What Jesus Did NOT Come to Do

The title isn’t the best grammar; but it gets to the point. What I want us to do is consider the question, “Why did Jesus come to earth?” Or to put it another way, “What did Jesus come to do?”

A lot of people have some really bone-headed notions about Jesus’ mission. One of the ways of clarifying what He came to do is to debunk the faulty understandings of His mission. So let’s look at some of the things Jesus did NOT come to do.

First – and in our “meet-my-needs” culture, this point may seem a bit blunt – Jesus did not come to make unhappy people happy. Instead, He came to make unholy people holy.

Jesus came to take away your sin and put His Holy Spirit in you, so that you could walk in obedience to the will of God. Walking in obedience to God may be very costly and difficult; but, in eternity if not in time, it brings great reward. In fact, happiness can sometimes be the by-product of obedience to God. More importantly, however, holiness means being in an intimate relationship with God, and that is far better than happiness, because it lasts forever.

Second, Jesus did not come to make irreverent people religious. He came to make God’s creations into God’s children.

The point of His mission was not to transform the so-called “religious aspect” of people’s lives. Indeed, as you read the Gospels, it’s clear that Jesus didn’t care that much about religion at all. Far from making people religious, He came to put people into a right relationship with God.

Here’s how that works.

By trusting in Jesus’ finished work, you can be born again and thus become a child of God. Prior to trusting in Jesus, you are just a creation of God; made in His image, to be sure, but lifeless in terms of eternity. By trusting in Jesus, you receive God’s eternal life within you, thus making you God’s eternal child.

This brings us to the last thing Jesus did not come to do.

Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive. The primary focus of Jesus’ mission on earth was not morality, but rather eternity.

Scripture makes it clear that all human beings are dead in their sins. When Jesus came, He took our sins upon Himself, and suffered the punishment and death God requires of sinners. He then rose again from the grave, “because it was not possible for Him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24), so that He could impart His death-breaking life to you. It doesn’t do you any good to strive for moral goodness if you’re spiritually dead. Jesus can make you morally good; but first, He has to make you spiritually alive.

In summary, Jesus’ mission was to make unholy people holy; to make God’s creations into God’s children; and to make dead people alive.

Is He fulfilling His mission in you?