DEVOTION: Jesus View of Why He Came ~ by Ray Hawkins.

Christians look at Christmas through the joy of self-interest. We celebrate the fact that he came to save and sanctify people through identification and the cross. We sing carols about the event and do nativity scenes of angels, shepherds and wise men. However, do we bother to check out from the Gospels some of His explanations for humbling His deity and being clothed in humanity?

We concentrate on the Love of God and forget His Holiness which cannot abide evil.

Christmas is John 3:16. God does love His world but Jesus also came with words of judgement John 9:39. Love provides the place of safety from coming judgement. 

Luke 19:10. “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” Why? If there isn’t any Judgment and every road leads to Heaven, it was a waste of time. However the apostle Paul’s testimony is that Jesus came into this world to save sinners, and he, Paul, was the chief of them,1 Timothy 1:15.

Christmas is also much more than a choice between salvation and judgment. In John 10:10b Jesus says He came to give abundant life. In God’s sight Humanity was dead in sin. Jesus came to bring us alive to God. To do this meant Calvary’s cross. However, in our new life Jesus still warns about forces intent on robbing us of the joy, wonder and hope of this relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He called them thieves and bandits who seek to kill, steal and destroy.

John 12:46 “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” How dark this world would be without the Light of the Lord Jesus and His power to transform a person from the inside out. There would be the despair of trying to prove to an unknown god how good you are and knowing you can never be good enough. There would be the despair of being a slave to your failures and past indifference to God and His word. Without the Light which came to us through Bethlehem we could never know forgiveness offered by a merciful God.

The lights on the Christmas tree are there to remind us that Jesus is the light of the world and whoever believes in Him will never walk in darkness but have the light of life. John 8:12.

There are many more reasons why Jesus came. Do some research and enter into the realm of the wonder of God’s grace to a lost and rebellious world.

©Ray Hawkins

Ray Hawkins writes Biblically-themed Devotional Meditations. His 31 Day Devotionals include: Children, God’s special Interest; From Eden with Love (re. Marriage); Bethlehem’s Warrior Baby; Captured by Calvary; Dynamic Ageing; Signposts to Happiness (Beatitudes in Scripture). Also a book of Poems, ‘We Love Because.’

See his blog for a list of his devotionals.

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