The York St. John University holds the coat of arms- Ut Vitam Habeant et Abundantius which when translated from Latin to English reads “that they may have life and have it more abundantly” this is from the book of John contained within the Bible, chapter 10, verse 10.
The whole verse reads “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.”
Here in the Bible, Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, is contrasting the differences between His shepherd-like care and “the thief”. The thief illustrates the unfaithful and illegitimate leaders. Their motives were clear, they caused destruction and devastation, harming and killing all that surrounded them and only taking for themselves.
On the other hand, we’re presented with a new kind of leader, Jesus. A lowly, humble man that didn’t come to accumulate riches and wealth from the people He ministered to; but instead we’re painted a very different picture of Christ for example; when a man proclaimed to Jesus that he wanted to be a follower of Him, Jesus effectively said, consider the cost, for the foxes have their holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. When the tax collector was pressing Him for an illegal assessment, Jesus did not have the money to pay so He sent Peter to catch a fish. When He wanted to use a coin to illustrate a point, He had to borrow that coin. Jesus, unlike ‘the thief’ didn’t come to take from us and accumulate a mass of wealth, He instead came to give all that He had for us!
Jesus Christ loved us so much that He willingly laid down His life for us. We as humans are flawed, we have advanced in so many ways in science and technology, yet we still do wrong, we still go to war with one another, we kill, we steal, we lie and break God’s law. The one thing that we can never fix despite our advancements is our sin. Jesus gave His life on our behalf, when He died on a cross at Calvary, it was so that our problem of sin could be dealt with, that we “might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. All that remains for us to do is simply place our faith and trust in Him, to believe in His life giving word. In the book of John in the Bible chapter 3, verse 16 it says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” By trusting in Christ you can have this abundance of life this very day!