Why Did Jesus Come Into This World
Luke 19:10

 by Paul George

If you were asked, Why did Christ Jesus come into this world, what would be your answer?

He came to set an example of behavior and all mankind should follow it. He came to proclaim the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. He came to complete God’s original purpose in the creation of man. He came to establish a form of government which would be righteous in its rule, a government which would bring the kingdom of God to this earth. The right answer to the question, “Why did Christ Jesus come into this world” must uphold the glory of God. Therefore any answer that dishonor the Father, disgrace the Son, and undermine the work of the Holy Spirit is an incorrect answer

Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10),

In his first letter to Timothy Paul wrote, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1st Timothy 1:15).

The Son of God stepped down from His Father’s throne, laid aside His infinite glory, and entered this world through the womb of a virgin so that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-17). He came into this world to save sinners not to condemn them to an eternity in hell. From the day He was born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger His eye was on the dreadful cross of Golgotha. Jesus came to do the will of the Father.

One theory taught and accepted today is the theory the Son of God came into this world to remove barriers which stood in the way of God’s grace flowing forth to fallen mankind. According to this theory Christ’s death took away those barriers. If this is the correct answer to why Jesus came to this earth, the death of Christ on the cross was merely the procuring for God the right to forgive sinners. If the death of Christ was to procure for God the right to forgive sinners then He died so that a way might be made for God to extend His mercy to us, rather than that a way was opened for us to come to Him.

Nowhere in the Bible is stated God sent His Son into this world out of love for Himself but out of love for us. Nowhere in the Bible is it stated Christ died to procure something for God. It is written the reason Christ came to earth was to give Himself as a sacrifice for sinful mankind. The Father, out of His infinite love for mankind sent His Son into this world to pay a ransom of infinite value for the purchasing of man’s redemption and  deliverance from death to life, from hell and wrath to heaven and glory.
A second reason for Christ’s coming into this world was that His Father might be magnified. The great end which God has in all His works is the promotion of His

declarative glory, "For from Him and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be glory for ever" (Romans 11:36). There is nothing outside God which can possibly supply any motive for Him to act. Any claim there is something outside God which can motivate Him to act is a denial of His self-sufficiency. The goal of God in creation, in providence, and in redemption, is the magnifying of Himself, everything else is subordinate to His sovereign will.

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians said God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, and to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6). The inheritance which we have obtained in Christ is in order that "we should be to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:12). The Holy Spirit is given us as the earnest of our inheritance "to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:14). Our rejoicing is "in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2). We are “filled with the fruits of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God"  (Philippians 1:11).

God’s primary reason for sending His Son into this world was to reveal His love and glory. Through Christ’s obedience and death God magnified His law (Isaiah 42:21). The law of God was honored by the Son’s subjection to it. It is dishonored by the disobedience of all of Adam’s descendants. The sending of His Son to earth to redeem fallen mankind magnified the love of God. God’s justice was magnified when, by imputation, sin was found upon His Son and God called for the sword to smite Him (Zechariah 13:7). He magnified God’s holiness, His hatred of sin more clearly at the Cross than it will be in the lake of fire.

God magnified His power when He “brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus Our Lord” (Hebrews 13:20).

The third reason for God sending His Son into this world is that He might be glorified. The Son of God is the center of all the counsels of the Godhead. He is both the Alpha and Omega of their goals. All God’s thoughts concerning everything in heaven and in earth begin and end in Christ. "God created all things by Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:9), and all things were created "for him" (Col. 1:16). As Mediator He is the only medium of union and communion between God and mankind, “with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth” (Ephesians 1:10).

The Son of God is the one universal head in which God has summed up all things. Therefore, the work of redemption was given to Him that He might reconcile all things in heaven and earth unto Himself and glory might come to him. When Judas went out to betray Him, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of man glorified" (John 13:31). Within a few hours the Son was supremely honored by the Father through the committing to his care the mightiest work of all, a work which none other was capable of performing. To him was entrusted the task of glorifying God here on earth; of vanquishing His arch-enemy, Satan, and the redemption of His people. To this Jesus makes reference in John 17:4, "I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” He completed God’s goal in send Him into this world, executed His decrees, and fulfilled all His will.

