Why Jesus came !

1. APPENDIX I: APPENDIX I:
WHY JESUS CAME!
The Christian Church has been long divided, often with dire
results, over why Jesus became man. The question is often
referred to under the term, the “atonement” (at-one-ment).
Unfortunately,
(1) no church is exempt from deep divisions caused by different
answers to our question;
(2) every church, most every theologian, has viewed the
atonement in terms of why Jesus died1239 without going back
further and asking why Jesus became man;1240 and
(3) without asking first, why Jesus came, conventional theories of
the atonement seem irreconcilable.
Fortunately, in asking first the question why Jesus came, we are
better able to see the big picture of why Jesus died. In doing so,
we find the ability to join together the key ingredients of the
hitherto irreconcilable theories of the atonement.

2. PRIMARY REASON FOR THE INCARNATION
The answer to our question is best illuminated within the Great
Controversy Theme. Only when we understand the issues in the
Controversy will we understand why Jesus became man. All the
accusations of Satan against God are essentially answered in our
Lord’s incarnation. In fact, that is the primary reason Jesus became
man—to answer Satan’s charges that God was unfair to make laws
that created intelligences could not keep or, if they tried, would live
a dreary, suffocating life without personal freedom and without the
opportunity to reach one’s full potential. In proving Satan wrong and
God right, Jesus also showed, contrary to Satan’s lie to Eve
(Genesis 3:4) that sinners won’t die, that sin ends in death—the
awfulness of being separated from God and life forever.
Before we let the Great Controversy Theme shed light on our
question, it would be helpful to review the four general answers
that theologians have given to our question. Although each theory
centers on the Cross, each differs as to what the Cross-event
means—chiefly because they did not step back far enough to ask,
“Why did Jesus come in the first place?”
• The “ransom” theory. (Sinners belong to Satan but God
paid the price for their redemption through the death of
Jesus. Satan accepted the “ransom,” Jesus for sinners, but
Satan could not hold Jesus in the grave. Jesus proved
victorious over Satan, the hope of all Christians.)
• The “satisfaction” theory. (Most notably argued by
Anselm, sin was considered a dishonor to God but Jesus on
the Cross “satisfied” this dishonor. Protestant Reformers
added a twist when they emphasized that Jesus paid the
price [the penalty] incurred when sinners broke God’s law,
thus Jesus “satisfied” justice—a thoroughly objective event

3. as far as sinners are concerned. The concept of
“substitution” is thus linked to the “satisfaction” theory.)
• The so-called “moral influence” theory. (Abelard, 1079–
1142, responded to Anselm by noting that the New
Testament emphasized the enormous impact that the Cross
makes on the believer—something happens in believers
when they contemplate the death of Jesus. They are led to
repent and their lives are transformed.)
• The “family” theory. (Probably set forth best by McLeod
Campbell (1800–1872), the atonement was viewed from the
standpoint of the family relationship, between God as
Father and sinners as children and how this earthly dynamic
can help us to understand the love of God for his earthly
children.)
All these theories are saying something important, but by
themselves they are incomplete and thus force an incomplete
picture of why Jesus came and why He died. I think the best way
to answer our question is to review how Ellen White unfolded the
big picture as she understood the question within the framework of
the Great Controversy Theme [note that some of the following
references combine several categories]:1241
• Jesus came to vindicate the character of God before
the universe.
“The plan of salvation had a yet broader and deeper purpose than
the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came to
the earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world
might regard the law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to

