by Jacob Ninan
If we listen to 'Christian' preaching on TV or the Internet these days, it is shocking to see the variety of messages going in different directions. While superficially people are talking about Jesus, quoting from the Bible, we see that it is another Jesus, not the Jesus of the Bible, that many are preaching about. One man says Jesus came to give us an abundant life, and goes on to talk about how we ought to live it up and enjoy life. Another man says that Jesus became poor so that we could become rich. Another says that because of His stripes we are healed and therefore we can be perfectly healthy all the time. Still another says that God wants us to prosper in all aspects. It really becomes necessary for us to clearly define why Jesus came to this earth!
When Mary, the mother of Jesus, conceived Him by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, God sent the angel Gabriel to Joseph, to whom Mary was engaged to be married, to assure him. This was what Gabriel told him, "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt.1:21). We can consider this as a mission statement for Jesus (the name itself means 'Jehovah saves'). His primary purpose was to save us from our sins. This was the same thing that John the baptiser declared about Jesus, that Jesus was the Lamb of God who was to take away the sin of the world (Jn.1:29).
The mention of Jesus as the Lamb of God takes us back to two incidents in the Old Testament that foreshadowed His mission. When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and when Isaac wondered where the sacrificial lamb was, Abraham's reply was that God would provide the lamb, not being aware that he was prophesying about how God would provide His Lamb for the sin of the world (Gen.22,7,8). Another occasion was when the people of Israel were being taken from their slavery in Egypt. The last of the ten plagues that God placed on Egypt was that the first born male in every house would be killed one night. The people of Israel were to kill a lamb and smear its blood on their door post. When God saw the blood on the doorpost, He would 'pass over' that house, signifying how the blood of Jesus would save us from death, the penalty of our sins (Ex.12:12,13). Jesus was killed during the Passover Festival that year!
But we must remember that Jesus came not only to provide us forgiveness of our sins, but also to deliver us from the bondage to sin. 1Jn.2:1 tells us that God wants us to stop sinning. One of Satan's aims is to tempt us to sin and to turn us away from God, and so, one of the declared aims of Jesus is to destroy these works of Satan in our lives (1Jn.3:8). When Jesus started His public ministry, He read from Isaiah 61 and declared that He had come to "preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord" (Lk.4:18,19). He was not addressing the financially poor people, but those who recognised their spiritual poverty (Matt.5:3). His mission was not just to forgive our sins but to set us free from slavery to sin.
After Jesus had been baptised in water and overcome the temptations of the Devil in the desert, the first thing He preached was that we should 'repent' and get into the kingdom of heaven (Matt.4:17). To repent means to turn away completely from living our life of sin and independence from God, and to come to God in full submission. Another thing we need to notice here is that God's call for us is to the kingdom of 'heaven'. Many preachers only invite people to different kinds of blessings for the life on earth! Jesus said that unbelievers only bothered about their earthly needs. As children of God we must realise that God, our heavenly Father, is fully aware about our earthly needs and will provide for us what we need, but He wants our hearts to be set on seeking His kingdom and character (Matt.6:31-33).
We may have heard the old song that says this world is not our home but that we are just passing through on our way to heaven. That should characterise our outlook towards life. Instead of being attached to the things of this world and longing for more and more of them, our heart should be looking at the things that will of value in eternity (Col.3:1,2). Instead of putting all our attention and energy towards accumulating things on earth, we should be working towards obtaining eternal wealth (Jn.6:27). If, on the contrary, we work towards making more money, the chances are that we may even go away from faith (1Tim.6:10,11).
When we set our heart and mind on God, it is inevitable that we will face opposition from the world (Jn.16:33). Unbelievers may be able to deal with difficult situations using crooked means, but when we stand for God we will have to face extra trouble. Even our own family members may turn against us and even throw us out of our homes (2Tim.3:12). But we will find when we stand in eternity that overcoming such situations and going through the trouble were worth it, because the Lord will reward us with the 'crown of life' (Jas.1:12).
Let us not allow ourselves to get deceived by those who preach an earthly-minded 'gospel' but take to heart the true Gospel of salvation from sin and transformation to His character, so that we can enjoy the abundant life that Jesus has come to give us.