The Abundant Christian Life: Romans Series #19

In John 10:10 Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” You see there the same picture. “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” Every born-again child of God has life. Romans 6:23 says “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So every Christian has life. But the Bible says it is possible for a Christian not only to have life, but to have a life that is a full and overflowing life.

I write about the overflowing kind of life. In Romans 5:8–13, Paul brings us to the climax he has been discussing in the book of Romans. He begins in Romans 1:16 by giving us the theme of his letter, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.”

He starts by explaining to us that we are depraved sinners. Next, encourages us through the reality we are delivered saints through God’s Son. Afterwards, he expands his teaching how to live a life of victory and abundance through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I. The Miracle of the Savior for Us (Romans 15:8–12)

We learn what Jesus Christ did for us when He came into the world and when He died on the cross. Romans 15:8 states that Jesus is a minister of the circumcision. The word “circumcision” is a rather technical phrase that simply refers to the Jewish people. In other words, Christ came as a minister to the Jewish people.

Then in verse 9 Paul says that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. In the Bible there are really only two groups of people in this world. There are the circumcision—the Jewish people and the Gentiles represent all the peoples of the world. When Jesus came into the world, He came to fulfill God’s promises to the Jews and God’s prophecies concerning the Gentiles of all the nations of the world.

We read, “Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.” This verse simply means when Jesus was born and came into the world, He made sure—He personally established all the many prophecies God had made to the Jewish people about the coming of the Savior in the world.

Out of all of the peoples of the world, God chose one particular people. God chose the Jewish people, and to them specifically He made promises about the coming of the Savior into the world.

One time a woman came to Jesus and she was not of the Jewish race. She came to Jesus wanting to receive healing for her daughter. Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Jesus was trying to get across that He had come into this world specifically to fulfill the promises of God to the Jewish people.

Romans 1:16 it says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” When Jesus came, He fulfilled all of these prophecies that God had made to the Jewish people about the coming of their Savior into the world.

There are 333 promises in the Old Testament made concerning the first coming of Jesus into this world. What are the probabilities that all 333 of these promises would be fulfilled in one man—Jesus Christ? Instead of taking the 333 promises, let us just take eight of the promises concerning Jesus.

The mathematical probabilities of all of these eight prophecies being fulfilled in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, are one in ten raised to the twenty-eighth power. I do know that a trillion is one with twelve zeros after it. But the probability of all these being fulfilled in one person is one in ten raised to the twenty-eighth power. That’s ten with twenty-eight zeros after it. Yet, this number is still beyond our mental comprehension.

You could take that many silver dollars—one in ten raised to the twenty-eighth power—and cover the state of Texas two feet deep. Next, out of all of those silver coins, you could put a mark on one of those coins. Then, blindfold a man, get some bulldozers all over the state of Texas, and move those silver coins around. Last, you could say to the blind man, “Pick out the coin that has the mark on it.” His chances of picking out the marked silver coin would be one in ten raised to the twenty-eighth power. Yet Paul says when Jesus Christ came into the world, He came to confirm every one of the promises that God made concerning His coming.

In Acts 10:43 the Bible says “To him (Jesus) give all the prophets witness, that through faith in his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” That’s why Jesus came to die on the cross for His own people—the Jews. We learn in John 1:11, “He came into his own, and his own received him not.” Jesus came also to fulfill the prophecies of the Gentiles. In Romans 15:9, we read, “that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.”

Furthermore, Paul gives four Old Testament prophecies. They are taken from the Psalms, Deuteronomy and Isaiah, the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets. Every major portion of the Old Testament Scriptures has clear predictions that the Savior had come into the world not only to die for the Jewish people, but to die for the sins of the whole world.

When we by faith trust Christ, when we by faith invite Jesus into our hearts, the Bible says we are saved, we are forgiven of our sins, and we receive the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ. We read, “In him shall the Gentiles trust” (Romans 15:12). If you do not know Jesus Christ, you are not living; you are merely existing. You do not begin to live until you get new life from Jesus Christ.

II. The Ministry of the Spirit In Us (Romans 15:13)

In Romans 15:13, we read, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound (overflow) in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

God never intended for people who come to know Christ as their Savior to just merely get by. God wants you to have life like a full and overflowing fountain. God wants your life to be like rivers of water.

The Source

When you come to Christ as your Savior, the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your heart. God Himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, comes to dwell in your heart. The Holy Spirit makes real in us what Jesus did for us at the cross of Calvary.

He begins in verse 13, “Now the God of hope fill you …”. Isn’t that a marvelous title for God? Isn’t it wonderful to know that we have a great God in heaven, our Father, who encourages our heart? Do you ever get down in the dumps? I have good news for you. You can come to the God who is the God of consolation and He will encourage your heart.

Paul tells us in verse 13 that God is the God of hope. This world is desperately looking for hope. This world is desperately looking for a life that has some meaning and a life that has a future to it. Here is the source of the full and overflowing life. God has a monopoly on it.

There are some things you can only get from God. You can only get comfort, ultimately, from God. You can’t go down to the neighborhood store and ask for three yards of hope. You can’t go to the hardware store and ask for two gallon buckets of hope. God is the God of hope. If you want hope you have to come to God. There is no hope apart from God.

