I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10 ISV)
Remember – "In Him
was life" (John 1:4). Is He different in nature from other men? Everyone can
see that He is different from other men in His very nature, and the difference
is made by this Life that is in Him. This Life brings with it a new and
different consciousness. Look at the Lord Jesus! What was His real
consciousness? This was a thing about which He was always speaking, and it was
so very evident in His case. He said:
"I and the Father are one"
(John 10:30);
"I do always
the things that are pleasing to Him" (the Father) (John 8:29);
"The works that I do in My Father's
name" (John 10:25). Oh, this word "Father" in John's
Gospel!
The consciousness of Jesus Christ every day was of His union with His
Father, the oneness that existed between them:
"As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in
Thee" (John 17:21). The consciousness of the Lord Jesus was of the
very closest union with God as His Father, and that was because the very life
of God was in Him. His life was a God-conscious life; but God-consciousness in
the sense of perfect oneness. And that is what it means to have this Life. Man
never had that. Jesus came to bring it in His own person: not to talk about
union with God, but to live out a life of union with God and to bring His
disciples into the same union.
"I
came that they might have life" – in other words: "I am come that
they may have the same consciousness of God as Father that I have and that
they may have the same Divine nature in them as I have."