“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”~ 1 Pet. 3:18
The story is told of a young soldier during the 1800’s sitting on the banks of the Potomac River weeping. A little boy close by fishing, hearing his agonizing cry, went to him asking what was wrong. It seems he had been turned down by his commanding officer to visit his sick wife. The lad asked him to come with him. He took him by the hand, leading him to the White House. Passing all the guards freely, he then entered where President Lincoln was. Upon seeing the boy the President stood and said, “Tad, what can I do for you son?” The reply, “I want you to help this fella father.”
Jesus, we are told in scripture, came for various reasons. To list a few: He came to set the captive free; He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly; He came to destroy the works of the devil; He came to seek the lost; and yes, He most certainly came to save sinners.
But first and above all else, He came “that He might bring us to God.” This is made plain throughout the New Testament. From His own mouth we hear the words, “No man cometh to the Father, but by me.” The book of Hebrews abounds with this truth. And Paul tells us, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
I like the way D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones puts it in his series on Ephesians. “The Lord Jesus is the mediator, not the end; He is the One who brings us to the Father. We go to the Father by Him…all He has done is designed to bring us to the God, not o Himself…I have sometimes thought that perhaps the greatest danger confronting evangelicals at this present time is (and I speak with reverence) so to emphasize the Person of the Son as to forget the Father. We fail to realize that the Son came to glorify the Father and to bring us to Him.”
I would remind my readers—there is no jealousy in the Godhead!