The Mission
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” [Luke 19:10]. When it says “Son of Man” it is talking about Jesus. This sentence from the Bible says that Jesus came to seek & save the lost. You could sort of say that this was Jesus’ mission. That’s how he described it. Jesus came on a rescue mission. But the question is: what is lost and why does it need to be rescued?
What’s lost? We are lost. It is referring to people. Jesus came to seek and to save people. The Bible says that all of us are lost in that no-one has ever lived the way that God wanted us to [Romans 3:10-12]. The Bible says “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” [Romans 3:23]. Everyone has sinned. Everyone has fallen short of the way God wants people to live. Now sin isn’t just a list of “naughty” things like lying; cheating; stealing; murdering; raping; but is our whole attitude of rebellion against God. It’s when we say to God that we want to be the King of our own life and not let him be our King. The Bible also says that because we have lived lives of sin we deserve to be punished and cut off from right relationship with God. [Romans 6:23; Colossians 1:21]
It’s a bleak looking picture! We’ve rejected the King of the world and for that we deserve to be punished. And there is NOTHING we can do to be friends again with God. … enter Jesus… Jesus is different from us in that he never rejected God. He always lived the way that He ought to live. So he came on a rescue mission as the ONLY way for us to be brought back to God and be his friends. [1 Peter 3:18] Let’s see how Jesus does it.
