Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day?
Answer: In order that we might have life and have it abundantly
Because that is what Jesus tells us in John 10:10. His statement forms part of a conversation that he is having with the religious leaders of his day. In it Jesus speaks of being both a door through which we can enter into salvation, and a good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.
So first of all, what does Jesus mean when he says he has come that we might have life? I only ask because, despite my words being dull enough to cause some to lose the will to continue with it, most of those reading this will consider that life is something that they already have.
Jesus, therefore, when he refers to someone having life, must have more in mind than that person merely having a beating heart and a correspondingly palpable pulse. Rather then than physical life, what Jesus is here referring to is spiritual life, or eternal life, which, he says, is to know the one true God which he says, involves knowing himself as well. [John 17:3]
Now some of us might be thinking that that sounds a bit, well boring – nowhere near as exciting as a day watching Somerset play cricket at the county ground in Taunton for example. And for others, far from epitomising the truly abundant life, it will sound far too religious to be something that any sane individual would ever want to do.
But if that is the case, then we have believed the lie that God is a boring killjoy who wants to stop us having fun, rather than the truth that ‘in [his] presence there is fullness of joy [and] at [his] right hand their are pleasures for evermore’, [Psalm 16:11] – words that could perhaps be paraphrased as ‘with God there is both infinite and eternal happiness’.
But having described how great it is to know God, and acknowledged that it will be immeasurably better once we have the resurrection bodies that will better enable us to appreciate his glory once we’ve been raised from the dead, we need to look again at the context in which Jesus spoke of his giving us this abundant life.
You’ll remember that Jesus said what he said whilst speaking of himself as being, not only a door, but also a good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. Which suggests to me that it is his giving up his life that makes him the door through which we can pass into the abundant life that he offers.
Because it is through his substitutionary and sacrificial death that we are forgiven and rendered fit to enter God’s presence.
Which means we must ask ourselves whether we are sheep! Are we those who recognise the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd? And are we those who are prepared to gladly follow him wherever he leads?
Because if we are, then we will surely know the abundant life that Jesus offers as a result of his coming to earth on that first Christmas Day.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 22 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Some musings 