoration, there are many visions for the abundant life. But the Bible gives just one answer; and it’s markedly different from all the others.
In God.
The truly abundant, ultimately satisfying life is nothing other than knowing and having access to God (John 17:3)—being able to go to the one who is the source and creator of all goodness.
The question, or problem even, is this: how do we gain access to this life-giving God? Can we approach him? Is there a way for us to get to him? Again, the Bible gives one answer.
Through Jesus Christ.
What seems like the way to the good life is really a lie whispered in the culture by a master thief.
Vanessa Hawkins shows from John 10 that Jesus has made a way—the only way—for us to approach God. In Vanessa’s words, “Jesus fought death, our greatest enemy, the enemy that entered the world through that beautiful garden. And much like the shepherd who stretched his body across the opening of the sheep pen, Jesus stretched out his body on a cross between heaven and earth. And as a declaration to death that, ‘to get to my sheep, you first got to come through me.’”
Jesus is the one who gives us the right to be called the children of God. He doesn’t only defeat death or offer us some kind of better life; he makes a way for us to know the one who gives all life.
It’s worth asking ourselves: what is keeping us from this abundant life? Vanessa reminds us to beware of “what seems like the way to the good life is really a lie whispered in the culture by a master thief.” Go to God.
Other Content on Abundant life:
John 5: Getting Beyond Superstitions to the Saviour
To Flourish You Must Grasp God’s Big Story
Christ, Our Ultimate Queen Esther: Christ’s Identification With Us
Does My Life Have Any Real Meaning and Purpose?
The post To Live an Abundant Life You Must Know Jesus appeared first on TGC Africa.
