"I am come that they might have Life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Thusly spoken by Jesus in John 10:10. But what did our Divine elder brother Jesus really mean by Life? If we think about this for a moment, then we begin to see that Life here cannot possible be a mere generic reference to Eternal Life, because you cannot have more abundantly of that which is, by definition, already never-ending: Eternal Life. You either "of the Spirit reap Everlasting Life" (Galatians 6:8-9,) or you do not: you cannot reap a bit of Everlasting Life, and then reap same more abundantly. And so, Life, as a thing we can have, and have more abundantly, can only mean one thing here: the Substance of God, the Divine Love. Jesus tells us here, in John 10:10, that not only may we receive the Divine Love, but the soul that seeks the Love of the Father may also continue to obtain It in increasing abundance throughout all eternity.

It should be understood, of course, that obtaining Eternal Life is nonetheless the inevitable result of obtaining the Life which "they might have more abundantly". Once received into our souls, the Divine Love merges with our souls to such a degree of inseparability, that "Neither life or death, nor angels, nor principalities or powers nor things present or things to come (...) shall separate us from the Love of God," (1) as Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39. And so, since the Father is immortal, whosoever is the possessor of a soul enhanced with the inseparable Essence of the Father, therefore becomes immortal along with Him (2).

In The Bible, both usages of Life go hand in hand. For instance, in 1 John 5:11-12, it is said, in the same sentence, "that God has given us Eternal Life" (Life as an idea, not a thing,) and that "this Life is in His Son" (Life as a thing, not an idea). The differentiation between the two forms of Life is, as a rule, not really important. But the mere utterance in John 10:10, where Jesus speaks of a Life that we can have quantifiable portions of, and have more abundantly, that alone should impel each reader of The Bible to draw the inexorable inference that Life here is meant as a true thing of Substance, and that this Life, being the Divine Love, can be progressively obtained by us as the thing of Substance that It is, adding to our souls an increasing element of divinity with each inflow we receive.

"In all things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us," wrote Paul in Romans 8:37. Here it is again, "more than conquerors", carrying the same allusion to Substance as "more abundantly". Let us assume for a moment that Paul meant the mere restoration of Man to the sinless state of being perfected in the natural love, such as it existed before The Fall. Then becoming "more than conquerors" does not really make sense. I mean, how can you more than conquer? For instance, hatred can be conquered, but not be more than conquered: either we overcome our hatred, or we do not. But once it is gone, it cannot be more than gone. We can likewise conquer all our other sins, and become sinless creatures; but we cannot more than conquer our sins beyond being without sin. And so, becoming "more than conquerors" must imply here, if the phrase is to make any sense at all, that above and beyond that which we are promised to overcome, something else will be added unto us that will allow us to transcend the mere conquering of our sinful state (3). This addition being the Divine Love, of course: the Essence of the Father Himself. "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto Holiness." (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

His Love, obtained through earnest longing of the soul and prayer to Him, is something added to the soul from the Father in response to individual seeking, so that the soul may one day stand "Holy and without blame before Him in Love," as it reads in Ephesians 1:4. So, not only will we then stand before God "without blame", being the mere conquerors of our sins, but we will be "more than conquerors" in that we will even be Holy before Him. This Holiness, of course, is not part of the human soul at birth, but is the result of the complete transformation of the soul into a Divine soul, the New Birth. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you," as it was written in Ezekiel 36:26. And if we then read in II Thessalonians 2:13, that God chose us to be saved "through the sanctifying work of the Spirit," we then come to understand how the Spirit, as the delivery agent of the Divine Love, literally renders our souls Holy.

The human soul gradually becoming Holy, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit pouring the Divine Love into our souls, that is precisely, and literally, what is being promised us. Romans 6:22 (NIV), "But now being made free that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to Holiness, and the result is Eternal Life." Romans 6:22 (NASB) says it as follows, "... you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, Eternal Life." The Divine Love entering our souls is what steadily renders our souls Holy, the step-by-step transformation of the natural man into the Divine soul.

Romans 6:22 is very specific about this transformation being a process, and tells us that the sanctifying work of the Spirit is not instantaneous, but "leads to Holiness", placing Eternal Life not at the beginning of the process, but at the end, as the natural result of the sanctification: when our souls have experienced the New Birth. Not the changing "in the twinkling of an eye" as the result of the shedding of blood, or the mere believing on the name of Jesus (4), but the gradual process of reaping the benefit of the Spirit, "resulting in sanctification", is what leads to Eternal Life (5). And so, brethren, reap and reap of the Spirit, for (KJV), "ye have your fruit unto Holiness, and the end: Everlasting Life." (nuni de eleuqerwqentes apo ths amartias doulwqentes de tw qew ecete ton karpon umwn eis agiasmon to de telos zwhn aiwnion)

Joel 2:28 already reads, "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." But the entire Plan for our Salvation through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, so that we might one day be Holy and stand before Him in Love, had actually been ordained by God from before the beginning of the world even. Titus 1:2, "In hope of Eternal Life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." And in II Thessalonians 2:13 we read in full, "But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth." This is then almost literally reiterated in Ephesians 1:4, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be Holy and without blame before Him in Love." And in the same Ephesian text we can also read that the potentiality to receive the Divine Love into our souls is a very special favor of God, bestowed upon us through His Mercy and desire that we become, in truth, His children. A beautiful Gift, which becomes apparent in the Greek wording "He has chosen us" (exelexato hmas,) from "eklego", meaning: "to choose or select; to choose out as the recipients of a special favor or privilege".

