4 Things Jesus Didn’t Come to Do

That Jesus Christ was a man who walked the earth some two thousand years ago is a well-established fact, affirmed even by secular historians. The significant question is not “Did He exist?” but “Who was He, and what did He do?”

History has produced all kinds of mistaken answers to these questions. Some are bizarre, some are blasphemous, and some continue to be a temptation as God’s people seek to understand and explain who Jesus is.

Jesus Himself told us what He came to do—and what He didn’t. Among His explanations of who He is are at least four negative statements explaining reasons He did not come. In the midst of a climate that wants to make all kinds of claims about Jesus and His mission, it’s worthwhile to know what He said His purpose wasn’t so we can rightly understand—and be transformed by—what it was.

Christ Did Not Come to Abolish the Law

We can begin by noting that according to His own words, Jesus did not come in revolt against the law of Moses. He says in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets.”

Jesus was firm that the Old Testament Scriptures were and remained true. To be a biblical Christian is to be a whole-Bible Christian.

There can be little doubt that Jesus was revolutionary in His impact—but to try and explain His coming in terms of some revolutionary objective is to miss the point altogether. Many people, following an antiestablishment trend, want to dress Jesus up as a kind of first-century Che Guevara, overthrowing the old ways. “But,” Jesus said essentially to the Jews of His day in the Sermon on the Mount, “if you want to try and explain My life and ministry away in terms of revolution or abolition, it cannot be done.”

Jesus did confront the rigmaroles of the Pharisees, but that was with respect to their disobedience: “For the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God” (Matt. 15:6). Yet Jesus was firm that the Old Testament Scriptures were and remained true. To be a biblical Christian is to be a whole-Bible Christian. 

Christ Did Not Come for the Religious Establishment

At the same time, we can say with certainty that Jesus did not come to join or to prop up the religious establishment of His day. If there was one thing that infuriated the religious leaders about Jesus of Nazareth, it was simply this: Instead of gracing them with His presence, He seemed to go out of His way to hang with the “wrong” crowd. In response to their protests, He told them, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:13).

The religious establishment in our world today is still annoyed by Jesus of Nazareth, because Jesus actually believes the things He said. Therefore, He is an embarrassment in churches that do not believe the things He said. Jesus was and is an embarrassment to those who believe that the reason He came was in order to call good people, kind people, happy people, fulfilled people, religious people into His little domain so that they could all have a lovely little holy huddle together.

It’s a problem, too, for those who think they’re okay without Him. The notion has swept North America and is increasingly sweeping Western culture that it is imperative to be say to everyone, “Listen: You’re okay just the way you are.” A generation of children is growing up with that as their constant refrain. But—without being cruel or dehumanizing in any way—we must affirm that Jesus did not come to call those who are “okay.” He came to call those who know they’re not alright—the strays, the beggars, the duds.

Those who believe themselves to be righteous, to be spiritually safe without Jesus Christ, have no part in Jesus Christ at all. To the individual who has it buttoned-down, and they’re all fine in every way, the message of Jesus falls on deaf ears. But those who know they’re sick may find the message of healing in Christ. Those who know they’re dead may be made alive in Christ. Those who know they’re held in the grip of some habit may be set free by Jesus Christ. The youngster who is looking out on life, and it all seems bland and pale and ineffectual, may find reality and peace and purpose in Jesus Christ.

Christ Did Not Come to Build an Empire

Next, we must acknowledge that Jesus Christ did not come to build a worldly empire. In contrast to the rulers of the gentiles, who “lord it over” others (Matt. 20:25; Mark 10:42), Jesus says, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45).

The corridors of power today, as in Jesus’ day, are filled with people who believe that greatness is determined by how many others they control. At Melos, the besieging Athenian army told the Melians, “The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.” That notion of power still pervades the thinking of many. But Jesus reverses the established ideas of greatness and rank by coming not to take but to give. Greatness in His kingdom is not to be discovered in reducing others to our service but in reducing ourselves to others’ service.

John the apostle had prompted this statement from Jesus when he and his brother asked for powerful positions of authority in Jesus’ kingdom (Mark 10:35–37). John had been thinking in a worldly way. But by the time he wrote his first epistle, he understood it right: “He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16).

Christ Did Not Come to Judge… Yet

Finally, we can find comfort in the fact that at His first coming, Jesus Christ did not come to judge. He says, “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (John 12:47).

Some have decided that in the incarnation, Jesus Christ came as though on a great white horse with a double-edged sword, and He just went around smacking people into oblivion. But although Jesus possessed perfect knowledge of sin and righteousness and what is in human hearts (John 2:24–25), He clarified that His aim was not to condemn but to offer the gift of new life.

The purpose of Jesus’ coming was not to bring down a hammer of judgment on the world but to offer salvation.

There is something paradoxical in this, because by His very coming, Jesus introduces judgment to the world. When men and women reject Christ, they judge themselves. And Jesus understood that, saying, “Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).

Judgment is thus a consequence of Jesus’ coming. And Jesus will judge the world when He comes again (Acts 10:42; 17:3). Yet the purpose of Jesus’ coming was not to bring down a hammer of judgment on the world but to offer salvation. And the tenor of God’s people ought to be consistent: “Jesus came to save. Believe in Him and be saved!”

Christ Came to Save

Why did Jesus come? In His own words He tells us, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). He didn’t come to throw out the law, nor to prop up the religious have-it-alls, nor to lord it over others, nor to judge. He came to turn people from their sin and to Himself, and so to save them.

Whatever purposes men and women want to lay on His back, we need to understand Jesus as He has revealed himself to be. He is not the Revolutionary, not the Religious Man, not the Empire Builder, and not yet the Judge. He is, as both the Samaritan converts in John 4 and the apostle John himself both came to realize, “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14).

This article was adapted from the sermon “Why Did Christ Come? — Part One” by Alistair Begg.