THAT YE MIGHT HAVE LIFE!

 

Sunday, June 25, 2023

 

THAT YE MIGHT HAVE LIFE!

 

The phrase “that ye might have life” was spoken three times in the King James Version of the Bible; all three times it was used by John! It was John’s mission statement and life purpose that others might have life through Jesus the Messiah. However, each of the three times, John also speaks to a different powerful force.

 

1. THE POWER OF MAN’S WILLFUL REFUSAL!

 

John 5:40

40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

 

There is a mighty power in man’s ability to freely choose. In John’s fifth chapter Jesus spends considerable time defending himself against unbelieving Jews who “sought the more to kill him because He had once again relieved human suffering on the Sabbath and because He had made himself equal with God.”

 

Those who were thoroughly unconvinced mingled with those who were nearly convinced but the decisive result was that they refused to come to Jesus that they might have life. To put it another way, a horrible way, they did not have and would not have life. It was a momentary decision with eternal results.

 

Throughout our lifetime this awe-inspiring gift of choice remains ours. In a thousand opportunities we must choose wisely.

 

2. THE POWER OF SATAN’S SINISTER SCHEME!

 

John 10:9-10

9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

 

The scriptures say of Jesus that “in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5) and John might here say of Satan “in him is no light whatsoever.” Satan’s total focus is to steal – to kill—and to destroy. The opposite is true of the Savior. He has come to give – to give life in abundance – and to repair and restore.

 

3. THE POWER OF THE WRITTEN WORD!

 

John 20:30-31

30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

 

Why would a rugged fisherman, a “son of thunder,” chronicle the life of a carpenter and itinerant preacher named Jesus? He answers for himself when he says that he wrote so that his readers might be convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God and that in that believing they might have life, eternal life, through his name.

 

Our own powerful gift of free and willful choice will either doom or deliver us! Satan will influence and manipulate that choice if he can, to accomplish his purpose of stealing, killing and destroying but God has given us a living Word that we should read and heed…that ye might have life.

 

Dear Lord, may your Holy Spirit guide me and protect me today as I make life altering choices. AMEN