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A
Prayer |
I thank thee,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things
from the wise |
The Mission
Why did he come? What is the purpose of the Lord's mission? He stated his purpose several times, and our aim here is to examine them so as to more fully understand why he came. All of them are listed in context here. I. The Statements of Purpose Jn.3:16 For God thus agape-loved the world: so that he gave his uniquely-begotten son, so that everyone believing in him not perish but be having eternal zoe-life. 17 For God did not send his son into the world that he judge the world, but that the world be saved through him. Lk.4:18 [The] spirit of the Lord [is] upon meLk.4:20 And having rolled up the scroll [and] having returned it to the assistant he sat, and all eyes in the synagogue were looking intently on him. 21 So he began to be speaking to them that: Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears. Lk.4:42 Now when day came to pass, having gone out he went to [a] wilderness place, and the crowds were seeking him, and they came to him, and were hindering him so as not to go from them. 43 But he said to them that: Also to the other cities must I preach the kingdom of God, for on this was I sent. 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Jn.6:35 Jesus said to them: I am the bread of zoe-life All that the father gives me will come to me, and the [one] coming to me I will ; the [one] coming to me will not hunger, and the [one] believing in me will not thirst ever. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and do not believe. 37 All that the father gives me will come to me, and the [one] coming to me I will not cast out. 38 For I am come down from heaven not in order that I do my will, but the will of the [one] having sent me. 39 This is the will of the [one] having sent me, that of all he has given me I not lose [any] of it, but raise it up in the last day. 40 For this is the will of my father, that everyone beholding the son and believing in him have zoe-life eternal, and I will raise him up in the last day. Lk.12:49 I came to throw fire on the earth, and what I wish if already kindled. 50 But I have [a] baptism to be baptized, and how I am distressed until it be completed. 51 You suppose that I came to give peace to the earth? No, I say to you, but rather division. 52 For it will be from now on five in one house divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her bride and bride against mother-in-law. Jn.9:35 Jesus heard that they threw him out, and having found him he said: Do you believe in the son of man? 36 That [one] answered and said: And who is he, Lord, that I believe in him? 37 Jesus said to him: You have seen him and the [one] speaking with you is that [one]. 38 So he said: I believe, Lord, and he worshipped him. 39 And Jesus said: For judgment did I come into the world, in order that those not seeing may see, and those seeing may become blind. Jn.10:7 So Jesus said again, Truly truly I say to you that I am the gate of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep have not heard them. 9 I am the gate. If anyone enter through me, he will be saved, and he will come in and will go out and will find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except in order that he steal and slaughter and destroy ; I came in order that they have zoe-life and have [it] exceedingly.
Lk.19:8 But having stood, Zacharias said to the Lord: Behold half of my possessions, Lord, I give to the poor, and if I accuse something of anyone wrongly, I return fourfold. 9 But Jesus said to him that: Today has deliverance come to this house, although he is [a] son of Abraham. 10 For the son of man came to seek and to deliver the perished. Jn.12:44 But Jesus cried out and said: The [one] believing in me does not believe in me but [rather] in the [one] having sent me, 45 and the [one] beholding me beholds the [one] having sent me. 46 I am light come into the world, in order that everyone believing in me not abide in darkness. 47 And if anyone hear my words and not guard [them], I do not judge him, for I came not in order that I judge the world, but in order that I save the world. Jn.18:37 Pilate therefore said to him: So are you [a] king? Jesus answered: You say that I am king. I am born for this and am come into the world for this, in order that I witness to the truth. All those being from the truth hear my voice. That Do you know of other such statements that I have overlooked? Email me, please. II. The Statements of Purpose Extracted and Condensed -- He Came: 1. That the world be saved (Jn.3:17) 2. To fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1,2 (Luke 4:18-20) 3. To preach the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43) 4. To call sinners to repentance (Mt. 9:13, Mk. 2:17, Lk 5:32) 5. To do the will of the Father (Jn.6:38-40) 6. To throw fire on the earth (Lk.12:49) 7: To give division on the earth (Lk.12:51) 8. For judgment, in order that those not seeing may see, those seeing may become blind (Jn.9:39) 9. That they have zoe-life and have it exceedingly (Jn.10:10) 10. To serve (Mt.20:28, Mk.10:45) 11. To give his psyche-life