There is no abundant, overflowing life apart from the God of hope, who can fill you to overflowing.  God is an expert on life. If you want to know about life you have to come to God. It is God who gave us life; it is God who gives us eternal life, and if we want the full and abundant life, we have to come to God to get it. “The God of hope fill you.”

The Scope

Not only the source of this overflowing life, but look at the scope of it. Notice the three words, “joy, peace, hope.” He says, “the God of hope fill you to overflowing with all joy and peace and hope.”  Joy, peace, and hope are things people are looking for today. They are spending a fortune and traveling all over the world trying everything there is to try.

Yet, the Bible says if you want joy and peace and hope, you can get all three of them from the Lord. Everybody wants to be happy. I don’t know of anybody who says, “My goal in life is to be as miserable as I possibly can.” I don’t know of anybody who says, “I hope I live the life of misery, never have any joy, never have any happiness.”

The Bible says you have all joy from the God of hope, in believing in the power of the Holy Spirit. He is saying, if you want to be happy, you can get happiness from the Lord. Happiness is not found in pleasures. A lot of people think if you just have enough pleasure you’ll be happy. The Bible talks about the pleasures of sin for a season. Then, there’s that bitter aftertaste of sin.

Other people think, I’ll find joy in pleasant circumstances. If I can just get my circumstances right, get a comfortable home, get a good car, get money in the bank, get my circumstances pleasant. Yet when you study the Bible, you will find out that these early Christians were filled to overflowing with joy. and yet they were experiencing persecution and uncertainties concerning their own personal affairs. Yet in the midst of it all, they experienced an abundant, overflowing joy.

In John 15:11, Jesus said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” Jesus talked about His joy the night before the cross.

Just ahead was the kiss of the traitor, the hiss of the whip, and the bloody path of the cross, and yet Jesus talked about His joy. I’m talking about having a hallelujah chorus in your heart regardless of what’s going on outside of your life.

That second word is “peace.” People want peace, don’t they? People are looking anywhere and everywhere trying to find peace. I’m talking about that inner tranquility, that calmness of spirit. I’m talking about that depth of the soul that gives people a sense of inner calm.

It says the God of all hope can fill you to overflowing with His peace. We do not get peace in pills. We get peace in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said again the night before His crucifixion in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” What would people give for peace today? If we want peace, we get peace from the God of peace. That’s the full and overflowing life.

The third word is “hope.” The word doesn’t just mean wishing something will come out good. There’s more to the word “hope” than just a strong wish. Hope means a confidence in the future. God can fill your life full to overflowing with confidence about the future. If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior today, your future is filled with hope. But if you are not a Christian, if you do not know Christ as your personal Savior, whatever the future holds for you is not good but bad.

I have news for you if you know Christ as Savior. Everything is going to turn out good. He’s going to fill you to overflowing with hope for the future. You have it made in the future.

In 1 Corinthians 3:21, we read, “All things are yours.” Everything is yours, that is if you are saved. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas (that is the preachers; it is all theirs), The world is yours. Your sky is looking real good today. This world is yours. You see all the beautiful trees. Your trees are growing well today. This world is yours. “Life is yours.” “Death is yours.” Death for a child of God is not a thing in the world, but a shuttle bus that carries you from this world to a better world.

The Secret

The source of the full and overflowing life is the God of hope. The scope of it is joy and peace and hope. The secret of it is “in believing in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

God the Father promises this abundant life. God the Son, the Lord Jesus, purchased this abundant life. But God the Holy Spirit in your heart provides this abundant life. The Holy Spirit can make possible everything necessary for your life to be full and overflowing.

Yet, Paul says the secret is “in believing.” He is saying that it is by faith that we appropriate everything God has made available for us in the person of the Holy Spirit to live the full and overflowing life.

You may say, “I just can’t believe. I just don’t have enough faith.” Yes, you can believe. You can believe that God can give you this joy and this peace and hope. You already have faith. Romans 12:3 says, “God has dealt to every person a measure of faith.” We live by faith every day. Every day of your life you have enough to get through one day.

Have you ever thought what it would be to try to live one day without faith? Think about it. Let’s imagine one day without faith. You wake up that morning in a fever of fear. It’s time to get up, but you are afraid to put your feet on the floor because you are afraid the boards are rotten and you may go straight in. So you cautiously get up and go to the bathroom to brush your teeth, but you are afraid to brush your teeth. You’re afraid the water is polluted.

Now it is time to eat breakfast because you are hungry, but you will not eat because you are afraid the food is contaminated. You are living a day without faith.

You go out to the car and get in to go to work, but you will not get in the car. The worker who assembled that car may not have put the steering wheel in correctly and you may have a wreck. So you have to walk all the way downtown to work.

About midmorning you arrive at work. You walk in the building where you work. It’s a day without faith. You walk over to the elevator and can’t get on it because the elevator may not work. Thus you climb the stairs to the tenth floor to your office.

Upon your arrival to the office, you are suspicious of everybody there. You are living a day without faith. Lunch time comes. How would you like to share a ham sandwich? No, afraid to eat it—might have poison in it.

You walk home and your spouse has a marvelous meal prepared and laid out on the table. Yet you will not eat it because you are suspicious of your spouse. Last but not least, you are not even sure if those are your children. You go to bed totally exhausted because you have tried to live a day without faith!

God says, if you will invite His Son, Jesus Christ, into your heart and life, He’ll give you eternal life, a life full and abundantly overflowing.