John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abunddantly. (NKJV)

I was reading back through my blog comments, because (1) I was procrastinating, (2) I was bored, and (3) I noticed one entry had 12 comments. Somebody mentioned that the purpose of Jesus was John 10:10. Now, I can't remember who said it, but I think that this is a huge issue. Though we are called to lay our lives down for Christ, and to carry our cross, Jesus still tells us that in Him, we will have an abundant life. Only in Christ, so while we may lose our lives, we will only have a full life in Christ.

Just a quick mention of the cross. We often talk about the scandal of the cross, we often don't explain the significance of the scandal. Moreover, "cross" was considered a four-lettered word in the first century. "Cross" conjured up images so vile and foul, it was considered in bad taste to mention it. Just think how people, specifically evangelical Christians, causually mention bearing their cross, as if bearing the cross is something insignificant. The word "cross" was so offensive people didn't even use that word, this is why Paul's mentioning of the cross, is such a jolt to the first century Christians.

So, what is a full life, I'm not sure, but I would think that it implies that an abundant life is equivalent to our life now, just infinitely better. I do agree with the person who said that Jesus was about abundant life, this is important for us to remember. This is the tension in the gospel, but giving up our lives, we gain a more abundant life.

UPDATE 10/30:
I would say that an abundant life implies a physical bodily life but I'm not quite sure of that yet. I've been thinking about this since I wrote my post yesterday. If someone were to tell me that I was going to have a more abundant life, I would assume it would be in bodily form. Does anybody think that they'll have a more abundant life without their body, because their body restrains them in any way? Sure, we would rather not have a body that's fallen, but that is a different matter, then having no body at all. Or at least I think it is.