Articles
Drawn to the King
In Matthew's account of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, we find the wise men from the East came to Jerusalem asking, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him” (Matt. 2:2). After they left the presence of Herod, “the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy” (Matt. 2:9, 10). From these passages, we see the Divine Providence in guiding the wise men to the babe Jesus, and because of the star, they found Him.
That story was a significant one, and we should not be surprised to see God's intervention at the time of the earthly birth of His Son Jesus. Today, though, we should not expect to see such Divine guidance as the wise men received; there is no star that will lead us to Jesus. So, how would one find Jesus the King today?
Let me begin by establishing the matter of how one obtains faith. As is written in Scripture, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). The simple fact is, we could not have faith in Jesus Christ the King if we knew nothing about Jesus Christ the King! So, if we are to find Jesus without a star guiding us to Him, the word of God is our only means; there will be no visions, dreams, or voices telling us where to find Him or anything about Him; there is no Divine intervention when you or I have a "feeling" about Jesus. The simple fact is, we must allow the written word of God to lead us to Jesus.
Jesus once said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me” (John 6:44, 45). Again, we see that one cannot come to Jesus unless he or she has heard and learned from the Father; that is to say, one must hear His word. The "drawing" of which He speaks is not some miraculous infusion of the Holy Spirit that moves a sinner toward Christ; it is done only by the word of God! One who does not learn from the Father will never draw nearer to Jesus because he has no knowledge of Him and, thus, no interest in finding Him.
After Jesus ascended into heaven, the apostles began preaching the gospel to the Jews first and, later, then to the Gentiles. The gospel message, as Paul described it, was — “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,” and what Paul said was the means “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you” (1 Cor. 15:1-4).
Peter would later speak to his Jewish brethren in Jerusalem, answering for why he had gone in the company of Gentiles, and it was then that he told them an angel of God had come to Cornelius and told him, “Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved” (Acts 11:13, 14). The words Peter spoke to them were about Jesus (cf. Acts 10:34-43). James echoed this fact when he exhorted the early disciples to “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (Jas. 1:21).
Let us not misunderstand what is being said here; there is no transforming power by the mere hearing or reading of God's word — we are not saved at the point of hearing the word spoken to us. What Jesus and Paul and Peter all meant by the saving power of the word is that it tells the story of Jesus the Savior and God's plan for our salvation. As Paul put it, the gospel is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). And there is the means of God's word becoming effective for salvation: we must believe it!
It is in the gospel message that we learn all we need to know about Jesus, and what we learn of Him is what draws us to Him — just as that star led the wise men to Jesus the babe. They knew from the Old Testament Scriptures that the one whom Micah (Mic. 5:2) prophesied about was rightly called “King of the Jews” and worthy of worship. They knew from the Scriptures that He was worthy of gifts fit for a King — “gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (Matt. 2:11). The Scriptures told them about the one who would be King, and they believed what they read, so it was more than just the star that led them to Him. What about us? Once we read about Jesus in the Scriptures, what will draw us to Him?
His Love. Within the Scriptures, we find Christ “has loved us and given Himself for us” (Eph. 5:2), and, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). We find in Scriptures that His love for us is not the kind of love you hear about everyday; as Paul put it, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die But…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:7, 8), and it was “when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10).
In Scriptures, we find Jesus, but it is His love that draws us to Him. What man on Earth would do for us what He has done? Who would give their lives for their enemies? Who would endure the suffering He endured? If we are not drawn to Jesus by His love, then we will have no excuse when we face Him in the final judgment.
His Forgiveness. Without question, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23); none of us is "good," for the Scriptures also teach us that when God looked down to Earth, He saw “There is none who does good, no, not one” (Psa. 14:2, 3), so we are only fooling ourselves when we say or believe we are "good" without Christ. Paul wrote of the man who struggled to be "good" outside of Christ, and who concluded, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The answer, of course, was also given: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24, 25). It is no different for us.
When we realize, through the reading of God's written word, that Christ offers us forgiveness in spite of all this, who would not be drawn, then, to the one offering — the only one who provides the means to forgiveness of all our sins (Acts 4:12)?
His Holiness. It is in Scriptures, too, that we find “He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5), and, “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Peter puts it plainly: He “committed no sin” (1 Pet. 2:22). What we find is that Jesus was sinless…perfectly holy and righteous.
For those who have a love for truth and righteousness, this will draw them closer to Christ and then follow Him because He is the perfect example. Those who do will draw near not because they think His holiness will hide our unrighteousness from God [a popular false concept], but because following in His steps will lead us to where He now is: heaven.
Of course, this holiness will cause many others to turn away; their sins will be exposed and they would rather indulge in the unrighteousness of this world. While that will always be true, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:19-23). —— Steven Harper
