Why Jesus Came

WHY JESUS CAME

John 10:10, “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.”

INTRODUCTION

1. Good morning. Let us pray: Father God, we magnify You today. Please bless our time together in Your Word. May Your Holy Spirit illumine our understanding that we may be strengthened by Your Word. In Christ name and for His glory, we humbly pray. Amen.

2. In Florence, Italy, a young artist labored long and hard over a marble statue of an angel. When finished, he asked Michelangelo to examine it. No Master looked over the work more carefully than Michelangelo. It appeared perfect in every way. The young artist waited. His heart nearly broke when he heard, "It lacks only one thing." But the great artist didn’t tell him what it lacked. For days the artist could not eat or sleep, until a friend called on Michelangelo at his studio and ask him what he meant. Michelangelo said, "It lacks life."

3. That is the reason Jesus came. To give life. Why? Because man does not have life. That life was lost at the fall.

4. What fallen man has is physical life. He does not have the real life. He is like our beautiful Noble Fir Christmas tree. It looks good but in reality it is dead. 1 Tim. 5:6, “But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.” And Eph. 2:1, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”

THE ABIDING LIFE

1. Note that the word “that” is mentioned twice in John 10:10. The first “that” points to the “abiding life” that “sinners” can have. And the second “that” points to the “abundant life” that “saints” can have.

2. “I am come that they might have life.” They already have life—the earthly life, the physical life, the temporal life. So this is not what He came to give.

3. This life that He comes to give is His life. Col. 3:4 says, “Christ who is our life.” Because He is God, the second person of the trinity, the life that He comes to give is God’s life. Because it is God’s life, it is eternal life.

4. No wonder Paul can say, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

5. Now, how did He give life? First, a ransom price has to be paid. 1 Tim. 2:6, “Who gave himself a ransom for all.” 1 Pet. 1:18-19, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

6. Rom. 3:20-26, “For no one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God’s law, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying it. 21But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight – not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago. 22We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. 23For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. 25For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times. 26And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus” (NLB).

7. To obtain this life, one must have Jesus. 1 John 5:11-12, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Jesus and eternal life are inseparable. Jesus is eternal life and eternal life is Jesus. You cannot have one without the other.

THE ABUNDANT LIFE

1. “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” One cannot have the “abundant life” without first having the “abiding life.” The “abiding life” results in the “abundant life.” This is obviously the sequence in John 15. First, the abiding life, then the abundant life.