The Reason He Came

June 28, 2022

For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost. Luke 19:10 NLT

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Timothy 1:15 NLT

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NLT

If we look at the Christian world around us, we could assume many varied reasons for why Jesus came and what He wanted His followers to do. The things Christians fight about, the debates we have on social media, would easily convince an observer that His objective was to establish proper doctrine and theology, enforce standards of who was eligible to enter or lead in the community, set up a political kingdom, save Americans… you get it, right? So few of our efforts, so little of our prime energy seems to be about the pure basics of why Jesus came and what He wanted us to do. So many of the things we say and do drive people away from the gospel. “Gospel” = “good news,” but our strident tones, our overbearing emphasis on issues and opinions, is anything but good news. We lose our audience, attraction, and credibility.

In the days of Jesus and the early church, the only people who were not irresistibly drawn to the gospel were the religious people. Back then the Pharisees focused on enforcing the law and their opinions. No one ever accused them of being soft or loving. And they didn’t want to be. They wanted to be “right” and in control. The mission of Jesus was a side issue to them.

The more “organized” the church became over the years, the more it splintered and divided over these side issues. The more Pharisaical and unattractive it became. Statistics tell us that in the United States the “gospel” has never been more unattractive than it is today. Every year fewer and fewer people attend church, the percentage of people identifying as “Christian” drops, and the two words that research shows are most readily given as descriptive of a Christian are “judgmental” and “bigot.” One argumentative man’s easy, quick defense was, “That’s because the church has forsaken the straight and narrow way.”

I replied, “I agree 100%. But not the way you are describing. Jesus described the straight and narrow way as loving others the same way He has loved us and doing what mattered to Him the most—laying down our lives for those who are away from Him. The American church by and large has abandoned that narrow way and instead has carved out various pathways according to their own opinions and preferences, saying to a skeptical and broken world, “This is the way—walk in it or go to hell.” Friends, we are to LOVE and SEEK the lost—go where they are. Love and receive them as they are. Let Jesus set the standard and do the cleaning. He left heaven to do it. Can we at least leave our own opinions and preferences behind us to join Him?

• What are you doing to prioritize loving and seeking and saving the lost? What will you do? Do you love lost people more than your opinions, preferences, and standards?