Menu

Why Jesus Came

Jesus came to do the Father's will.

I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 6:38)

For I seek not to please Myself but Him who sent Me. (John 5:30)

JESUS was perfectly in tune with the heart of the Father, and delighted to do His will. His ministry was thoroughly guided by it, for He said, "The Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son does also" (John 5:19). "Whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say" (John 12:50).

Jesus never took it upon Himself to say or do anything except what the Father told Him to say and do. This was the pattern for His ministry. Everything He did perfectly expressed the will of God. Even on His final night in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed, "Nevertheless not my will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42).

Jesus came to serve and to give His life.

As Jesus' ministry on earth was drawing to a close, He spoke to the disciples about true greatness:

You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. (Mark 10:42-44)

In the world, greatness is measured by how much weight you can throw around, or how many people you can order about, or how much rank you can pull. But Jesus turned that on its head. The great ones are not those who know how to "lord it" over others, but those who know how to become the servant — the slave! — of all. This kind of servanthood is not so we can one day become great leaders and put aside the role of being a servant. Quite the contrary, this kind of servanthood exactly defines what a great leader is — the servant of all. "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

It is the very nature of Jesus to give and to serve, for Jesus is truly God, and "God is love" (1 John 4:8), and it is the very nature of love to give. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16).

In doing the Father's will, Jesus demonstrated the Father's love, giving His own life as a ransom for us — paying a terrible price He did not owe to redeem us from a debt we could never pay.

Jesus came to seek and to save.

The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them. (Luke 9.56)

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19.10)

Jesus did not come to destroy us, but to save us. This is the promise of the Christmas story. For the angel of the Lord said to Joseph, "Do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:20-21).

The very name of Jesus, in its Hebrew form, Yeshua, means "Yahweh saves!" It comes from the Hebrew yasha, which means to rescue or remove someone from burden, oppression or danger.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)

Jesus did not come to destroy our lives, but to destroy the bondage which plagued life ever since Adam and Eve, when the devil first led mankind into sin. But even then, the Lord made a promise about One who would come and destroy the devil and his works. He said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed [Jesus]; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15). The is the first mention of the Gospel that is recorded in Scripture.

The devil tried to destroy the people of God from Adam to Abraham, but he could not. He tried to destroy the descendents of Abraham, the children of Israel, but he could not. He tried to destroy the lineage of Jesus in every generation, but he could not. He tried to destroy the ministry of Jesus in the wilderness temptation, but he could not. And finally, he tried to destroy the lifework of Jesus by nailing him to the cross, little realizing that it was for this reason that Jesus came: to give His life on the cross as a ransom for many.

The devil could never destroy the plans and purposes of God, not even if he had all eternity to try. But through death and resurrection, Jesus destroyed all the works of the devil. Sin and sickness, poverty and strife, death and everything that stands against the people of God — all the power of the devil has been broken. But Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, "far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named" (Ephesians 1:21).

Jesus came that we might have life more abundantly.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

The thief is the one who tries to deceive God's people, seeking to turn them away from God's purposes. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. These are the works of the devil, but as we saw, Jesus came to destroy all those works.

Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. For our God is a God of abundance. His paths drip abundance (Psalm 65.11). He is able "to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works in us" (Ephesians 3.20) and He is able "to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have abundance for every good work" (2 Corinthians 9.8). He gives to us out of His abundance so that we can give to others out of our abundance, and so share in His ministry.

Jesus came to proclaim the favor of the Lord.

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD. (Luke 4:18-19)

Jesus began His preaching ministry with this passage, which comes from Isaiah. This wonderful text is the charter of His ministry, for after reading it, Jesus said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). In it, we find that Jesus came to preach, to heal and to deliver the captives — in short, to proclaim the favor of the Lord.

Throughout the rest of this chapter, indeed, throughout the rest of the Gospel of Luke, and in the other Gospels as well, we find Jesus preaching and healing and casting out demons. We see Him choosing the disciples "that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sickness and to cast out demons" (Mark 3:14-15). Then we see Him actually sending them out to do just that (Mark 6:7-13).

Before His ascension into heaven, we see Jesus commissioning the disciples with these words: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them ... teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded" (Matthew 28:18-20)." The disciples were not only to continue these charter works, but they were to disciple others in them, as well. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.... And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons ... they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover" (Mark 16:15-18). Their commission is our commission, too, for thus we are to proclaim that the time of God's favor has come.

Jesus came for you.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3.16)

If you are a "whoever," Jesus came for you. He came to reconcile you to the heart of the Father and to give His life as a ransom for you. He came to seek you out and save you from sin. He came to destroy all the works of the devil in your life and replace it with the wonderful abundance of His own life. He came to forgive your sins and heal your sicknesses, and to proclaim that the time of God's favor toward you has come.

We receive these things by faith — taking God at His Word. The promise is that "whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." If you have never received the Lord Jesus Christ before, you can do it right now. Simply say a little prayer to the Father — it doesn't have to be a fancy prayer, just speak to Him from your heart. Tell Him that you believe His promises and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Savior. Then new life will begin for you.

Christmas is wonderful, especially when you know why Jesus came, and that He came for you.

© 2001 Jeff Doles.
All rights reserved.

Tweets by @JeffDoles

 

© 2003-2017 Walking Barefoot Ministries