Why Jesus?

God knows the beginning, the middle, and the ending of His creation. He is aware of all things, and He had a plan for salvation that was available for all of us from the very beginning. While we may be caught off guard with changes and life’s circumstances, He is always in control. His plan for salvation involved the need for a Savior in Jesus Christ. The question we may ask is–why Jesus?

If you consider that God successfully created a world and also man and all of mankind, it is inconceivable that He would do all of these things without a plan for His people. His wisdom and knowledge is incomparable to anything that we could ever begin to describe. God knows everything about us–past, present, and future. “There is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered, nothing hidden that won’t be made known” (Luke 12:2). “‘Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him'” (Matthew 6:8). In fact, God knows you better than you know yourself. “Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, Lord. You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me. This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it” (Psalm 139:1-6).

Because He knows all, He established a plan of salvation through Jesus Christ even before the world was created. “He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the times for you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:20-21). Jesus was chosen to be Savior before Adam was created, because He knew about mankind. He knew the sinfulness of man and created everyone with free will; as a result, there was a plan in place for mankind to have the need for a Savior. Even then, Jesus was obedient to the Father, and waited for the opportunity, in the fullness of time, to complete His mission.

Man’s free will is tested. “‘Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout their generations they are to make tassels for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on the tassel at each corner. These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the Lord’s commands and obey them and not become unfaithful by following your own heart and your own eyes'” (Numbers 15:38-39). It is tested by man’s desire to choose to do the right things according to God’s will as opposed to fulfilling one’s own desires. “But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord” (Joshua 24:9).

God already knew those who would be saved, and He knew this before the world was created. It’s no great mystery to Him–it is more of a mystery to us. “(God) has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (2 Timothy 1:9). “…for He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6). God was creating within each of us a reason and purpose to fulfill His will through Jesus Christ, which was to be holy and blameless before Adam’s fall in sin. Jesus Christ will present the church as holy and blameless before God, for our sins, through salvation, are covered by grace. Remember that Adam and Eve had the need to cover themselves when they broke fellowship with God (Genesis 3:8)? Jesus restores us through salvation to have fellowship with God as if there was no sin.

Jesus calls us to a life of holiness, which is a life that is well beyond what this world has to offer. God wants us to live a life of holiness in order to live an abundant life. He does not want us to settle for less. He wants us to live in His grace and according to His purpose. He enables us to live in holiness with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. He had all of this in mind about you even before the world began. “Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began” (Titus 1:1-2).

With living in God’s truth and through the Holy Spirit, we can avoid living our life off the top of our heads. Keep in mind that God never lies and has kept each and every one of His promises. In order for His principles and His promises to have been fulfilled, He must be in control of the events and places that have occurred all throughout history, and yet God’s commands have remained the same.

Adam was the son of God, and Jesus was the Son of God. We have to choose how we are going to live our lives. One is an earthly way of living, and the other way is the heavenly way.

Adam received life from God (Luke 3:38), but Jesus became, for us, the bread of life (Luke 4:4; John 6:48).

The First Adam

• Adam was made in the image of the invisible God.
• He was made from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7)
• In Adam all died
• Adam knew sin
• Adam was the first living being

The Second Adam (Jesus Christ)

• He IS the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15)
• He is the very nature of God (Philippians 2:6)
• In Christ, all things are made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22)
• Jesus knew no sin (1 Peter 2:22)
• He is the living spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44-49)

Salvation through Jesus Christ means eternal life when trusting in Him as Lord and Savior. God did want to leave us only with only the nature of Adam to navigate through life, for we can only progress so far with his nature. He wanted each of us to have a spiritual body (the Holy Spirit) to dwell within us, for our normal bodies are dying daily; yet, the Spirit renews us daily with life because of our trust and faith in Him. Even though we project the image of the earthly man, we are to live according to the Spirit when we live for Jesus Christ.

Why Jesus? Because it is God’s will and plan for each of us to live in the image of Him, who sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and not of him who is of the world. He wants us to live holy and blameless and be a testimony to others while doing so.