Jesus didn’t come into this world to see if there were any who would seek Him. The apostle Paul told the Romans, "there is none who seeks for God” (Romans 3:11).

Our Lord Jesus Christ is a seeker. This is revealed in the parable of the lost sheep. A stray dog or a lost horse will usually find its way back home. The opposite is true of sheep. The longer a sheep is separated from the flock it will stray farther and farther away from the flock. If the lost sheep is to be brought back into the flock some one must go after it. This is what Christ did, and which by His Spirit He is still doing. He goes "after the one which is lost until he finds it” (Luke 15:4). But Christ does more. He seeks, finds, and saves. He does not merely offer to, nor help to, but He actually saves. Such was the declaration of the angel to Joseph, “you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from there sins” (Matthew 1:21). He will not try to save them, but actually save them.
Christ came to earth with a definitely defined object in view, and being who He is there is no possible room for any failure in His mission. Before Jesus came into this world God said He shall “see the anguish of His soul, He shall see it and be satisfied” Isaiah 53:11).

As the Mediator Jesus solemnly vowed He would save God’s people from their sins. He actually purchased them with his blood (Acts 20:28). He attained for them a perfect salvation. This is illustrated in Luke 19. When Jesus saw Zacchaeus in the tree he had climbed in order to see Jesus, Jesus told him, “hurry and come down for today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5). When the people complained because Jesus was going “to be a guest of a man who is a sinner,” Jesus told them, “Today salvation has come to this house because he too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19 9-10).

In His discourse on the good shepherd Jesus said, “he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep...The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly” (Luke 10:1-2, 10). Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (Luke 10:11). In these verses we have the reason why Jesus came into this world. His sheep once possessed "life", in their natural head, Adam. But when he fell, they fell; when he died, they died (1st Corinthians 15:22). But by Christ, through His work, and in Him they obtain not only "life", but "more abundant" life; that is, a "life" which far excels what they lost in their first father, Adam. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, “it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living soul.

The last Adam became a life-giving spirit" (1 Corinthians 15:45). The first Adam was "made a living soul" that he might communicate natural life to his posterity; the last Adam was "made a quickening spirit" that He might impart spiritual life to all His seed. The soul dwelling in Adam's body gave it life and made him to be a "living soul." The man Christ Jesus being united to the second Person of the Trinity made Him a "quickening spirit", quickening His mystical body, both now and hereafter.

When Christ died His people died, when Christ was quickened His people were quickened "together with" Him (Ephesians 2:5). It is to this union with the life of Christ that Romans 5:17 refers: "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." The abundance of grace is greater than the deficiencies of sin, and the gift of righteousness exceeds that which was lost in Adam. The righteousness of God far surpasses that which they possessed in innocence by the first Adam, for it is the righteousness of Christ, who is God. To this, neither the righteousness of Adam nor of angels can be compared. Those redeemed by Christ are made to "reign in life" to which they had no title in their first parent. Since Christ is King, His people are made "kings" too (Revelation 1:6).In 2nd Corinthians 5:14-15 it is written, "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." The same truth is written in 1st Peter 2:24, "and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us"  (Rom. 8:3, 4).

Here again the purpose of Christ's mission is clearly stated. God sent his Son here in order that (1) the punishment of His people's guilt should be inflicted upon Him. (2) That the righteous requirements of the law-perfect obedience-might be met by Him for us. He obeyed the law for our good.
The purpose of Christ's vicarious life and death was that a perfect righteousness should be wrought out for His people and imputed to them by God. Our righteousness is wholly objective, something outside our self. This is clearly stated in 2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ was "made sin" not inherently, but imputatively, by the guilt of His people being legally transferred to him. In like manner, they are "made the righteousness of God in Him, not "in themselves" but by Christ's righteousness being legally reckoned to their account. Therefore, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes"  (Romans 10:4).

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