In the previous post, we started exploring why Jesus came. We know He came to die for our sins and to ransom us from the enemy. But there is more.
Jesus came to show us the Father. In the Old Testament, God still wanted a relationship with His children. But there was a problem. Sin. Just like light destroys darkness, perfect holiness destroys sin and evil. Man could not get close without being destroyed. That’s what happened in 2 Samuel 6 when a man reached out to prevent the Ark of the Covenant from falling off the cart (that it wasn’t even supposed to be on.) The temple worship was designed to temporarily cover the people’s sin. Elaborate rituals of prayer and sacrifice were put in place so men could safely approach God. Because of Jesus’ death, those rituals are no longer needed. We can now “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) Hallelujah! Thank You, Jesus!
But the Jewish people still had this very distant view of Father God. How could Jesus change that? God wanted to again walk with us, and talk with us, like He did with Adam in the Garden of Eden. So, Jesus came to walk and talk with His disciples, showing them His Father. They believed that Jesus was God in the flesh, sent by the Father. But they were a bit slow to comprehend – as we would have been.
How do you get to really know someone? Hearing about them isn’t enough. However, if you live with them day in and day out, watch what they do, hear how they talk, see how they treat other people – even when they are tired – you begin to appreciate who they really are.
But Jesus didn’t only want them to know Him, He wanted them to know His Father.
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. (John 5:19-20)
And then in John 12: 49, Jesus tells them,
For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.
After three years of walking with Jesus, they still didn’t get it. On the last night that He’d spend with His disciples, we read in John 14: 8-14,
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
So, not only did Jesus come to die, He came to show us the Father, and the Father’s love for His children.
So far, we know Jesus came to die, and He came to show us His Father, but there is more.
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