4. vindicate the character of God before the universe.” —Patriarchs
and Prophets, 68.
• Jesus came to represent the Father and reveal His
character and love for us.
“Satan led men to conceive of God as a being whose chief
attribute in stern justice-one who is a severe judge, a harsh
exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as a being who is
watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of
men, that He may visit judgment upon them. It was to remove this
dark shadow by revealing to the world the infinite love of God, that
Jesus came to live among men. The Son of God came from
heaven to make manifest the Father.” — Steps to Christ, 11.
“No verbal description could reveal God to the world. Through a
life of purity, a life of perfect trust and submission to the will of
God, a life of humiliation such as even the highest seraph in
heaven would have shrunk from, God Himself must be revealed
to humanity. In order to do this, our Saviour clothed His divinity
with humanity. He employed the human faculties, for only by
adopting these could He be comprehended by humanity. Only
humanity could reach humanity. He lived out the character of God
through the body which God had prepared for Him. He blessed
the world by living out in human flesh the life of God, thus
showing that He had the power to unite humanity to divinity” —
Manuscript Releases, vol. 9,126
• Jesus came to restore the image of God in man.
“He came, not to break down the moral power of men, but to
restore it. He came to break the power of oppression. His work
was to release those who were in bondage to Satan. Those who
say, I am a child of God, and yet do work which will grieve and
oppress, executing cruel actions against their fellow men, are not
following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, but are followers of

5. another leader. They develop the attributes of Satan, and make it
manifest that they are participators and co-workers with him to
bind, imprison, and condemn, to cause all the suffering possible
to body and mind, because they cannot compel men to be untrue
to God and dishonor His work and transgress His holy law.” —
Manuscript Releases, vol. 14, 93; Signs of the Times, Dec. 22,
1887.
“Jesus came to our world to dispute the authority of Satan, who
claimed supremacy over the earth. He came to restore in man the
defaced image of God, to impart to the repentant soul divine
power by which he might be raised from corruption and
degradation, and be elevated and ennobled and made fit for
companionship with the angels of heaven, to take the position in
the courts of God which Satan and his angels lost through their
rebellion.” —Review and Herald, May 8, 1894.
“Jesus came to restore in man the image of his Maker. None but
Christ can fashion anew the character that has been ruined by
sin. He came to expel the demons that had controlled the will.” —
Faith to Live By, 142.
• Jesus came to bear the penalty for our sins.
“Jesus came to bear the penalty of man’s transgression, to uphold
and vindicate the immutability of the law of God, and the rectitude
of His government. He came to make an end of sin, and to bring
in everlasting righteousness. He can lift sinners from their low
estate, and in so doing magnify the law of Jehovah. These
thoughts make me almost forget my pain.” —Manuscript
Releases, vol. 8, 45.
“Christ came to die because not a precept of His Father’s law
could be altered to excuse man in his fallen condition. As this
picture was presented before Moses, again an expression of grief

6. and sadness came over his countenance.” —Manuscript
Releases, vol. 10, 57.
• Jesus came to be both our Savior and Example.
“This lamentable condition would have known no change or hope
if Jesus had not come down to our world to be man’s Savior and
Example.
In the midst of a world’s moral degradation, he stands a beautiful
and spotless character, the one model for man’s imitation. We
must study, and copy, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ; then we
shall bring the loveliness of his character into our own life, and
weave his beauty into our daily words and actions. Thus we shall
stand before God with acceptance, and win back by conflict with
the principalities of darkness, the power of self-control, and the
love of God that Adam lost in the fall. Through Christ we may
possess the spirit of love and obedience to the commands of
God. Through his merits it may be restored in our fallen natures;
and when the Judgment shall sit and the books be opened, we
may be the recipients of God’s approval.” —Signs of the Times,
Dec. 22, 1887.
“Our characters must reach the standard of holiness. Every
thought and habit must be brought into harmony with the will of
God. Jesus came to our world to be our Saviour and example,
and it is in his name alone, that we may gain the victory over
perverted nature. He overcame in man’s behalf, and through his
grace we may become ‘partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.’” —Signs
of the Times, Feb. 17, 1888.
“But sin has almost obliterated the moral image of God in man.
Jesus came down to our world that He might give man a living
example, that he might know how to live and how to keep the way
of the Lord. He was the image of the Father. His beautiful and

