7 Divine Purposes of Jesus: How They Empower You Today
“Why did he come to begin with? What were his goals, and what did he seek to accomplish?”
In the case of Jesus, “the mission defines the man.” Let’s examine his purpose, and as we do, ask yourself if any ordinary person, like you or I, could do what is stated of Christ’s clearly defined and articulated purpose.
Many people want to make a positive difference with their lives, make the world a better place, and leave the world better off than how they found it. These are all noble goals, and many people throughout history have made great contributions. But the purpose Jesus came to fulfill is light years beyond ordinary, positive achievements. For someone to accomplish his articulated goals, that person would have to be extraordinary beyond comprehension, a person like no other who has walked the face of the planet.
No ordinary person would state the things Jesus did about their reason for being on earth. Either the person would have to be truly unique, like no one else who had ever lived, or people would rightly accuse them of being grandiose beyond imagination. Many Bible characters had a divine calling, but no one came remotely close to making the kinds of extravagant claims that Jesus made about his assignment and mission.
Purpose 1: Jesus Came to Reveal The Father
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! (John 14:9)
More than four decades ago, I heard someone say, “If you want to know what God is like—if you want to know what the Father is like—look at Jesus.” Similarly, a statement made in Hebrews 1:3 in various translations is most revealing:
The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God (NLT).
He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature (NASB).
Who, being the outshining of his glory, the true image of his substance (BBE).
This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature (MSG).
Paul writes that “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). This is not simply a matter of Jesus trying to act like the Father. Because they are of the same substance and nature, when Jesus speaks or acts, he speaks the word of God and acts from the very nature of God.
Purpose 2: Jesus Came to Carry Out the Will of the Father
For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will (John 6:38).
Then I said, “Look, I have come to do your will, O God—as is written about me in the Scriptures” (Hebrews 10:7).
It is human nature to be self-focused and self-seeking (see Philippians 1:21), but Jesus was 100 percent submitted to doing and carrying out the will of God. He frequently referred to his commitment to pleasing the Heavenly Father, and even as he was facing death by crucifixion, he prayed “not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42 NIV).
Jesus was so submitted to the will of God that he said, “The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me” (John 14:10). All of Jesus’ actions reflected the Father’s will. He stated, “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work” (John 4:34).There was nothing self-willed or rebellious about Jesus; he was completely in sync with the will of his Father in attitudes, words, and actions.
Purpose 3: Jesus Came to Testify to the Truth
I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth (John 18:37).
Even in Jesus’ day there was skepticism and cynicism about the meaning of truth. When Jesus made the above statement, Pilate dismissively asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). For a person without biblical grounding, there can be a thick “fog” about what truth even is. For many, truth is no longer objectively related to reality. Rather, it is a floating individualistic concept based on personal preferences and perspectives. It is common for people to refer to my truth and your truth.
When Jesus came into the earth, he boldly declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Unlike human theories, philosophies, and speculations that are always changing, actual truth does not change. The psalmist wrote, “All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal” (Psalm 119:160 NIV). Shortly after this, we read, “Your eternal word, O Lord, stands firm in heaven” (Psalm 119:89).
Purpose 4: Jesus Came to Shine as a Light
I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life (John 8:12).
The themes of light and darkness were among the first introduced in Scripture. God’s first recorded utterance was “Let there be light” and then he “separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:3-4). After this, light and darkness are contrasted frequently throughout all of Scripture.
In our modern world, it seems like light is always available to us, so we may fail to appreciate it as we should. But imagine how meaningful and valued light would be to you if you had been lost deep within a cave for days, and had felt the hopelessness of complete, overwhelming darkness. At the very onset of Jesus’ ministry, he cited the prophecy of Isaiah 9:2 and personalized it to the work that he was beginning:
The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined (Matthew 4:16).
Writing from a transcendent perspective of Jesus and his ministry, John wrote, “his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (John 1:4-5). Then, in the Revelation, we learn that Jesus will be that light throughout eternity. Speaking of the heavenly Jerusalem, John writes, “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light” (Revelation 21:23).
