When Love Came Down to Us

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 1:14

A few years after I got saved I was challenged by my pastor to expand my comfort zone and do something out of the ordinary.  For many regular Christians it is sharing the gospel. For me, on the other hand, it is Children’s Ministry.

One Sunday morning, I was teaching the kids about how Jesus came down to us from heaven to show us the Father and to die on our behaf so that we could have eternal life with Him. So a few days before I had to teach, I went to the local petstore and bought an ant farm.

After filling the farm with gel and ants, I watched how they started making tunnels and somewhat enjoying their ant lives.  I brought the farm to class and asked the kids one simple question: “How do you share the gospel to an ant?”

As they talked among themselves, they shared various answers. But one kid spoke up and said, “You have to become an ant because only ants can speak ‘ant.”

Just think, God the Father sent His one and only Son, Jesus, and became a human being to talk to us and show us who He is. To reveal His truth to us so that we can learn from Him. To save us from our sins because He was our only hope to restore us to Himself.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:” John 1:12 (NKJV)

But it wasn’t just what we learned from Him, but what He learned from us.

Seven reasons why Jesus came to us.

There are seven reasons why Jesus left heavenly kingdom to come down to us.

1. To reveal what God is like

Since no one has ever seen the Father, it was very difficult for the Israelites to know Him, describe Him, and understand Him. He came down to show us who the Father is, and what He would be like if He ever was human.  The nature and character of God. Good, pure, righteous, Holy. God is love, and love was Jesus.

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Hebrews 1:1-3 (NKJV)

Throughout John 14, Jesus revealed the Father that He and the Father were one; that through Jesus, they saw the Father. How amazing is that?! It was as if God came down to us in human form to reveal what we could not see ourselves, nor comprehend how awesome God really is.

2. To reveal what we are to be like

We as humans are sinful creatures with a propensity to sin. We are flawed, imperfect, and unholy; the very opposite of God. Through Jesus and the prophets, God has revealed His heart to us and how we are to believe and behave.

At the very start of His ministry, Jesus teaches the multitudes in the sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-7:29), starting with the beatitudes. Throughout this discourse, He reminds them of the Word, but then says, “But I say unto you…, ” going one step further digging at the heart of what it truly means to be a follower of God. That it wasn’t about the outward appearances, but a matter of the heart. It wasn’t enough to read the Scriptures, but to actually do what it says. He taught with power and authority, declaring what the Word of God says, not what He think it meant.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for corection, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

2 Tmothy 3:16-17

Throughout the pages of Scripture, it teaches us what is right (doctrine), what is wrong (reproof), for correction (how to get right), and instruction in righteousness (how to stay right).

3. To destroy the works of the devil

“Inasmuch then as the chilren have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”

Hebrews 2:14 (NKJV)

Jesus had to become human so that he could die and save us from our sins through death on the cross. When man sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, in many ways we gave up our authority to Satan. To take back what was given to us by God, but was lost because of sin.

4. To represent us to God

“Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertainng to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

Hebrews 2:17

Through Jesus’ death on the cross and His shed blood that cleanses us from sin, we are justifed in God’s sight just as if we never sinned.

In the Old Testament, the High Priest had to make attonement for his own sins first before making attonement by way of the sin offering. Jesus, since He was sinless, has through His blood made attonement for us which goes on forever. An offering that lasts for eternity.

5. To be our redeemer

In order to pay the sin debt that we owed and buy us out of the slave market of sin, the person buying had to be related, willing, and able.

First, He had to be related, or in otherwards, a human being. Angels cannot buy back our freedom with blood, nor can any creature because there is no righteousness in an animal.

Second, He had to be willing. Therefore, Jesus willngly laid down His own life for us. He couldn’t be forced or cooerced into doing it. He had to lay his own body down in order to free us from sin.

Third, he had to be able. Jesus had to be spotless and sinless in order to pay the price. Imperfect people can not pay for the sins of the world. Everyone falls short except Jesus. Just as the sacrificial lamb had to be spotless and without blemish, so is Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

6. To sympathise with our infirmities

Jesus experienced many things in human flesh on earth that He could not have experienced in His heavenly kingdom. For the first time, Jesus experienced sadness, sorrow, pain, depression, agony, sickness, and all the things that associate with the negative aspects of the human experience — including being tempted (Hebrews 4:15).

He experienced what it meant to build things with His hands using His mind instead of just speaking things into existence. To experience what it means to work for money; plant seeds, till soil, and water to grow crops to eat. To throw a line in the water to catch fish instead of them throwing themselves onto a boat. To build a fire by hand to keep warm because His human flesh was cold.

During this time of year, we imagine Him as a helpless infant that depended upon His earthly parents and care from lowly human beings. Diapers changed, needing to be fed, needing love, and correction from a parent. Most of all, Jesus needed to experience human birth, not just show up as a fully developed adult man at thirty-three years old, ready to hang on a cross.

Like ants, we have no idea how they feel, what they think, or what motivates them without becoming an ant ourselves, even if we are the superior lifeform.

7. To reign

“For unto us a Child is born. Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulders. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah 9:6 (NKJV)

Have you ever noticed that this verse is all written in future tense? “Will be,” not that He already is. Don’t you think that Jesus was already these things reigning with the Father already before coming to earth in human form?

It was His obedience to the Father willngly laying down His life for us that through Him, we will also reign forever with Him.

Thank God for the hope we have in Christ. Let us think about these things, and more as we celebrate His birth and His coming down to us this Christmas season.