The Reason Jesus Came | 1 John 3:4–10

Do you know the reason why we are free? It’s because of brave men and women who fought for our freedom. From Washington and his army crossing the Delaware and the battle at Yorktown, to the battle at Gettysburg, to the invasion of the beaches of Normandy, freedom has never been free. On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy. Historians call it D-Day. Those soldiers knew exactly what they were sailing into. They weren’t heading toward safety. They were heading into enemy territory. As the landing craft's doors dropped, many of them stepped into machine-gun fire. Thousands would never make it home. Yet they kept moving forward because they believed people on the other side of Europe were worth rescuing from tyranny. Military historians often say that D-Day was the decisive turning point of World War II. The war wasn’t over that day. There were still battles to fight. But from that moment on, the outcome was no longer in doubt. Victory had been secured; it simply had to be carried out until D-E Day. When I think about our freedom as Americans, I can’t help but think about my freedom as a Christian. Jesus came on a rescue-and-resistance mission. He crossed a far greater distance than the English Channel. He left the glory of heaven and entered enemy territory. He didn’t come because it was safe, but came because we could not save ourselves.

John is writing so that we may “KNOW” that we have eternal life. He has shared insights on how we should live our lives as children of God, awaiting our older brother's return to take us home. He positions us where we are living between the first and second coming of Jesus. We are already children, already saved, already rescued, but waiting for our ultimate homecoming. We ground our hope in the second coming based on the first coming of Jesus. Because Jesus fulfilled every promise He made concerning His first coming, we can have confidence in His second coming. So now John tells us what Jesus did in the first coming that gives us confidence and assurance to live our lives for Him until He comes. In these verses, John tells us that Jesus came to rescue us from our sinfulness and to destroy the devil's work.