7. spotless character is before man as an example for him to imitate.
We must study the copy and follow Jesus Christ, then we shall
bring His loveliness and beauty into our character. In doing this
we are standing before God through faith, winning back by conflict
with the powers of darkness the power of self-control, the love of
God that Adam lost. We are through Jesus Christ living and
keeping the laws of God.” —Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, 33. “The
young may have moral power, for Jesus came into the world that
He might be our example and give to all youth and those of every
age divine help.” —Child Guidance, 167.
“As we see the condition of mankind today, the question arises in
the minds of some, ‘Is man by nature totally and wholly
depraved?’ Is he hopelessly ruined? No, he is not. The Lord
Jesus left the royal courts and, taking our human nature, lived
such a life as everyone may live in humanity, through following
His example. We may perfect a life in this world [which] is an
example of righteousness, and overcome as Christ has given us
an example in His life, revealing that humanity may conquer as
He, the great Pattern, [conquered]. Men have sold themselves to
the enemy of all righteousness. Christ came to our world to live
the example humanity must live, if they [are to] secure the
heavenly reward. … Theories that do not recognize the
atonement that has been made for sin, and the work that the Holy
Spirit is to do in the hearts of human beings, are powerless to
save. Christ lived the unpolluted life in this world to reveal to
human beings the power of His grace that will be given to every
soul that will accept Him as his Saviour. Man’s pride would lead
him to seek for salvation in some other way than that pointed out
in the Scriptures.” —Manuscript Releases, vol. 9, 239.

8. • Jesus came to give His church a legacy.
“Jesus came to the world, lived a holy life, and died, to leave to
the church His legacy in the valuable treasures He entrusted to
them. He made His disciples the depositaries of most precious
doctrines, to be placed in the hands of His church unmixed with
the errors and traditions of men. He revealed Himself to them as
the light of the world, the Sun of righteousness. And He promised
them the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father was to send
in His name” —Signs of the Times, Nov. 16, 1891
.
• Jesus came to bring us back to harmony with God.
“Joshua represents those who are seeking God and keeping his
commandments. … The infinite sufferings of the Son of God in
Gethsemane and on Calvary were endured that he might rescue
his people from the power of the evil one. … It is through Christ’s
righteousness alone that we are enabled to keep the law. Those
who worship God in sincerity and truth, and afflict their souls
before him as in the great day of atonement, will wash their robes
of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. …
Those who have manifested true repentance for sin, and by living
faith in Christ are obedient to God’s commandments, will have
their names retained in the book of life, and they will be confessed
before the Father and before the holy angels. … Christ came to
our world and died a shameful death because the precepts of the
law could not be changed. … He died to bring us into harmony
with the law of Heaven.” —Signs of the Times, June 2, 1890.

9. • Jesus came to impart the Holy Spirit so that we could
learn how to love.
“Jesus came to impart to the human soul the Holy Spirit by which
the love of God is shed abroad in the heart; but it is impossible to
endow men with the Holy Spirit, who are set in their ideas, whose
doctrines are all stereotyped and unchangeable, who are walking
after the traditions and commandments of men as were the Jews
in the time of Christ.” — Manuscript Releases, vol. 5, 52.
• Jesus came to teach us how to live.
“Christ came to bring divine power to unite with human effort, so
that although we have been debased by perverted appetite, we
may take courage, for we are prisoners of hope. … Everyone that
is in harmony with Christ will bear the Christ-like mold. … He
came to our world to show us how to live a pure, holy life, and I
have purposed in my heart that He shall not have lived and died
in vain for me.” —Signs of the Times, August 4, 1890.
“The great Teacher came into our world not only to atone for sin,
but to be a teacher both by precept and example. He came to
show man how to keep the law in humanity, so that man might
have no excuse for following his own defective judgment. We see
Christ’s obedience. His life was without sin. His lifelong obedience
is a reproach to disobedient humanity.” —Selected Messages,
vol. 3, 135, 136.
• Jesus came to give us divine power to live overcoming
lives.
“Jesus came to our world to bring divine power to man, that
through his grace, we might be transformed into His
likeness.” —Signs of the Times, June 16, 1890.