a ransom for many (Mt.20:28, Mk.10:45) 12. To seek and deliver the perished (Lk.19:10) 13. To save the world (Jn.12:47) 14. To be a witness to the Truth (Jn.18:37) Now we proceed to combine these where they are essentially the same, so as to work towards a single statement of purpose that will include the all -- that is, the most fundamental and basic statement of the purpose of his coming. Nos. 1, 12 and 13 are essentially the same. 1. That the world be saved (Jn.3:17) 12. To seek and deliver the perished (Lk.19:10) The equivalence of No. 12 is seen in the Light of John 3:16, 17) 13. To save the world (Jn.12:47) He came, therefore, to save the world (Jn.3:17)(Jn.12:47)(Lk.19:10). We combine these three statements into #1. Also, No. 9, To serve (Mt.20:28, Mk.10:45), does not represent a statement of basic purpose. It was stated in a context in which he gives himself as an example to the disciples that are thinking in terms of being served rather than serving. We can therefore remove it. Nos. 6 & 7 are from a statement given in response to a rhetorical question. The prophets waxed eloquent with the promise of peace on the earth in connection with the advent of the Messiah . For example, Isaiah 9:5-7, 11:6-9 and Ezekiel 34:23-31. But the Lord knew it was not to be, and so he asked them, "Do you think that I came to send peace on the earth?" So this response does not speak of the purpose of his coming, but of a result of his coming that would be contrary to what they might have expected. Therefore, we can remove these also. By a similar reckoning, we can eliminate No. 9 from the list above. We do this by comparison with the statement of John 3:16, 17, that reads as follows: For God thus agape-loved the world: so that he gave his uniquely-begotten son, so that everyone believing in him not perish but be having eternal zoe-life. For God did not send his son into the world that he judge the world, but that the world be saved through him. In context, it is clear that receiving eternal zoe-life through believing is equivalent to saving the perishing of the world, and so we remove No. 9 from the above list and combine it with No. 1. Now we examine the second of the stated purposes: 2. To fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1,2 (Luke 4:18-20) As stated, this cannot be the basic statement for, if he only came to fulfill prophecy, to what end? Simply to fulfill prophecy? No, but the purpose(s) is/are indicated in the details of the prophecy. These are important to bring forth but, due to the indirect manner of statement, I set this aside for the moment with the promise to return to it later, after resolving the others. This leaves a new list of only seven statements. 1. He came,
therefore, to save the world (Jn.3:17)(Jn.12:47)(Lk.19:10)(Jn.10:10).
2. To preach the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43) 3. To call sinners to repentance (Mt. 9:13, Mk. 2:17, Lk 5:32) 4. To do the will of the Father (Jn.6:38-40) 5. For judgment, in order that those not seeing may see, those seeing may become blind (Jn.9:39) 6. To give his psyche-life a ransom for many (Mt.20:28, Mk.10:45) 7. To be a witness to the Truth (Jn.18:37) The procedure from this point, to expedite this process, is to select what I have learned is the basic and fundamental purpose for his coming into the world, than show how the remainder are derivities. III. The Basic Statement of Purpose The Lord did not come on his own initiative. The Father sent him and he stated this very concisely: Jn.7:28 So Jesus cried out in the temple teaching and saying: You know me and you know from where I am, and I have not come from myself, but the [one] having sent me is true, whom you do not know. 29 I know him, because I am from him and that [one] sent me. Jn5:36 But I have [a] witness greater than John; for the works that the father has given me in order that I complete them, these works themselves which I do witness concerning me that the father has sent me. 37 And the father having sent me, that [one] has witnessed concerning me. Then we have this statement: Jn.6:38 For I am come down from heaven not in order that I do my will, but the will of the [one] having sent me. His basic purpose in coming into the world must, therefore, be to fulfill the purpose for sending him of the Father who sent him. As he stated in Jn.6:38, he did not come to do his own will but that of the one sending him. This is No. 4 in the above summary list. 4. To do the will of
the Father (Jn.6:38-40)