"You will not surely die," the serpent had told the woman. But when Adam disobeyed the commandments of the Father and ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he died, so far as the potentiality of obtaining the Divine nature was concerned (6). For Adam had not been endowed with the Divine Love when he was created, but had merely possessed the formation of soul potentialities which, if properly exercised, would have made his nature Divine, and brought him in unison with the Father. And so, to symbolize that Man no longer had access to the Divine Love, "He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of Life," as we can read in Genesis 3:24 (7). It was a direct punishment for disobedience, and the result was that Man was left mere Man, either as a mortal or as a spirit. Adam was not created immortal, but had only the potentiality of immortality; and after his "death" mankind ceased to have this potentiality, and remained in this condition of death until God sent His Son Jesus, who brought with him the restored Gift of the soul attribute which made it possible for Man to again reap of the Spirit Eternal Life. "For as in Adam all died, so in Christ all men were made alive," as was spoken in 1 Corinthians 15:22.

When Jesus himself had received the great Gift (John 5:26, "For as the Father hath Life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have Life in himself,") and his Immortality and Divine nature became to him a conscious possession, he then knew that he had been lifted from death into Life, and thereupon proclaimed, "I am the Resurrection and the Life!" (John 11:25) And by this he meant, that as by Man's disobedience there had occurred the death of the possibility of his becoming at one with the Father and partaking of His Divine nature, so with his coming Man had again been placed in the condition of Life. Only in this way was Jesus the Resurrection and the Life.

Romans 8:11, "And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living ("oikos") in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to (lit. "make alive") your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." The true resurrection from the dead, as taught by the Master, was not the rising of corpses long since returned to the elements from which they were created, but the fact that God had rebestowed upon mankind the privilege of arising from the condition of death to Life, the resurrection from death to the glories of Immortal Life.

The Spirit brings the Life, the Divine Love. Of course, the Spirit "who lives in you" does not really come to dwell in the soul of man; but, being the instrument of God, has the function of conveying the Father's Love into the soul of whosoever may seek it in earnest prayer--this is the true Baptism of the Holy Ghost. John the Baptist, the harbinger of Jesus, spoke in Matthew 3:11, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire." And indeed, in Luke 12:49, Jesus confirms this, "I have come to cast Fire (8) on the Earth; and how I yearn that it be kindled!"

Since it is the Spirit that brings Life, it is therefore of the utmost importance that we rid ourselves of the belief that water alone will save us, or could even play a remote part in our Salvation (9). In Acts 19:1-4, we clearly read, "While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, 'Have ye received the Holy Ghost since (10) ye believed?' They answered, 'No, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.' So Paul asked, 'Then what baptism did you receive?' 'John's baptism,' they replied." Even though the disciples had properly received the water baptism of John, they had nonetheless not yet received the Holy Spirit. In fact, when Paul specifically asks them, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?", they answer, "No, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." Baptized with water, yet they had never even so much as heard of any Holy Ghost, let alone received of It. John the Baptist himself, by the way, was very much aware that the water wherewith he baptized was not the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. John 1:32, "And John testified saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a Dove out of Heaven, and He abode upon him. And I did not know him, (11) but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding upon him, this is He who baptizes in the Holy Spirit."

John 7:37-39, "On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him (lit. 'out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water'.) By this he meant the Spirit..." That is what Jesus meant by being born of the water and the Spirit. The Orthodox Churches erroneously teach us that to be baptized is to be put under some perceived seal of Salvation, that to be baptized is to be cleansed of sin by dipping or submerging (12) in water to wash away the old man (13). But the water can of itself not bring about the effacement of our sins any more than the spilling of blood can (14). But water stands for the "living waters" of God's own Essence, His Divine Love, which fills the soul and enables it to live. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely." (Revelation 22:17)

And so Jesus tells the Samaritan woman, in John 4:10, "If you knew the Gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have been the one to ask, and He would have given you living water." Jesus even goes on to explain that the water of the well is just water, and can offer the woman nothing of lasting value, and that only the living water, which he is offering through the Father, will lead to Salvation. John 4:13-14, "Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into Eternal Life."

"For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost," Life.
(Luke 19:10)