When I was growing up, I often watched a Saturday TV show called This Is the Life. At the end of the program, a deep, richly resonant bass voice would intone the words of the verse above: "I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly." I wasn't sure what it meant to have "life more abundantly," but I loved the sound of it. It was obviously something good, something that I wanted, this abundant life.

What DOES it mean to have a more abundant life? Does it mean having more power? More money, more cars, more jewels and clothes ─ more stuff? That's apparently what some folks think because so many of them spend their time trying to amass more and more and more...but that's not the answer. If power or money or things could make us happy, there would be no need to continue amassing more and more. There would be some point when we'd say, "Ahhh, now I have enough stuff. Now I'm happy." Certainly, God's purpose in sacrificing His Son was not so you and I could have lots of power or material goods. So the abundant life must be something else.

Maybe "abundant life" means having the love and recognition of more and mightier people – that is, more adulation...but no, that's not it either. If it were, a day would come when we could say, "Yes! I've finally made it! I have all the people love and fame and hero-worship-of-me that I need. Now I am content." Instead, people who seek completion through their own fame find that stardom is brief and the fall from on high is swift and painful. And those who pin their hopes on the love of people often find that human love is only temporary.

So what does Jesus mean when He says His purpose in coming to earth is to give us life in abundance? He was born so that He could die. His purpose was to experience human life and then, by assuming all our evil and sin and dying in our place, to provide forgiveness and eternal life for us. Aha! We have the answer. FORGIVENESS is the answer! Forgiveness is the difference between merely being alive and living the abundant life.

Thank You, Jesus, for Your perfect gift. Thank you for the opportunity to live abundantly, basking in Your love and forgiveness for eternity.

Author: Kay Bradburn