Man Fully Alive

Sara Groves, has a song on one of her CD’s where the line goes,

“The glory of God is man fully alive.”

Brilliant! Profound!

And why IS the Glory of God, man fully alive? Because that is the whole reason that Jesus came to earth. To make our being fully alive possible.

Jesus explained, “satan has come to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10. I couldn’t agree more. Since becoming a follower of Jesus, every year has been better than the year before. Every year since then and every year from now until the day I die has had and will continue to have meaning and context and purpose.

When Jesus was describing His work on earth, He quoted the following verse from Isaiah 61:1 and applied it to Himself. “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and the release from darkness for the prisoners.”

Sara Groves points out that there are so many ways for us to hide, so many ways to deny who God wants us to become. Whether it’s through busyness, or mood altering drugs, or serial relationships or even through religion, we try to deny what is real. Why do we do it? I think it’s because we don’t really believe that we will receive the abundant life here and now. Too many people think that the plan is for us to get saved and then wait for heaven. That couldn’t be more wrong. For Christians, eternity in the presence of Creator God begins now and simply grows in intensity as the intimacy of our walk with God increases.

Jesus said that He came to give us life, real life, an abundant life. Jesus promised to make us fully alive. In the Bible “life” is not an incidental issue.

“Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23

“Tell the people the full message of this new life.” Acts 5:20

“Come to Me and I will give you life.” John 5:40

“You have made known to me the path of life.” Psalm 16:11

Life and life abundantly is the very thing for which we were created.

Now atheists accuse people of becoming Christians for what they hope to receive in the future. First of all there is nothing wrong with wanting and even working to receive something great, even if it is in the future. However, as I said above, for the Christian, the abundant life and in fact eternity as a citizen of God’s Kingdom begins right now. This is backed up throughout both the Older and the Newer Testaments.

“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD here in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “No one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come.” Luke 18:29-30

“For physical training is of some value, but Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1st Timothy 4:8

Eternity means from right now to time without ending. This is the offer of Jesus to you.

“satan has come to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that you might have life to the fullest extent possible.” John 10:10

So what are YOU waiting for?

Oh, and ya, I know. I was just playing with you. The line about the glory of God being man fully alive wasn’t Sara Grove’s line. It comes from Iranaeus. Sara just fills it out nicely.