Christ Jesus did not come into this world to remove barriers that stand in the way of God’s grace flowing forth to fallen mankind, as some people claim. He came to “seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He didn’t come into this world to see if there were any who would seek Him. The apostle Paul told the Romans, "there is none who seeks for God” (Romans 3:11).
Our Lord Jesus Christ is a seeker. This is revealed in the parable of the lost sheep. A strayed dog or a lost horse will usually find its way back home. The opposite is true of sheep. The longer a sheep is separated from the flock it will stray farther and farther away from the flock It the sheep is to be
brought back into the flock some one must go after it. This is what Christ did, and which by His Spirit He is still doing. He goes "after the one which is lost until he finds it” (Luke 15:4). But Christ does more. He seeks, finds, and saves. He does not merely offers to, nor helps to, but He actually saves. Such was the declaration of the angel to Joseph, “you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from there sins” (Matthew 1:21). He will not try to save them, but actually save them.
Christ came here with a definitely defined object in view, and being who He is there is no possible room for any failure in His mission. Before Jesus came into this world God said He shall “see the anguish of His soul, He shall see it and be satisfied” Isaiah 53:11).
As the Mediator Jesus solemnly vowed He would save God’s people from their sins. He actually purchased them with his blood (Acts 20:28). He attained for them a perfect salvation. This is illustrated in Luke 19. When Jesus saw Zacchaeus in the tree he climbed
in order to see Jesus, Jesus told him, “hurry and come down for today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5). When the people complained because Jesus was going “to be a guest of a man who is a sinner,” Jesus told them, “Today salvation has come to this house
because he too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19 9-10).
In His discourse on the good shepherd Jesus said, “he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep...The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly” (Luke 10:1-2, 10). Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (Luke 10:11). In these verses we have the reason why Jesus came into this world. His sheep once possessed "life", in their natural head, Adam. But when he fell, they fell; when he died, they died (1st Corinthians 15:22). But by Christ, through His work, and in Him they obtain not only "life", but "more abundant" life; that is, a "life" which far excels what they lost in their first father, Adam. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote in
his letter to the Corinthians, “it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). The first Adam was "made a living soul" that he might communicate natural life to his posterity; the last Adam was "made a quickening spirit" that He might impart spiritual life to all His seed. The soul dwelling in Adam’s body gave it life and made him to be a "living soul." The man Christ Jesus being united to the second Person of the Trinity, made Him a "quickening spirit", quickening His mystical
body, both now and hereafter.
When Christ died His people died, when Christ was quickened His people were quickened "together with" Him (Ephesians 2:5). It is to this union with the life of Christ that Romans 5:17 refers: "For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." The abundance of grace is greater than the
deficiencies of sin, and the gift of righteousness exceeds that which was lost in Adam. The righteousness of God far surpasses that which they possessed in
innocence by the first Adam, for it is the righteousness of Christ, who is God. To this, neither the righteousness of Adam nor of angels can be compared. Those redeemed by Christ are made to "reign in life" to which they had no title in their first parent. Since Christ is King, His people are made "kings" too (Revelation 1:6).In 2nd Corinthians 5:14-15 it is written, "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” The same truth is written in 1st Peter 2:24, "and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us" (Rom. 8:3,4).
Here again the purpose of Christ’s mission is clearly stated. God sent his Son here in order that (1) the punishment of His peoples guilt should be inflicted upon their head, (2) that the righteous requirements of the law—perfect obedience—might be met by Him for us. He obeyed the law for our good.
The purpose of Christ’s vicarious life and death was that a perfect righteousness should be wrought out for His people and imputed to them by God. Our righteousness is wholly objective, something outside ourself. This is clearly stated in 2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ was "made sin" not inherently, but imputatively, by the guilt of His people being legally
transferred to him. In like manner, they are "made the righteousness of God in Him, not "in themselves" but by Christ’s righteousness being legally reckoned to their account. Therefore, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes"
(Romans 10:4).
