Five Reasons Jesus Came (Week 03)

To perfectly live out what Human existence was intended to be.

     Contrary to popular opinion, we are not here as a result of random chance, unplanned mutations, and unpredictable change. We are here by the intent and purpose of God Almighty. And yes, He has an intention for the human life. He created Adam and Eve perfectly. They were literally clothed in the felicitous glory of God. They had His presence and needed nothing. They were perfect. After their fall, however, the human heart was immediately and innately wicked, there was no good thing in us, and the luster of God’s beauty was marred by selfishness and sin. However, God’s standard for the human life remain unchanged. In order to “climb His holy hill,” we had to be utterly perfect (Ps. 24). This was (and still is) clearly an impossibility for fallen and depraved humanity. While none of this caught God off guard and this all played into His perfect plan of redemptive grace and majesty, He chose to construct an entire nation built around His perfect laws of life and holiness. We now know this as the Israelite history. One needs only read through the books of Genesis and Exodus to see God’s design and desire for this peculiar group of nationless people (Deu. 14:2). 

     However, as we plod through the Old Testament, we quickly see this “special people,” being especially rebellious and unreasonably unfaithful to God’s holy design. This is because the entire law of Moses was designed by God to show man’s complete inability to live up to God’s standard of perfection. In other words, humanity was damned because of our powerlessness to perform what God demanded. Yet, the Old Testament is not as gloomy as it is often painted to be. Throughout it shines the light of hope: Messiah! Time after time God promises a perfect King, Prophet, Judge, and Savior. And surely, if we look closely at the life of Jesus, we can see that He is the fulfillment of this promise. Jesus “did no sin, neither was guile (manipulative and selfish behavior and speech) found in His mouth (1 Pt. 2:22).” Only God could live up to God’s standards. So, He came Himself and performed the requirements of God for holiness, perfectly. God created an impossible standard, in order to show that He alone could be our means of salvation and reunification with Him. 

     James calls God’s standard of holiness, “the perfect law of liberty (Jam. 1:25).” Jesus Christ fulfilled the perfect law of liberty, perfectly. And our only means of salvation is found in His life being infused into us, through faith. Christianity is not based on our merit or ability to conform to rules of holiness. It is about a complete yieldedness and surrender to the power of God’s most precious Son’s life within us. It is no accident that Jesus said, “If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Mt. 16:24).” Jesus came to be what humanity was created to be: complete surrender to the power of God. Jesus said of Himself, “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things (Jn. 8:28).” Thus, why should we, mere humans, try to obtain or curry God’s favor through our own efforts. Jesus has done it all. He invites us to die, that He might live through us. Henry Scougle said, “Perfect love [...] is a kind of voluntary death, wherein the lover dies to himself, and all his own interests, not thinging of them, nor caring for them any more, and minding nothing but how he may please and gratify the party he whom he loves...” If we truly love God, then our sole response must be hiding ourselves in the perfections of Jesus Christ and become yielded to His absolute hold upon us. Our love must become a death to self and a life to Christ. 

     Jesus is called the “Second Adam,” because He is literally the rebirth of humanity as God intended it. We can take hold of this immaculate promise, if only we die to our sinful selfishness and open ourselves to the infilling of the presence of the Perfect One. He alone could obtain God’s favor, so He did it alone! Thus, will we let Him do, in our lives, what He came to do? Or will we continue in our human insufficiency?! Let it be the former!