The Survey Says....

I polled 100 people (not really), and asked them the question, "Why did Jesus come?".

Out of the 100 people polled (in my mind) I received 4 answers. We will discuss the 3 most popular answers, before covering the correct answer (which, of course, is MY answer, since it's my imaginery poll).

So before we start, what do you think is the answer? Careful now. I want more than just your opinions or your feelings. I want bible backup on this.

Why did Jesus leave a heavenly paradise, and the Father to come walk amongst us?

I think the Survey Says that the #1 answer is a reflexive one, to be a sacrifice for our sin problem. So let us start there.

Yes, man’s biggest dilemma of all time was sin. No one is without it, for not one is righteous, no not one (Rom 3:10). Yet, God had a solution from the beginning of the world. At a certain point in time He would become a man (John 1:14) and die for our sins (Jn.12:24). Somewhere in the eons of eternity it was decided that the Son would be sent to earth. He was sent from heaven to earth to fulfill a mission of the utmost importance, to take care of man’s debt of sin. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8). He came to seek and save the lost (Mt.18:11; Lk. 9:56,19:10).

Jesus' coming to earth is described in Philippians 2:6, He "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

Hebrews 9:26: “He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

This is the reason he became a man, to give His body as a sacrifice for our sin. He became human to save humanity. He came to set everyone free from their own forms of bondage to religious legalism and oppression and to liberate from sin both those who were religious and those who were not.

Paul wrote, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Tim 1:15).

Proving that Jesus came to die for the sins of the world is an easy task, even for the babes in Christ who are new to the faith, so we won't dwell on this point any longer.

I think the Survey Says that the #2 answer might be to lead us to the Father.

John 5:24 says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."

and vs 43, "I have come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive."

John 14:28, "You have heard Me say to you, I am going away, and coming back to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I said, I am going to the Father: for My Father is greater than I.

I have found, in my own personal, informal, study of the Word, that although Jesus always points us to the Father, when it comes to Him instructing us on procedure, He seems to reference their importance equally. Confused? What I mean is...take this for example:

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life (all about Him) and no one (us) comes to the Father (our goal) but through Me (the Way)."

The Survey might then say that the #3 answer to why Jesus came may have been to teach us how to forgive and love one another.

Being that He was born a man and lived out His life without sinning, and also loving and forgiving those who did sin, seems to be a fitting purpose for His coming.

He certainly did love. And not just His mother and brothers. Not only John and Peter. No. He taught us to love the sometimes un-lovely and un-loveable. He embraced the disease laden. He dined with the sinner. He be-friended the undesireable tax collector. He forgave the harlot. He delighted in the faith of the woman who asked for the dog scraps from the Master's table.

I wonder. Do you think if Jesus never came and we had only the written word of God, how quickly would we revert to the Pharisees way of thinking? Would we welcome the presence of sinners and tax collectors and harlots and leppers at our dinner table or in our living rooms? Or better yet, would we admit openly to being one ourselves?

Yes. He definitely taught us to love. And to forgive. Forgive and you will be forgiven is taught in numerous passages. (Matt. 6:14; 2 Cor. 2:10) Forgive others because you have been forgiven. (Eph.4:32; Col. 3:13) And we all know the 70 times 7 lesson (Matt. 18:22).

In my opinion, the Survey Says that the #4 answer to the question of why Jesus came was, in fact, a combination of all three of these points. I believe He came that we may have Life and to have it more abundantly. (Jn 10:10)

He is the Life. He redeemed our life through His Life. He taught us to Live and give and share and love. He taught us mercy and kindness. He taught us to be charitable without being smug about it and to remember that, "There, but by the grace of God, go I.".

In John 5:39-40, Jesus says, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, ...but you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."

A member of my gathering shared this definition of life that he received from the Father;

Life : The experience of existing in this realm without being hindered by time, resources or circumstances.

But without the Father's revelation and then actually experienceing it for yourself (or, at the very least, witnessing it first hand), it is nearly impossible to imagine such a realm; one of being in the world, yet not tethered to it by any of these three neccessities: time, resources, circumstances.

Now, read John 10:10 again, where Jesus says, "I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." The word abundantly is the word perissos and means superabundance, excessive, overflowing, surplus, over and above, more than enough, profuse, extraordinary, above the ordinary, more than sufficient.

Can you imagine having that life? Ask the Father for deeper revelation as you consider the implications of this message. Think on that for awhile and share your comments and thoughts.

to be continued........