Purpose 5: Jesus Came to Fulfill the Law and the Prophets
Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose (Matthew 5:17).
I enjoy the way The Message renders Matthew 5:17-18:
Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.
Jesus came to fulfill, accomplish, and complete all that was initiated and proclaimed under the Old Testament. What does it mean when something is fulfilled? A dream can be fulfilled, a mission can be fulfilled, or requirements can be fulfilled. Jesus did this relative to the entirety of the redemptive history that preceded him.
The assertion that Jesus fulfilled the writings of the prophets is straightforward and easily understood. The prophets spoke extensively about the coming Messiah and what he would accomplish. Jesus fulfilled what the prophets said he would do. His conception by a virgin (see Isaiah 7:14), his humble birth in Bethlehem (see Micah5:2), his miracles and his message (see Isaiah 61:1) were all foretold by the Old Testament prophets.
But what about Jesus fulfilling the law of Moses? First, Jesus fulfilled the law through his sinless life; the law always required a spotless sacrifice. Second, Jesus fulfilled the law by then offering himself as the final sacrifice for human sin. He fulfilled the promises made in the Old Testament that God would someday send a redeemer (see Genesis 3:15) who would bear the iniquities of the people as a substitute (see Isaiah 53:4-6).
The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins (Romans 8:3).
There was nothing wrong with the Law, but there was something wrong with us. The Law of Moses revealed our sinfulness, but Jesus fulfilled the Law perfectly and offered a solution for our sinfulness. Paul was correct when he said that “the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good” (Romans 7:12). However, we couldn’t measure up to the requirements of the Law (even though Jesus did), and therefore, it became an unbearable burden for us relative to acquiring salvation—no one was going to be saved by perfectly keeping the Law.
The Law was not given to make us holy, but to reveal how utterly incapable we are to become holy on our own. Paul teaches this in his letter to the Galatians.
Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. …Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:19, 21-22).
Jesus kept the Law perfectly and offered a solution for our sinfulness. He lived the life we could not live and then went to the cross to pay the price we could not pay on our own. Paul said, “He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us” (Romans 8:4).
At the first great church council in Jerusalem, the issue of Gentiles and the Law was addressed. Some legalists were saying that non-Jews needed to be circumcised and keep the Law to become a true follower of Jesus, but the apostolic leaders resoundingly rejected this notion. Peter declared, “Why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:10-11).
Jesus fulfilled and completed the Law by living a life of perfect obedience and becoming its ultimate sacrifice. He was the crescendo, the apex, and the culmination of the Old Testament; he was its ultimate sacrificial offering. He was the champion who fulfilled all that the Old Testament predicted, promised, and required. Having accomplished all of this, he then became the pioneer and the very foundation of the New Covenant.
Purpose 6: Jesus Came to Bring Liberty and Freedom
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come (Luke 4:18-19).
When Jesus preached that in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, he was quoting from Isaiah 61, just one of many prophetic declarations about what Jesus would accomplish during his life on earth. As you study Jesus’ earthly life in the gospels, his compassion for the hurting and suffering is demonstrated over and over. Peter declared that “you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
Purpose 7: Jesus Came to Seek and to Save the Lost—To Save the World
For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost (Luke 19:10).
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-17 NKJV).
I have come to save the world and not to judge it (John 12:47).
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).
When Jesus came, he was truly on a rescue mission. He did not wait for us to seek for him; he came seeking us. Before we were even born or had ever sinned, Jesus had already worked powerfully and effectively on our behalf. Paul writes that “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). When it comes to our salvation, we should acknowledge that God is the Initiator. We did not seek him, but he sought us. We did not love him, but he loved us. Before we had ever committed a sin, Jesus had already come and died for our forgiveness, acceptance, and salvation. He illustrated his saving mission by talking about a lost sheep that was found (see Luke 15:4-7), a lost coin that was recovered (see Luke 15:8-10), and a wayward son who was restored to his father’s love (see Luke 15:11-32).