Taking this, for the present, as the basic statement of the Father's purpose in sending him, and therefore of his purpose in coming, we need to do two more things: define the will of the Father that sent him and show that the other statements in the above list are secondary statement of the purpose, which means secondary statements of the Father's will. There is a paper here defining the will of the Father, which I now summarize: That it is the will of a father is our first key. This father is a spiritual father that loves his children but the children, in love with the world where they abide in the flesh, do not care for this father. Instead, they find their identities through the earthly, carnal fathers that begot them according to the flesh. The spiritual father knows that this bond of the flesh must be broken before the children of the flesh will be free to seek only the spiritual parent. Until then, his children are both lost and dead to him. This spiritual father is the Father in heaven and his one will (desire) for his children is that they learn to love him and, out of that love, to desire to put the flesh and the life of the world away from them and arise to him. These children of the flesh are not wholly carnal. They have a vacuum within their hearts that can only be filled to their satisfaction by the Father in heaven. In their ignorance they have devised many gods and religions and plans of salvation to meet what is the need of their inmost natures while remaining bound to the flesh, the life in the world and the world itself. All were accommodated to the darkness of this world and feared the prospect of leaving it, not knowing what might follow. The sole will of the Father therefore is that all the potential children in the world desire to leave the world and come to Him. He has no goals or purposes for the world, except that it provide. through natural processes, individuals that will be candidates for his Glory in heaven. This is the will of the Father that is continually done in heaven -- his desire for his children to come home -- but which had not been shared by anyone on the earth. The Father's will, therefore, is for that will to be done on earth as it is in heaven by individuals that learn to love him and truly desire from the heart to rise to him, abandoning all carnal, earthly or worldly attachments and identifications. When that begins to take place, his will is done on the earth as it is in heaven according to the petition of the Lord's Prayer. Humans who are candidates for the divine childhood are bound to their natural habitat and driven by their inner vacuum of the Spirit to seek to fill it in terms of the things of the flesh and the world. They are totally ignorant of his sole desire for them and even believe the darkness is light. The Father's will can never be done on earth until they learn the Truth -- the absolute Truth -- of the grand destiny their creator has ordained for them, and then freely choose, our of their own hearts desires (love for the Father) like the Prodigal Son in his "far country," to rise and go to their Father. But we must choose to go! It is for this reason he has created the world, that whoever will may choose to go to him from the world, and be in his Glory not because they have to be there, but only because they have chosen to be there. Humans had no way of knowing this will of the Father as the centuries passed. The Father began the process of informing them by first selecting a people that, as a people, were to be bearers of this knowledge. From among these he chose certain ones, called prophets, to whom he began slowly to reveal his will. Centuries passed, however, and no one accurately defined his will and so no one was doing his will on the earth as it is in heaven. Finally, as a last and final effort, he begot a son and sent him, his only begotten, into the world to teach men what he wanted. It would not be enough simply to teach them, however, for his will so far from human conception as to render them blind, utterly blind, to the Truth. Therefore, it was also necessary for this Teacher, this only begotten one, to illustrate by his personal example, in a most public and dramatic manner, the meaning of the Father's will and to become an example by being the first person on the earth to do the Father's will, on earth, as it is in heaven. Jesus of Nazareth became that person, charged by the Father with the supreme responsibility for making the Father's will fully known on the earth. He did this by making and teaching disciples and exemplifying the Father's will by being the first man to perform it on the earth as it is in heaven when he submitted to the terrible death of crucifixion. He made the message and meaning of the Father's will unmistakable when he rose up from the tomb and at last ascended in their sight to his Father. Before ascending, he charged them with the same responsibility the Father had laid upon him: to teach and to manifest the will of the Father on the earth as their Teacher had done in their sight. It is by their faithfulness and their sometimes example that the Truth continues to be preserved and displayed before men in the canonical gospels and nowhere else. This Truth is summarized concisely in all four of the canonical gospels, and we have gathered them for comparison in this web page, titled The Great Principle. He came, therefore, as stated by No. 4 above: 4. To do the will of the Father (Jn.6:38-40) If we have chosen well in selecting this to be the basic purpose of his mission to the earth, we will find that all the other statements of purpose are secondary to this. IV. The Secondary Statements of Purpose These statements are listed above, and reproduced here for your convenience, omitting what we have selected as basic. Then we will test each one individually. 1. He came,
therefore, to save the world (Jn.3:17)(Jn.12:47)(Lk.19:10)(Jn.10:10).
