I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 (portion)

The beginning portion of this verse says that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  Jesus said that He came not only that we might have life, but have it to the full!  The moment we begin to think that in some way, that this fullness of life has anything to do with this life, let us remember the apostle John’s words.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:15

Life as the natural man thinks of it is shelter, security, purpose, provision, and so forth.  Life after the Spirit is to know God (John 17:3).  The world errantly thinks that life consists of the things of this Earth.  Unfortunately, as well, some segments of the church have adopted this idolization of ungodly mammon, and declared that we are not in God’s favor if we are not materially well off.

Then He said to them, Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.

Luke 12:15

In this passage, Jesus related a passage about a man who had a great breakthrough in financial provision.  When the man’s life was required of him as he gathered everything into new barns, Jesus gave the following warning, “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21).

When is life not enough?  When it is not His life.  When is that not enough?  When we don’t have all of Him.

Life, as Jesus said, is to know the true God and Himself, Jesus, God’s son.  Life is in knowing Him.

Much good has been done in promoting the finished works of the cross message, and this is right, but right along side of it is the same little lie that says that somehow, this life is it.  If we sow to the flesh, we will reap death, and even Jesus Himself said that there will be many who claimed Him as Lord, but will not ever enter the Kingdom (Matthew 7:21).

The work of Grace is a work of the Spirit, regenerating us at believing upon His name, which grows to be the most prominent thing in our lives.  If we do not give Him full swing in our lives, if we do not receive His words with faith, if we do not choose to leave behind our unbelief, we have seen an entire generation of people fall in the wilderness due to unbelief.  They did not enter the promised land, although they had been promised it, and they had been baptized into the sea and into the cloud.

God’s call to us is to live by faith.  It is by faith that we have access into this grace in which we do stand.  As we, unswervingly, unrelentingly choose to believe God’s word, and grow in the belief of who He is, we make sure that we are neither unfruitful nor will we stumble (2 Peter 1:10).

This is God’s will concerning us.  God knows the heart, and short of Him telling us, we do not know the heart of another, but what type of belief is it that stays at the door to the sheep-pen, instead of coming within.  If Jesus said that those who love Him will obey His commands.  Jesus said that if God were our Father, we would love Him, the Son of Man (John 8:42).

It is no wonder that He says the least in the Kingdom is the one who does not obey His teachings,for His teachings are to love, to lay down one’s own life.  He comes to all who will ask for Him, but He requires us to live in faith! (Hebrews 11:6).

His life is sufficient.

When we try to say that anything other than living by His Spirit is in any way life, it demonstrates that we cannot see the Kingdom the way Jesus did, in its fullness.  We may be loved, we may be of the house of God, but as Jesus said, if we are not living His words, and teach others to do the same, we will be the least in the only thing that matters in Eternity.

If our only righteousness is by the cross, and that is total and complete today, and yet, to live in sin and to teach it is to be the least in that Kingdom, then what is the difference between the person who obeys?  What is the right way to righteousness?  What is the right way to goodness?  What about for those who simply want out of sin?

The way is the way of faith.  The man in faith, most happy all the time, need never fear.  The man in faith need never react out of a wrong spirit.  The man in faith finds fasting often easy.  The man in faith finds prayer and the life of righteousness to be the greatest life imaginable.  There is no desire for the man, who can see the unsurpassing greatness of God, for anything else but Him.

The man who does differently demonstrates with his own life that he neither believes nor treasures the things of God, not enough to keep them.  For the person bound to sin, for he who sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34), sincerity, faithfulness, and following after people who practice confessing our faults to one another, deliverance, hatred of this life, and faith will surely bring the honest heart freedom.

The Kingdom of God is at hand, but upon the highway of holiness, there is no evil thing.  If we would walk where He walked, and experience even greater things than He, we must realize that the Gospel is not a carnal means.  It is of and by the Spirit, from beginning to end.  If your “faith” does not produce true, actual holiness, after a while, it may do well to question what your “faith” is.  True faith is powerful.  True faith in God rises above this life.  True faith breaks yokes, breaks chains, and brings heaven to Earth.  True faith, although we may still sin and fail in various ways along the way, produces true holiness, and every time that we do fail, says His grace is enough.

[A]nd we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

2 Corinthians 10:6

Grace is no the same as mercy.  Grace says I have something I do not deserve.  Yet, His grace and His mercy extend to bring us to perfection, and are sufficient for every step of the way.  Only let us live up to what we have already attained (Philippians 3:16).