Why did Jesus come as a Man? Why did Jesus die on the cross?
Who did Jesus die for?
Not meant to be a trick question, but it requires a Kingdom perspective, not a modern Church perspective, to get it right. It’s been kinda lost in the last 100 years or so.
John 4:34 “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work’
Hebrews 10:5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
Isaiah 53:10 – “It pleased the LORD to crush Him”; Acts 2:23
John 10:17–18 “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again… This charge I have received from my Father.”
Again and again through Christ’s ministry, He said “I do not do anything of my own, I only do what the Father tells me. I only say what the Father tells me.”
Who ‘sent’ His Son? The Father.
Why did the Son come, because His Father sent Him.
Who do you think the Son prioritizes above all else? The Father.
Who’s plan is unfolding throughout history? The Father’s.
Why did Jesus come and die? In obedience He came to fulfill the Father’s plan.
John 3:16:
One of the things that has serve to create this over emphasis on us, is a wrong reading of John 3:16:
…so loved… is not the sense of ‘so much’ but, ‘in this way.’
A.E. Knock, scholar and translator says of this word ‘so’:
‘The word “so” really calls attention to the manner rather than the measure, yet, in this connection it has become blurred, and is always taken as an adverb of size, hence it should be replaced by a clearer expression.’
We incorrectly use it in an intensifier sense, rather than a descriptive sense.
Not magnitude but manner, or ‘in this way.’
But the enemy loves to get us just 1% off. If they present some radical leap from truth, we see it easily, so what they do, is to get our thinking, our perspective just 1 degree off, and after 20 years, we are a long way from what the Bible meant with a proper reading. Traditions of men change the way a human reads a thing.
Don’t you love the words of this song:
Above all by Michael W. Smith
Above all powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began
Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There’s no way to measure what You’re worth
[Chorus]
Crucified, laid behind a stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone
Like a rose, trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me
Above all
Wait, what? No! ‘…thought of me, Above all…’
No, that is not proper theology. It was God the Father, that Jesus thought of, above all.
Really, really it was, it was not us.
Conservative, Evangelical Bible scholars, say ‘that is a completely alien concept of Scripture.’
Many modern Christians today will say something like “Oh, that’s too intense, God wants us to have a happy life too!”
Sadly, this attitude is not what Jesus or the apostles carried.
But, we reinforce wrong beliefs by wrong interpretations of Scripture and modern songs.
Just 1 degree off…20 years later, we are far from where we ought to be in our thinking, and usually, our life too.
Oh, how wonderful that we are the beneficiaries of Jesus Christ obedience to the Father, and He pai d for our sin.
It is so wonderful, that we cannot even now truly understand it, but the moment we die and see Him face-to-face, we will realise fully.
So, as we come to the Lord’s Table today, let’s consider the truth, that as Jesus was firstly obedient to the Father’s will.
He is soooo precious, and He was murdered by His own creation?
No! I am never again, going dwell on how He loves me sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much, that I might somehow be soooooooooooo worthy to have Him die. I am not, You are not.
Yet, the wonderful benefit to us, is being saved from our sin.