No. 1, To save the world (Jn.3:17)(Jn.12:47)(Lk.19:10)(Jn.10:10)2. To preach the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43) 3. To call sinners to repentance (Mt. 9:13, Mk. 2:17, Lk 5:32) 4. 5. For judgment, in order that those not seeing may see, those seeing may become blind (Jn.9:39) 6. To give his psyche-life a ransom for many (Mt.20:28, Mk.10:45) 7. To be a witness to the Truth (Jn.18:37) If His Mission was as I have indicated above, we can understand that the world was wholly lost because not a single person had loved the Father so as to desire from the heart to rise to Him. Only when individuals begin to fulfill his purpose for creating the world could the entire enterprise be redeemed. The world was lost, and he came to save it by teaching and doing the Father's will on earth. This purpose is secondary to the aim of doing the Father's will on the earth as it is in heaven, and expresses the result of having done the Father's will on the earth as it is in heaven.. No. 2, To preach the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43) Every kingdom exists and endures while it responds to the rule of the king to the end that his will be served in the realm. Is it not obvious that a king does not rule where his will is not done? Therefore Jesus preached the good news (gospel) of the kingdom, which was that the kingdom of God was soon to come on the earth. The two ideas -- the coming of the kingdom and the doing of the will of the Father, the king, are at the top of the Lord's Prayer! There is little difference in the ranking of this and No.4, but it is evident that the kingdom of God has not come until his will has been done on the earth. Therefore the doing of the will of the Father remains primary and basic. For this reason we can say that the first one to do the will of the Father on the earth also established his kingdom on the earth coincident with the same event, his yielding up his life on the cross. No. 3, To call sinners to repentance (Mt. 9:13, Mk. 2:17, Lk 5:32) Human beings have, in general, understood that sin is the transgression of the law of God. Moses delivered the Law, they believe, and to transgress the law of Moses, the Decalogue in particular, is to sin. We find this definition specifically laid down in 1 John 3:4 as rendered in the KJV. Now that we know and understand the will of God the Father, we understand that sin is much deeper than that. Transgressing the law is usually a sin, but that does not suffice to define sin in its most basic and primary form, which is to transgress the will of the Father and that will is succinctly stated in the Great Principle. It is the love of life in this world that is the primary sin; all others proceed from that. The will of the Father is that one hate life in the world and desire only to go to Him, and while one continue to love life in this world, one is committing the most fundamental of sins, for one's entire life is sin. In calling sinners to repentance, the Lord Jesus is calling us to repent of the love of life in this world so as to do the Father's will on the earth as he himself did it. This statement of the purpose of his mission is therefore secondary. It is the condition sinners must meet if they are to do the Father's will on the earth as it is in heaven. No. 5, For judgment, in order that those not seeing may see, those seeing may become blind (Jn.9:39) The context in John 9 is the healing, on the Sabbath, of the man born blind by rubbing clay mud in his eyes he had prepared by means of spittle, The Lord prefaced this miracle by saying that he is the Light of the world while he is in the world. The man born blind, now seeing, believed in him. Pharisees became involved because the Lord had performed this work on the Sabbath and they questioned the man born blind about the identity of Jesus. He said he was a prophet. The Pharisees immediately cast him out (of the synagogue) and Jesus, learning of it, found the man and affirmed his faith in him as being from God. There were Pharisees lurking about, listening, and they heard him say, Jn.9:39 And Jesus said: For judgment did I come into the world, in order that those not seeing may see, and those seeing may become blind. 40 Those of the Pharisees being with him heard these [things], and said to him, Are we also blind? 