10. “Not until the life of Christ becomes a vitalizing power in our lives
can we resist the temptations that assail us from within and from
without. Christ came to this world and lived the law of God, that
man might have perfect mastery over the natural inclinations
which corrupt the soul. The Physician of soul and body, He gives
victory over warring lusts. He has provided every facility, that man
may possess completeness of character.” —Ministry of Healing,
130, 131.
• Jesus came to break the power of Satan.
“Jesus has not changed; He is the same yesterday, today, and
forever, and He still loves and pities the erring, seeking to draw
them to Himself, that He may give them divine aid. He knows that
a demon power is struggling in every soul, striving for the
mastery; but Jesus came to break the power of Satan and to set
the captives free.” —My Life Today, 300.
“Christ came to cut us loose from the originator of sin. He came to
give us a mastery over the power of the destroyer, and to save us
from the sting of the serpent. Through his imparted righteousness
he would place all human beings where they will be on vantage
ground. He came to this earth and lived the law of God that man
might stand in his God given manhood, having complete mastery
over his natural inclination to self-indulgence and to the selfish
ideas and principles which tarnish the soul. The Physician of soul
and body, he will give wisdom and complete victory over warring
lusts. He will provide every facility, that man may perfect a
completeness of character in every respect.”—Manuscript
Releases, vol. 7, 320.

11. • Jesus came to be our Surety and Substitute so that we
can be obedient.
“The Son of God, the sinless One, the One perfect in obedience,
becomes the channel through which the lost communion may be
renewed, the way through which the lost paradise may be
regained. Through Christ, man’s substitute and surety, man may
keep the commandments of God. He may return to his allegiance,
and God will accept him.” —Manuscript Releases, vol. 19, 352.
• Jesus came to break down every wall of exclusion.
“Jesus came to demolish every wall of exclusion, to throw open
every wall in the temple where God presides, that every ear may
hear, that every eye may see, that every thirsty soul may drink of
the water of life freely.”—Our High Calling, 245.
• Jesus came to impart His righteousness.
“He assumed human nature, and was tempted in all points like
man is tempted, that we might know how to meet the foe. He
waits to impart to each member of the human family power to
become a partaker of the divine nature, power to overcome the
corruption that is in the world through lust. [John 3:14–18,
quoted.]” —Manuscript Releases, vol. 17, 83.
“He lived the law of God, and honored it in a world of
transgression, revealing to the worlds unfallen, to the heavenly
universe, to Satan, and to all the fallen sons and daughters of
Adam that through His grace humanity can keep the law of God!
He came to impart His own divine nature, His own image, to the
repentant, believing soul.” —Manuscript Releases, vol. 8, 40.

12. • Jesus became man so that He could truly sympathize
and assistus in overcoming sin.
“Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is
acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every
son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the
friend of sinners.” — The Desire of Ages, 241.
“Jesus came to the world as a human being, that He might
become acquainted with human beings, and come close to them
in their need. He was born a babe in Bethlehem. He grew up as
other children grow. And from youth to manhood, during the
whole of His earthly life, He was assailed by Satan’s fiercest
temptations.” —Bible Echo, September 3, 1900.
“Jesus came from heaven to earth, assumed man’s nature, and
was tempted in all points like as we are that he might know how to
succor those who should be tempted. Christ’s life is for our
example. He shows in his willing obedience, how man may keep
the law of God, and that transgression of the law, and not
obedience of it, brings him into bondage.” —Signs of the Times,
August 1, 1878.
• Jesus came to prove Satan a liar regarding the
possibility of obedience.
“In heaven Satan had declared that the sin of Adam revealed that
human beings could not keep the law of God, and he sought to
carry the universe with him in this belief. Satan’s words appeared
to be true, but Christ came to unmask the deceiver. He came that
through trial and dispute of the claims of Satan in the great
conflict, He might demonstrate that a ransom had been found.
The Majesty of heaven would undertake the cause of man, and
with the same facilities that man may obtain, stand the test and
proving of God, as man must stand it. Christ came to the earth,

