We don’t need to guess

News is out that a certain celebrity has come to town. But why has he come? No one is quite sure. So everyone’s guessing – one suggesting this, another suggesting that – until someone comes up with the really bright idea, ‘Why not just ask him?’ So they do. And he tells them.

It’s now Christmas and lots of people are talking about Jesus. How he came from heaven to earth. How he was born in a stable in Bethlehem and laid in a manger. What a very special person he was – God’s own Son. But the big question is this – why did he come? With the help of the Bible we can put that question to him directly and hear the answer from his own lips.

“So why did you come?” Referring to himself as the Son of Man (as he frequently did), his answer is as follows: “…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10.45). Three things for us to note:

He came to serve. Not to be served (though given who he was, people should have been falling over themselves to serve him), but to serve. It was his great concern throughout life: “What can I do for others?” And he did lots. He healed the sick. He cast out demons. He raised the dead. He fed the hungry. And at the end of it all he died for people. The whole orientation of his life was outward toward others. He had come into the world to serve, and serve he did. And we who are his followers are to be like him in this. Always we should be asking, “What can I do for others?” 

He came to suffer. One hundred years ago, on the battlefields of France, men in vast numbers were suffering and dying for others. But that wasn’t the reason for their birth. Suffering was something forced on them by cruel circumstances. By contrast, in Jesus’ case, suffering and death were the very explanation for his birth. Why did he come? It was to give his life. To lay it down for others.

It’s the extraordinary link between Christmas and Easter. Jesus’ death on Calvary was no unforeseen tragedy, a defeating of the great end of his existence. On the contrary, it was the very object of his coming. He quite literally was born into our world to die.

He came to set people free. Here we come to the climax of his statement. He gave his life “as a ransom for many”. We all know what a ransom is. It is a price that is paid to set someone free. Jesus is saying – “that’s why I came – so that by my death I might set people free”. Free from what? From the guilt of our sin. From the punishment that our sin deserves. From sin itself. From the dreadful effects of sin on our bodies. It couldn’t be done for nothing. Only at the price of Jesus’ life. And freely, lovingly, for our sakes, he paid that price.

So we don’t need to guess, do we? We know why he came. He tells us himself.

But we mustn’t leave it at that. The freedom Jesus purchased at such a very high price is a freedom each of us needs. It is a freedom, too, that each of us may have. It’s what makes the story of his birth the best of news. In Jesus a liberator was born who can set you free the damning guilt and destructive power of your sin. Look to him for that freedom and give him no rest until it is yours.

David Campbell
North Preston Evangelical Church
Preston, England

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What shall we do?

There’s a difficulty in reading that question. You can guess what it is. The words themselves are as simple and straightforward as can be. A little child can understand them. But a mere printing of them conveys nothing of the tone. How is the question being asked? In boredom? Curiosity? Fear? Anguish? You can’t tell just by reading it.

Unless, that is, you find it imbedded in a story. Like the one I have in mind as I write this. Then you can tell. In the story to which I refer the question was put by a crowd of people to a man named Peter. And there’s no doubt whatsoever how people asked it. In fear and in anguish.

So what prompted it? Their wicked treatment of God’s Son Jesus. Without the least justification they had put him to death. It was the worst of crimes and the worst of blunders. And now the enormity of their action had come home to them. They had killed the very Savior whom God had so lovingly sent to them. And though God had raised him from the dead and enthroned him in heaven, it was anything but a comfort. What could they expect from him after murdering him? Hence their anguished question: “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2.37).

Does all that seem remote from you? Don’t be so sure. Your hands are certainly not stained with Jesus’ blood. But have you refused him your love? Have you refused him your faith? Have you refused him your allegiance? Have you refused him your worship and obedience? If your answer to these questions is an honest ‘yes’, you need to do the very same thing that these people in our story did. You need to ask, “What shall I do?”

It is at this point that the clouds begin to part. How awful if Peter had had to say to the crowd, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing you can do. Your sin is too great to be forgiven”. But that is not what he said! And it is not God’s message for you either. Grave as your sin has been in rejecting Jesus (and it is far, far graver than you know), God graciously offers you forgiveness.

First things first, however. Repentance. Peter called on his hearers to repent. It is God’s call to you as well. To repent.

Think of it as a forward movement. There is no possibility of going back. Much as you might wish to live life over and do things differently second time round, you know you can’t. And there’s no use staying where you are. That won’t make your guilt go away or bring you a single step nearer to God. No! There’s only one thing for you to do and that is to go forward, with God’s help, into a totally new life.

What kind of new life? One in which your relationship to Jesus, God’s Son, is the polar opposite of what it has been. A life in which he is no longer marginalized, hated, rejected. A life instead in which he is loved, served, believed in, worshiped and obeyed. Sound impossible? It is! But God can enable you both to begin such a life and to go on living it.

Go first and confess to him your sin.  Then sincerely ask him for grace to go forward into this new Jesus-centered life. You may be sure that you will not seek him in vain.

And here’s something to encourage you. How the story ended. With the repentance of the people and God’s gracious gift of forgiveness. You repent of your sin and the end of the story will be exactly the same for you.

David Campbell
Grace Baptist Church
777 W North Street
Carlisle, PA 17013

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