Why Did Jesus Come?

Many people assume, or claim to have studiously arrived at the conclusion, that Jesus was not born of a virgin and was just an extraordinary human being who had a gentle predisposition for kindness that resulted in moral living.

Some of the people who assume or claim this, but not all, have decided that they will take Jesus—along with other self-appointed role models and heroes—and aim to incorporate some of their traits into their own life.

N.T. Wright, writing in his book, After You Believe, makes an excellent point about “Jesus as only a moral teacher”:

“...the suggestion that we treat Jesus as a moral example can be, and in some people’s thinking has been, a way of holding at arm’s length the message of God’s kingdom on the one hand and the meaning of his death and resurrection on the other. Making Jesus the supreme example of someone who lived a good life may be quite bracing to contemplate, but it is basically safe: it removes the far more dangerous challenge of supposing that God might actually be coming to transform this earth, and us within it, with the power and justice of heaven, and it neatly helps us avoid the fact, as all four gospels see it, that this could be achieved only through the shocking and horrible event of Jesus’s death. Jesus as “moral example” is a domesticated Jesus, a kind of religious mascot. We look at him approvingly and decide we’ll copy him (up to a point at least, and no doubt he’ll forgive us the rest because he’s a decent sort of chap). As if! If all we need is a good example, we can’t be in quite such a bad state as some people (including Jesus himself) have suggested.”

N.T. Wright goes on to say that the result of this line of thinking is that the teachings of Jesus become, not only voluntary, but “a suggestion that an ordinary human being can actually resist sin if he or she tries hard enough, and that observing how Jesus did it will enable us to do so.”

While Jesus, indeed, does model the way to live and be, so that we might live and be the same, what Jesus models can be comprehended only with the open eyes of someone who is indwelt by His Spirit through faith in Him. As 1 Corinthians 2 makes clear:

“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 2:12-14.

So try following Jesus' "moral example" on your own. It can't happen, because we won't even know where or how to begin. This is the spiritual blindness Jesus came to cure. 

Jesus is not a man-made good chap, enlightened thinker, or chill guru, as many would have—and especially desire—us to believe.

Jesus is the Lord God our Savior. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a Virgin and came to free the captives (us) from ourselves, from evil, and from worldly darkness.

He came so that we do not have to endure the futility of trying to save ourselves and live according to a constantly morphing morality of our own, or another person’s, making.

He came to set things right: the world and everything in it.

He came to do what only He can do. If humans could have done this of their own volition, then He wouldn’t have needed to come. But as the Corinthians verse points out, we cannot discern the things of God until we enter His Kingdom. And that’s why Jesus came: to bring the Kingdom to us so we can enter it here and now.

Copyright Barb Harwood

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:16-20