Why he came 4

“For the Son of man , came to seek and save the lost “-Luke 18 :10 -NIV New International Version

“But go and learn what this means ,I desire mercy and not sacrifice For I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance”--Matthew 9:13  KJV King James Version
“For this reason, whe had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful priest in service to God that he might make atonement for the sins of the people”- Hebrews 2:17 NIV New International Version
 “Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are tested”- Hebrews 2:18 NLT New Living Translation

The third reason we would consider why Jesus came is the fact that Jesus came to redeem man. It was part of God’s redemptive purpose which required that man be restored (1 John 4:10).

Jesus came to redeem us, he came to save us (Matthew 9:13). In his days, Jesus was misinterpreted. He was accused of eating with sinners(Mark 2:17-18) but this company he kept was actually defined by his mission as this were the very people he was sent to.For anyone to work in divine purpose, not all company will be right and we must see this being far beyond physical company.

In this redemptive purpose of God, Jesus came to remove us from just existing to truly living (1 John 5:12).He declared that he had come to give us abundant life(John 10:10).Another part of the redemptive purpose of God was for Jesus to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

The next reason we will consider for his coming is that Jesus came so as to identify with humanity. It was necessary for Jesus to come to earth to identify with us. Right where he was in the heaven, he could not redeem man because the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 talked about the “seed of the woman”. God could not fully identify with man until he became man (1 Timothy 3:16) and as such was able to serve us in the redemptive purpose (Mark 10:45).

In identifying with man, Jesus came to reveal the father to us (John 17:25-26) .He started this with his disciples whom  he could not have related to properly without being human.

If Jesus did not identify with us by being made a human being, he would never have really been able to empathize with us , hence we see that in becoming fully human ,in every way, he is able to be a merciful and faithful priest(Hebrews 2:17).

The fact that Jesus came to identify with us brings a lot of comfort to me and I would like to look at several things that Jesus experienced that we experience today, yet he was without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus knows what it is to have suffered the pain of mockery and insults ( Matthew 27;31&1 Peter 2:23). He is well acquainted with the pain of being misunderstood(John 10:30-33) and misintepreted .Even his family members thought that he was crazy (Mark 3:21).He knows what it is to be betrayed even by close friends (Luke 22:48) and to be left alone or even denied when the chips are down by people who he felt were his best buddies.(Luke 22:54-62).

Jesus has also felt the sting of being despised as his neighbours retorted that he was just a carpenter (Matthew 13:55).While identifying with us, Jesus is fully aware of what it feels like to be forsaken by God ( Matthew 27:46  ) and he knows, O this one has brought me great comfort in the past few weeks, he knows what it is to be falsely accused .Having gone through a season of being falsely accused with many times just lying down on the bed and crying, I have drawn comfort from the fact that Jesus knows what it is to be falsely accused and he can share my pain .

Probably another area we can all identify with is the pain of seemingly unanswered prayers (Matthew 26:39,Luke 22:42). Yes ,Jesus also did not have all his prayers answered as he would have loved them to be. And if we find ourselves grieving, we can also be sure that he understands, having lost even a close friend. We are told he wept. But in all of these, Jesus still did the will of the father and was without sin (Hebrews 4 :15 ) .

Jesus came to redeem man and in doing so, he died in our place. He also came to identify with us, knowing what it is to be human so he can fully help us. We can freely approach him for mercy and grace in our times of need (Hebrews 4:16) He has been there, gone through and nailed it to the cross.

In His Service.

Grace Tom-Lawyer