WHY DID JESUS COME? – 3

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” John 14:6

Although this may be, for some of us, a familiar and well-worn verse of Scripture which we use to lead people to faith in Jesus, I think it has more than one meaning. The most obvious one leans on Jesus’ work on the cross.  According to my two previous articles, no-one has access to the Father but through Jesus. He paid the debt and cleared the ground for our return to fellowship with Him and membership of His family.

Hidden in that meaning, however, is one that we may not think about. Not only did Jesus clear the way for us to return to the Father, but He also takes us to the Father. A great deal of our evangelistic effort is to lead people to believe in Jesus as Saviour and Lord, and this is legitimate. But this often leaves people thinking that there is a conflict of attitudes between the Father and the Son. Jesus is the loving and kind member of the Trinity who died for us and calls us to believe in and follow Him. The Father is the angry one who waits to get us when we step out of line.

Way back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were estranged from their Father and were left as orphans to find their own way in a big and hostile world. God chose and called Abraham to be father of a nation that would experience Him as their Father once again by redeeming them from slavery in Egypt to Himself. They chose to reject His love and followed the gods of the surrounding nations.

Through Jesus’ death on the cross, God confirmed the work of redemption He effected before the foundation of the world. Perhaps Jesus’ simple story of the wayward son who left the father’s house and wasted his life and resources on wild living, most vividly pictures what has happened to humanity. We left home, we chose to disassociate ourselves from the Father and live as orphans until Jesus came to take us back home. Now the choice is ours.

Salvation is not only about the life to come when we will reap the eternal benefits of Jesus’ death. It’s about now. It’s about living in Father’s house now. It’s about enjoying the Father’s presence and experiencing the Father’s joy and peace in a messed-up world now. It is tragic that God’s children so often have an escapist mentality, holding on with white knuckles and waiting for death so that they can “go and be with Jesus.”

As members of God’s forever family, we are entitled to the grace that makes us overcomers and the blessing of fellowship with a Father who passionately loves us. Jesus wants to take us into the bosom and heart of the Father. Will you go with Him?