“I came that they may have life.” JOHN 10:10
It will soon be Christmas when we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ. God came down from heaven and entered our world. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
Why did Jesus come? The entire New Testament answers that question.
Paul tells us that Jesus came to reconcile us to God: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:19).
John tells us: “The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).
The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus came to “destroy the one who has the power of death” and to “bring many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:14, 10).
The book of Revelation tells us that Jesus came to ransom “people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9).
Did Jesus Himself ever speak directly about why He came into the world? Did He ever say “Here is the reason why I have come into the world”? Yes, He did. Perhaps the best-known example is when Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). What a marvelous promise!
We are going to look at six occasions when Jesus spoke directly and personally about why He came into the world. There were other occasions when Jesus spoke about this indirectly: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). “The Son of Man came… to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). But in these six examples, we are going to hear, in Jesus’ own words, why He came into the world.
What would you say are the three most important reasons why Jesus came into the world?
