October 23
“And that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10: 10.
Thus he not only informs us of the design of his advent, “I am come that they might have life,” but, like himself, adds the extensiveness of it,” and that they might have it more abundantly.*’ This may be exemplified in three comparisons.
We have life more abundantly than Adam. His life, before the fall, was a noble life; but it is surpassed by the life of the Christian.
This is firmer as to its tenure. The life of innocency was precarious. It was suspended on the fallible will of man. The stock was in Adam’s own hands; and he failed, and ruined all his posterity. But this life can never be destroyed. The head of the new covenant ever liveth, and because he lives, his people shall live also: I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
It is richer as to its quality. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. It is not the primeval body of Adam which is to be the model in our resurrection, but the glorious body of the Saviour. We are to bear the image of the heavenly. Had Adam remained innocent, though he would never have died, yet must he have experienced a change before he could have been capable of enjoying the blessedness which the poorest Christian expects, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. After a proper trial of his obedience, he would have been removed to a higher state; but even then he must have been a stranger to many interesting feelings and delightful enjoyments, arising from all the operations of divine grace in our recovery from the depths of the fall to the glories of heaven. Eden was not equal to the paradise above. The creation of man is excelled by his redemption. The righteousness of a perfect creature is far below the righteousness of God, in which we are not only justified, but “exalted.”
We have life more abundantly than the Jewish church. They derived their life from the same source with us, and it was essentially the same with ours. But we have it more plenteously as to knowledge, liberty, and enjoyment. We are fully justified in considering our spiritual advantages as very superior to their privileges by our Saviour himself, who said to his disciples, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” They had the types and shadows; we have the very image of the thing. They saw the Messiah afar off, and under a veil; he is with us, and we behold him with open face. They had the first-fruits; we have the whole vintage. They had the dawn; we have the full day. “God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” They, from their comparative darkness, were inspired with more disquiet and terror: they received the spirit of bondage to fear: we receive the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The way into the holiest was not then made manifest; the people never entered where God dwelt between the cherubim: the high-priest only went in, and he only once a year. But we have all boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and may draw near in full assurance of faith. They came to a material mountain, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness and darkness, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more. “But we are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.”
We have life more abundantly than we had it ourselves before. Vital religion, though imperfect, is growing and progressive. Under the influences of the Holy Spirit, we go from strength to strength in our course, and are renewed day by day in our experience. There is life in an acorn, but the oak has it more abundantly. There is wheat in the blade, but how much more in the full corn in the ear. What a difference between Sir Isaac Newton when a babe on his mother’s knee, and a philosopher measuring the distances of the planets. “Why, a man can but live.” Indeed! Do you not sometimes say, I am all languor; I have no life in me? At other times you are all vigor and alacrity. How you live then! What a difference between a man confined in a hospital and a man at large, able to fill and enjoy his station! A man may be alive, and be blind and deaf and lame, and able to eat nothing with a relish. Some real Christians are little better than this; they are just alive. But they are to be suspected who are only anxious to know that they have the reality of divine grace, while they are regardless of increase in the divine life. More is desirable; more is attainable. He came not only that we might have life, but have it more abundantly.
Wherefore pray, “that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man: that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of GU>d.”