13. taking humanity and standing as man’s representative, to show in
the controversy with Satan that he was a liar, and that man, as
God created him, connected with the Father and the Son, could
obey every requirement of God. Speaking through His servant He
declares, ‘His commandments are not grievous.’ It was sin that
separated man from his God, and it is sin that maintains this
separation.” —Manuscript Releases, vol. 6, 115.
“Satan had claimed that it was impossible for man to obey God’s
commandments; and in our own strength it is true that we can not
obey them. But Christ came in the form of humanity, and by His
perfect obedience He proved that humanity and divinity combined
can obey every one of God’s precepts.” —Christ’s Object
Lessons, 314.
“Satan has declared that man cannot keep the law. I [Christ] will
show that his statement is false, that man can keep the law. I
have come to remove deception from the minds of men, to make
plain that which Satan is trying to make obscure. I have come to
establish the law that Satan is seeking to make void, to show how
far-reaching are the principles of this law. I have come to strip
from it the burdensome exactions with which man has loaded it
down. I have come to show its length and breadth, its dignity and
nobility. I will open before men the purity and spirituality of God’s
commandments. Not to introduce a new law have I come, but to
establish the law which to all eternity will be the standard of
obedience.” —Manuscript Releases, vol. 18, 133.

14. • Jesus came to put man on vantage ground revealing
the attributes of God.
“Christ came to this earth and suffered the sorrows,
disappointments, and griefs of humanity, that man might stand on
vantage ground before angels and before men, revealing to the
world the attributes of God. Let us put self out of sight, and think
more of Christ. People are longing to hear of the Saviour from
those who have learned of Him His meekness and His lowliness,
and who can therefore speak words of sincere experience. Such
ones inspire faith and confidence. They show no coarseness of
speech, no carelessness of attitude; for they realize that they are
representatives of Christ” —Manuscript Releases, vol. 18, 97.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Nowhere in theological literature will one find such a wide grasp of
“why Jesus came.” But these reasons are not like pearls on a
string, to be studied independently of the other reasons. Each of
them flows out of the purpose of the gospel—to restore in man
the image of his Maker. The “everlasting gospel” is really the story
of why Jesus became man and why He died. He came not only to
offer forgiveness to a lost world, He came to give every sinner
moral power to repent of and to turn from his sins, power to keep
him or her from sinning so that they are ultimately safe to save.
God and the angels will not and cannot permit rebels back into
heaven. That attitude will be worked out of each sinner who is
saved (within the time they had to live) before he or she dies or
before earth’s final probation is closed. That is why Jesus came—
not to save His people in their sins but from their sins (Matthew
1:21). He is both our all-atoning Sacrifice and our all-powerful
Mediator, our Savior and Example, our Teacher and Mentor. To
Him be honor and glory forever!
1239 See “Appendix I: Why Jesus Died.”

15. 1240 Anselm (1033–1109) may have come the closest with
his attempt to answer Cur Deus Homo (Why a God-man?).
1241 These references in this appendix are abstracted from
a longer study paper prepared by the author.The categories,
or reasons for His coming, here listed are:
1) Jesus came to vindicate the character of God before the
universe;
2) Jesus came to represent the Father and reveal His
character and love for us;
3) Jesus came to restore the image of God in man.
4) Jesus came to be both our Savior and Example;
5) Jesus came to give His church a legacy;
6) Jesus came to bring us back to harmony with God;
7) Jesus came to impart the Holy Spirit so that we could learn
how to love;
8) Jesus came to teach us how to live;
9) Jesus came to give us divine power to live overcoming
lives;
10) Jesus came to break the power of Satan;
11) Jesus came to break down every wall of exclusion;
12) Jesus came to impart His righteousness;
13) Jesus came to bear the penalty of our sins;

16. 14) Jesus became man so that He could truly sympathize and
assist us overcoming sin;
15) Jesus came to be our Surety and Substitute so that we
can be obedient;
16) Jesus came to prove Satan a liar regarding the possibility
of obedience;
17) Jesus came to put man on vantage ground through whom
the attributes of God could be revealed.