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A More Abundant Life
For all who seek it
I
have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10), said Jesus, the ultimate life-giver. The context of this well-known passage is John 9 and 10. Jesus had just healed a blind man. Although the man was rejoicing, the Pharisees were not. Instead, they condemned the man and threw him out of the synagogue. But Jesus found him and revealed Himself as the Son of God. The man believed and worshipped. But the Pharisees did not. Instead they asked, “Are we blind also?” (John 9:40). To which Jesus replied, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains” (verse 41). Jesus continued by explaining that thieves enter a sheepfold by climbing over the wall or some other way, but “he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep” (John 10:2). Bringing
His point home, He told these false shepherds, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. . . . 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 abundantly” (verses 7-10). Jesus brought hope and healing everywhere He went. But to receive Christ’s gift of abundant life, people had to believe—and obey. The blind man followed Christ’s instructions and washed in the Pool of Siloam (John 9:7). The lame man at the Pool of Bethesda had to “rise, take up [his] bed and walk” (John 5:8). The man with the withered hand had to “stretch out [his] hand” (Mark 3:5) to be healed. Even Lazarus, though dead, responded to Jesus’ command, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43), and was restored to life. Christ continues to offer life abundantly through His Word, His Spirit, and His church. Through the pen of inspiration, God has uniquely positioned the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be a church that offers abundant life physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. INESTIMABLE VALUE
The Seventh-day Adventist Church recognizes human life, including the life of the unborn, as precious in God’s sight. In its recently voted Statement on the Biblical View of Unborn Life and Its Implications for Abortion,1 the church acknowledges that “God upholds the value and sacredness of human life,” and “God considers the unborn child as human life.” The statement is clear that “human life is of inestimable value” “independent of physical, mental, and emotional capacities” “regardless of sex, ethnicity, social status, religion, and whatever else may distinguish
