Why Did Jesus Come?

The question often comes up: why did Jesus come to the earth to be among us? Jesus left His throne and position beside the Father because of love. He gave up, or more accurately, set aside His deity as a member of the all-powerful triune Godhead and chose to be born as one of us, a frail human made from the dust of the earth.

The Father sent Him with a mission to accomplish. There are four core components that comprised His time here on earth once He reached the appointed time to begin His ministry.

He had a message, a purpose, a directive, and an assignment.

Matthew 4:17 records His message;

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Repent means to make a decision that results in a change of mind, which leads to a change of purpose and action. Our soul must come to repentance by the convicting of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8). Look to John 16:7-11 for the complete passage;

⁷ Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. ⁸ And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ⁹ of sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰ of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; ¹¹ of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

The purpose of Jesus was to redeem man (Galatians 3:13,14; Galatians 4:4,5; and Titus 2:14). In the beginning, God the Father gave Man, through Adam, complete authority and dominion over all that He had created. Adam disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that brought a curse upon all of mankind.

A man who was without sin committed treason against God and sinned. The action cursed all future generations of Man. Blood had to be spilled, and death was the punishment for that crime. But to satisfy the requirements, a man without sin had to die. Jesus alone would be the one to fulfill that requirement.

The directive of Jesus was to do the will of the Father. John 5:30 states of Jesus;

³⁰ I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

John 6:38-40 gives this information;

³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. ³⁹ This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. ⁴⁰ And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Jesus came and conducted His life in complete obedience to the Father. He only spoke what He heard the Father say, and He only did what He saw the Father do. Every fiber of His being was bent to do the Father’s will, not His own.

His assignment here on Earth was to restore what Adam had lost at the beginning of creation. Adam was to rule over everything that God had made, but he lost that when he sinned. Adam gave that authority to Satan when he committed treason.

When God created Man, this was said in Genesis 1:26-28;

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Jesus came to the earth to overthrow the illegal landlord and take back all that had been lost. He was guiltless when He was crucified so at the trial of heaven; the Father found Him not guilty and called His spirit out of the pit. At that moment Jesus took the keys of authority back from Satan and also redeemed Man from the curse of hell and death.

We who have accepted this gift of life by recognizing what Jesus did for us are now free. We are free because Jesus fulfilled His mission here on earth. Before Jesus departed to return to the Father, He gave us a commission. There are two parts to it. One is found in Matthew 28: 18-20 and the other is found in Mark 16:15-18.

Look these passages up. Read them out loud to yourself; meditate on them. Jesus has given every individual believer this assignment. Go do what He has commanded us to do!

Rejoice, for you are greatly loved!