2 Timothy 1.1 invites us to the life that is in Christ Jesus.

Jesus said He is life and that He gives life to whomever He chooses.

This is the work and will of God that people should have life and have it both eternally and abundantly. How great is God Who desires such things for people and Who has made provision for people to receive such things.

Yet to receive this life that God desires people to have men must die to self: self-preservation, self-orientation and self-promotion.

Jesus gives us life as we exchange our dying life for His eternal life.

The life that is in Christ Jesus is both present and future. It is present in peace with God, in hope for eternity and in power for living rightly with our fellow human beings. It is future when we see God face-to-face, and are transformed fully with new bodies that live and act forever with and like Jesus.

Now the joy of the Lord is our strength in spite of our circumstances, then our joy in the Lord will be unbound and unbridled in heaven and upon the new earth as we live in peace with God and one another.

The life in Christ we have now sets us on our eternal journey of knowing and worshiping God.

It is purposeful now as we give ourselves wholly to knowing Him and to making Him known on earth.

The life we are to live in Christ is to look like the life of Christ as He lived here 2000 years ago; holy, loving, peaceful, purposeful and sacrificial.

We have already given our lives to God and we now give our lives for men that all may come to know Him and likewise receive this life abundant and eternal.