"Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”
Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
(John 18:37)
Notice that His birth was Him coming “into the world”. He had come from another “world” – from heaven. But why? Let’s look at three reasons.
1) He came to shine His light
The Bible says that the coming of Christ into the world was like a light shining in the darkness, and so He revealed what was otherwise hidden – made clear what was obscure.
1a) His coming revealed what God is like
People have their own ideas about what God is like, and if we’d been left to ourselves then that’s all we would have had – our own ideas, but we haven’t been left to ourselves. God has revealed Himself to us in Christ. The Bible says He is “the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3), that is, He is the exact expression of God’s nature – He shows us exactly what God is like.
Maybe you think that God doesn’t care about sin – He is just like a heavenly grandfather who turns a blind eye to the mischief of His creatures. But when we look at Christ we see that God cares about sin. The Lord Jesus warned of eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46), unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43) and outer darkness (Matthew 8:12).
Or perhaps you think that God doesn’t care for sinners – He is up there in heaven detached from us in our suffering. When we look at Christ we get a different picture. God didn’t stay out of sight and out of reach: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). When we see Christ comforting the sorrowing, lifting the fallen, blessing the children, befriending the lonely, we are looking at God. Throughout His life He suffered with us, entering into our pain and sorrows, and then in His death He suffered for us so that we might be saved. This is what God is like.
1b) His coming revealed what we are like
If you get up on a dark morning and look in the mirror, you will look fine, as long as the light is off. When the light is switched on then it reveals that things are far from fine.
Before Christ came, there were religious people thinking they were fine, but the life He lived and the teaching He gave shone a light into their hearts, exposing their sin. He was the embodiment of God’s standard. When we compare ourselves to others we might look ok, but others aren’t the standard – Christ is. When we compare ourselves to Him we see “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
2) He came to show His love
It is such a relief to know that even though He is so holy and we are so sinful, His love goes out to us nevertheless.
His life shows the expanse of His love – He loved those that no one else loved. There was no one who had gone too far, sunk too low, sinned too much for Him to love. He responded to all who called on Him in faith; He received all who came to Him in repentance. And He is still the same today (Hebrews 13:8).
His death shows the expense of His love. He could not ignore our sin – the penalty had to be paid. And that’s why He died. On the cross, He willingly experienced the suffering due to sinners. He paid sin’s penalty in full, and proved it by rising from the dead. Through His death and resurrection He has provided salvation for us. That’s how great His love is.
3) He came to share His life
The coming of Christ means that we can be forgiven and saved, but there is more. If we receive Him as Lord and Saviour we are “born again”, meaning we become children in God’s family and share the life of God. That is the greatest blessing anyone can ever have – that’s why He came.