41 Jesus said to them: If you were blind, you were not having sin. But now you say: We see. Your sin abides. There is a subtle interplay of meaning between physical and spiritual sight and physical and spiritual blindness. The man born physically blind, by becoming sighted, saw not only the light of this world but also the spiritual Light that was him who is the Light of the world. For him it was a double healing of a double blindness. The Pharisees, physically sighted but spiritually blind, believed also that they were spiritually sighted. This statement of purpose expresses a result of his mission and not its purpose. He did not come to judge the world, and was not judging them -- they were nevertheless occupying the ground of those that would be judged at the Last Day because they said, "We see," while being spiritually blind. No. 6: To give his psyche-life a ransom for many (Mt.20:28, Mk.10:45) When the Father sent the Lord to the earth, Satan exercised all authority over the nations of the world, even all men. We conceive of the view from heaven prior to sending his son to redeem men from the world. Those few that would become children of the Father were in bondage to Satan, to darkness, and to death. Their deliverance required that the Son of God come into the world and yield up his psyche-life to the agents of Satan, thereby leading those willing ones in bondage back home to the Father. His crucifixion therefore served as a ransom paid to Satan for the rescue of the children of the Father. It was a trap for Satan, by which he was overcome in the process of collecting his ransom and lost all of his authority. There is an extended discussion of this process in this chapter of our book, Jesus: the Rock of Offense. The only desire (will) of the Father is to have his lost children come home. That he paid a price to that end is therefore secondary to his will. No. 7: To be a witness to the Truth (Jn.18:37) Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea and Jerusalem, was doubtless irritated by the Jews because they had brought Jesus before him so early in the morning. He sensed that the Lord was no threat to Rome, but pursued this issue by asking the Lord if he were a king, and therefore a threat to Roman authority. The Lord's response to Pilate was to say that he came into the world to be a witness to the Truth and only those being of the Truth hear his voice. This final response was tailored to present Pilate with the suggestion that he be among those that "hear my voice." Pilate then asked, "What is Truth" but did not wait to hear his voice. Instead, he went out and offered the Jews the choice of releasing either Jesus or Barabbas. When they chose Barabbas, the governor reluctantly delivered Jesus to be crucified. Yes, he came into the world to be a witness to the Truth in every way, and in particular by means of his dying so as to lead those that are of the Truth to the Father, which is the Father's will. This statement of purpose was uttered to apply to the specific circumstance and is therefore secondary to the purpose earlier stated, that he came to do the Father's will. V. He came also to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1,2 (Luke 4:18-20) Recall that I included this purpose in the first and comprehensive listing above, and promised to come back to it later. This is the prophecy as presented by the Lord: Lk.4:18 [The] spirit of the Lord [is] upon me Because of which he has anointed me to preach to the poor He has sent me to heal the crushed, To proclaim pardon to the captives and sight to the blind, To send away the oppressed in pardon, 19 To proclaim [the] welcome year of the Lord. Here is a litany of purposes! All relate to vs. 19, To proclaim [the] welcome year of the Lord. The Greek rendered as welcome here has an alternative rendering as indicated by the FNT footnote, which is acceptable. Other renditions put favorable here. It is a direct reference to Isaiah 61:1,2 that, in turn, refers to the year of Jubilee (and perhaps also to the seventh sabbatical year, when most slaves were set free according to their desires (Leviticus 25:10, 39-55). All of these purposes are secondary to doing the will of the Father, for they represent consequences of his work on earth, not the ultimate reason for his coming. Yes, he preached good news to the poor, healed the afflicted, proclaimed release, or pardon to captives (Jn. 8:31-32), and gives sight to the blind (see above). This is the announcement of a an eternal, spiritual Jubilee for the sons of God! His mission would have been wonderful if this were all he came and did but doing only these things would not have led the children of God back to the Father. Therefore, none of these purposes are basic, nor is the entire prophecy taken as a unit. Why He Did Not Come Coincident with stating why he came or was sent into the world, he also stated why he did not come! Here we extract these statements and list them, then follow with a brief comment on each. He did not come: 1. To judge the world (Jn.3:17)(Jn.12:47) 2. To call the just (righteous) to repentance (Mt. 9:13, Mk. 2:17, Lk 5:32) 3. To do my