Why did God send Jesus Christ?
There are countless opinions about Jesus Christ and what Christianity ought to look like, but what does the Bible say?
From the time the Lord said, “I will build my church” (Mt. 16:18), it was evident that the God who does not change had a vision. The implementation of that vision to establish an assembly Jesus would build (Ps 127:1) was then begun by the apostles and prophets from the day the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost (Acts 2).
Ephesians 2:19-21 – Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
The goal was a “dwelling place of God in the Spirit” and this was to be a magnificent thing as the apostle Paul said contrasting the Old Testament Jewish paradigm to Christ’s kingdom represented by His body, the church.
2 Cor 3:7-8 – But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
In building Christ’s assembly, it is clear the apostles had a specific goal in mind, and that was twofold: 1) That the individual members take on the Spirit of Jesus Christ and emulate Him in character and sensibility, being “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29). And 2) that the entire assembly become a corollary of Jesus as His “body,” (1 Cor 12:27), His “bride,” and thus that Christ is formed in them as an assembly, as Paul indicated in Galatians:
Gal 4:19 – My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,
Guided by the Holy Spirit, Paul said he was in travail, as a woman in labor awaiting Christ formed in them!
John the Baptist also indicated Jesus was the “bridegroom.”
Jn 3:29,29 – 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice.
The church is to be the holy bride of Christ, and more than in mere doctrinal statements, but in spirit and in truth. God gave his people “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet 1:3) that His bride make herself ready with a walk that matches the talk.
Rev 19:7 – Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Capping off the certainty that God had one thing in mind when He sent Jesus, and set the apostles on their course is Paul uttered curses to anyone who contravened this dictate.
Gal 1:8,9 – But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
Yes, the God who is “love” also said through Paul that anyone who taught differently than what they knew from the beginning should be accursed from God.
How is this love? Because truth brings life, and falsehood brings failure and even death and God standing also for justice, is a guardian of life. Beyond that, it is not man’s Gospel or man’s church, but rather God’s church, and it is about His will, not to be tampered with, but agreed to and followed.
To the glory of God
The church that Jesus would build has a multifold agenda and purpose. Some say it is “all about love,” some emphasize “God’s glory,” some emphasize saving souls and the great commission, some emphasize restoring order out of chaos; obedience out of rebellion.
Actually all of these and more are true – in the sprit of their meaning as God understands them, and not necessarily as the minds of subjective, emotional people may presume. The Almighty God works His eternal purpose with all in mind. It is all about life, His will, and His will is good beyond imagination.
Luke 18:19 – So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
Only God is good, and while people may emphasize the benefits that God affords them, and His great love, His highest motive (itself wrought in love) is to restore all things, for His great name’s sake.
The prophetic messianic passage in Ezekiel 36 that foretells the New Covenant says so. It speaks of God’s giving the Christians a new heart, and putting His Spirit in them, and writing His laws on their hearts, but it begins and ends on a note that this is all about God.
Eze 36:22,23 – “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. 23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.
Of course the goal was life, and the salvation of as many as could see this vision and get in line, and as noted, God said He would in effect give us what we needed to perform His will.
Eze 36:26-28 – I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
But lest anyone should think man was the center of attention, He caps off this prophetic passage as it had begun: The church and the promises given to it are about the holy God who had been disobeyed, and spurned by those to whom He had given life.
Eze 36:32 – 32 Not for your sake do I do this,” says the Lord God, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel!”
Earmarks of God’s sheep
God’s first and only intent is a people who see His vision, and want to get on board.
To them, He promises many things. To count them all would require many more words, but included is He promises they may know His will by both the written word He left, and an inner guidance called “His voice” (Jn 10).
He promises them many blessings – and there is promise of persecution (2 Tim 3:12). The goal is to make a showcase people for His great name’s sake. These people who are dead to their own soul’s desires (Jn 12:24-26) would be characterized by a love not of this world, a godly love.
Jn 13:34,35 – A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
That love would be a testimony far above the work of “apologetics” or in-your-face confrontation and evangelistic endeavors done in the wisdom and efforts of people not guided by the Spirit of Jesus, but who may assume they are doing God’s work.
By their “fruits you will know them,” said Jesus, meaning those truly doing what God put them up to do would bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22,23), and their works would stand the test of fire (1 Cor 3:13); their fruit would remain (Jn 15:16).
This same Holy Spirit is a uniting Spirit, and that would be the other earmark of a people in true obedience and holding fast to the Head (Col 2:19).
Jn 17:20-23 – “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
Jesus prayed that they all be one. Paul also reinforced this prime dictate that would be a proof to the world that God had sent Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 1:10 – 10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
He repeats this thought in other ways in his writings, and the takeaway point is a work of God would see an overriding and unifying spirit such that the people would not be pulling in all directions.
To presume that it’s OK to have a multitude of contrary understandings is like the chaos theory, hoping that order comes out of disorder. The first Christians however knew only the apostles’ doctrine (Acts 2:42), and Jesus’ true sheep know His voice, do not follow a stranger (Jn 10).
God does not contradict Himself, and His highest desire is each local body be united by the true Spirit of God to the praise of His glory.
Obedient
Jesus said “if you love me you will keep My commandments,” and what are some of the commandments not being kept that lead to divisiveness and chaos permitted by misguided people in the name of God?
It is a commandment to walk according to the Holy Spirit. Paul said 1) the whole world would be judged by the gospel of Christ as he preached it, and 2) commandments given by him in his epistles are given are to be taken as the commandments of Jesus Christ.
Rom 2:16 – 16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
1 Cor 14:37,38 – If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. 38 But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.
The central command of Paul, thus Christ, is that His people walk according to the Spirit. That means they need to major on this. They need to research it, inquire, pray, and have God open their eyes to it lest they presume and not do.
Gal 5:16,17 – I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
This is a command of Christ and it is imperative that all follow it who name the name of Christ.
Life depends on it! It is vital that the new creation be in control, and the old creation remain inoperative, and only by the Spirit can this be done.
Rom 8:5-7 – For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:13 – For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
But again, while there is always a message in the gospel about what we as individuals have to gain or lose, our motivation is to be in the love of Christ (2 Cor 5:14), by the Spirit, and it is not about us.
It’s about life
God came to provide “abundant life” as He defines it, and a people of a testimony and witness that would be an outpost of heaven on earth.
Deut 11:18-21 – “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
To Israel He gave this as a promise, and the ultimate promise is fulfilled to the Body of Christ when the words of God can be written on your heart.
With the coming of the Messiah, and His Spirit, these things are possible to a degree that the Old Testament Israelites never could achieve. God’s commands were their schoolmaster to bring them to their Messiah (Gal 3:24).
The question today is who really sees this and wants it? If an almighty God is in back of all these things, what is stopping them from happening?
Answer: Nothing but the will of humans without a heart for God’s things above their own, or a vision.
So, while much more could be said, this is a glimpse. It is all possible for those who believe and act on it as God enables you to do so. The question is, will you?
God is calling all who will hear Him.
Lord bless you.
