Jesus Came For Us (J3)

The true light of the world came after John—
Jesus was, is, and will be that true light;
For each that takes the gift, He is the bond;
He gave His life ev’ry man to invite!
He came to that which was His very own,
Living as a man, just like one of us;
He lived outdoors, when He should’ve had a throne;
We received Him not, nor gave Him our trust!
Yet, to believers, He gives eternal life,
And the right to become children of God;
Not by human wills of husband and wife,
But born of God, they’ll heavenly streets trod!
He loved us so, while we were yet sinners,
He suffered and died, to make us winners!

“ ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.’ “ (1 Corinthians 2:9)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Continuing our series of poems and commentaries in the gospel of John, the apostle “whom Jesus loved”, we are discussing here John 1:9-13. Jesus is called “the light of the world” in the spiritual sense that by coming to live 33+ years among us, He brought the gospel of salvation by grace into a world that was in darkness; people did not know God, or that every person who lived was condemned to live forever in a place of torment. Jesus Himself was God; He had created the earth and everything and everyone in it; He loved all persons so much, He was willing to suffer and die Himself, so we would have a means of saving ourselves from the awful fate awaiting after our deaths. That means of “saving” ourselves is called the gospel, and Jesus came to tell us the good news, then pay for it with His death.
Salvation is a free gift—it cannot be earned or bought; it comes to a person when he or she believes that Jesus is Lord and is willing to love and honor Him for what He has done and is going to do for him or her. It is really tragic that so few people accepted the gift of salvation while Jesus was here; His own people, the Jews, had a Bible (the Old Testament) with 340 prophecies in it about Jesus, every one of which they could have easily verified which were fulfilled while He lived, yet they rejected and crucified Him. As prophesied, He rose from the dead in 3 days, and still lives today, proving that we, too, can be resurrected and will live forever. The “saved” will live in beauty and happiness; the condemnation is erased immediately when you believe.

Even more tragically, Christians of today are far outnumbered by non-believers; furthermore we can feel the growing hostility toward Christianity from society’s leadership in America today. Did you know that 54 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christians who believed in Jesus as Lord? Look around yourself today, at the store you’re in, the bus you are riding in, or the class you attend: How many believe in Jesus? What about you? Are you condemned or saved?