will (Jn.6:38-40) 4. To bring peace on the earth (Lk.12:51) 5. To be served (Mt.20:28, Mk.10:42) No.1 - He did not come to judge the world (Jn.3:17)(Jn.12:47). It was out of love for the world that the Father sent the son into the world (Jn.3:16); therefore he did not send him to judge -- condemn -- anyone. The promise at the time, and even now, is that all that believe in him should not perish. This is the time for rescuing the perishing in consequence of his first appearance in the world. Those that have not believed will be judged on the last day. His coming was for judgment, but not to judge. Jn.12:7 And if anyone hear my words and not guard [them], I do not judge him, for I came not in order that I judge the world, but in order that I save the world. 48 The [one] setting me aside and not receiving my words has [one] judging him: the word that I spoke—that will judge him in the last day. No.2 - He did not come to call the just to repentance (Mt. 9:13, Mk. 2:17, Lk 5:32). These are the righteous in the sight of the Lord, and they have no need for repentance. The unjust are the sinners, and these included the Pharisees to whom this was addressed. They trusted in their sacrifices as rendering them just and thought of the tax collectors and others as sinners. Therefore the Lord included them in the category of sinners, explaining that the Father desires mercy and not sacrifice. No. 3 - He did not come to do his will (Jn.6:38-40). He entered into his mission by declaring whose will he came to perform -- the primary statement of the purpose of his mission, and he left the world saying: Lk.22:41 And he withdrew from them [about] [a] stone's throw and having knelled he was praying, 42 saying: Father, if you intend [it], take this cup from me, nevertheless let not my will but yours come to pass. No.4 - He did not come to bring peace on the earth (Lk.12:51). He did not come to purge the earth of war or to do anything that would impose change on the world. Therefore he did not and does not pray for the world, nor should we utter prayers of like nature, such as a prayer for world peace that he has specifically not imposed on the world. Jn.17:9 I ask concerning them, not concerning the world do I ask, but concerning whom you have given me, because they are yours . . .. It is not that the Lord does not desire peace for all men; it is that men in general love life in the world and will fight either to glorify that life or to defend it. It is rather stupid to pray for what is not to be. When men pray for peace on earth, they expose their ignorance of the Word and their love of life in the world. No. 5 - He did not come to be served (Mt.20:28, Mk.10:45). The sons of Zebedee petitioned the Lord to give them the chief places of authority in his kingdom, on the right and left hands of the king! The other ten apostles were very indignant when they heard of this request by James and John, for they also hoped to have appointments to high office in the kingdom. The further significance of this request comes from understanding that, at this point, the twelve all expected the Lord, as Messiah, to reinstate the reign of David over Israel and rule from Jerusalem. This was a notion they would not have dispelled until they had witnessed the resurrection and ascension and had come to understand that the kingdom of God was not of this world. If they were to hold high office in the age to come, it must be by following the example of their Lord. He did not come to rule on the earth from a Jerusalem throne. He teaches instead that the humble in this world are blessed, for they will rule in the eternal kingdom from heaven. There appears to be a maxim at work, such that that the more meek and submissive one is in the world, the higher the office to be occupied in the next! Therefore the Lord came to be a servant and not to be served. This is the prime teaching of the foot washing at the Last Supper. Conclusion The Lord's mission is/was to do the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven. Jn.6:38 For I am come down from heaven not in order that I do my will, but the will of the [one] having sent me. 39 This is the will of the [one] having sent me, that of all he has given me I not lose [any] of it, but raise it up in the last day. 40 For this is the will of my father, that everyone beholding the son and believing in him have zoe-life eternal, and I will raise him up in the last day. Now that we have an assured knowledge of the prime purpose of the mission of the Lord, we also know why the Lord leaves believers here rather than calling us home as soon as we are begotten from above: Jn.20:21 Jesus therefore said to them again: Peace to you. Just as the father sent me, I also send you. |