{"id":8550,"date":"2020-08-19T19:23:14","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T19:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8550"},"modified":"2023-11-28T23:18:52","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T23:18:52","slug":"jesus-some-why-nots-of-his-coming-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8550","title":{"rendered":"Jesus\u2014Some \u201cWhy Nots\u201d of His Coming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 1<\/p><p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">[<strong>Note:\u00a0 <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles-1<\/strong>\u00a0 page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">Jesus Himself tells us clearly why He initially came down from Heaven: \u201cFor the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost\u201d (Luke 19:10). At various times He also stated several things that He did <strong>not <\/strong>come to do. These \u201cwhy nots\u201d are as significant as the \u201cwhy\u201d of His First Coming. So, what did He come <strong>not <\/strong>to do? He came <strong>not: <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To destroy the law or the prophets<\/strong>: He came to fulfill them (Mat. 5:17\u201318). <em>Destroy <\/em>is from a very strong Greek word, meaning utter obliteration. However, in fulfilling their types and prophecies (climaxed in His death as the anti-typical atonement for sin), the <strong>authority <\/strong>of the Old Testament was <strong>abolished<\/strong>\u2014<strong>rendered inactive<\/strong>\u2014when Jesus died on the cross (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14; Heb. 1:1\u20132; 9:15\u201317). The Old Testament \u201claw and prophets\u201d were \u201cwritten for our learning\u201d and our \u201cexamples,\u201d deserving our careful study (Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:1\u201311).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To call the righteous to repentance<\/strong>: He came rather to call sinners (Mat. 9:13). Jesus thus responded to His self-righteous critics who asked why he was eating with sinners. That He spent time associating with sinners doesn\u2019t mean Jesus was\/is not concerned about righteous folk, but that His great concern was to save the lost. Unlike many professed disciples and their churches of our day, He came not to satisfy every \u201cfelt need\u201d of either sinners or the \u201crighteous,\u201d but to bring salvation, the greatest need of sinners.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To be ministered to<\/strong>: He came to \u201cminister\u201d (i.e., serve) (Mat. 20:28). He so stated to the apostles as some of them vied for greatest \u201cpositions\u201d in Jesus\u2019 kingdom. Their carnal ambition signaled both their spiritual immaturity and their failure to understand the nature of the kingdom. Jesus taught the great principle that He measures greatness, not by power, but by humble service, as He fully exemplified (John 13:1\u201317; Phi. 2:5\u20139). This principle does not conflict with the necessity of our serving\/obeying Him (John 14:15; Heb. 5:9).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To do His own will<\/strong>: He came to do His Father\u2019s will (John 6:38). His perfect submission to God as both Son of God and Son of man qualified Him to be the perfect sacrificial Lamb Who alone was able to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He displayed unselfish submission to His Father to the ultimate degree: \u201cNot my will, but thine be done\u201d (Luke 22:42). Self-denial\u2014fully submitting our own wills to Him\u2014is the great challenge for all (Luke 9:23).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To establish an earthly kingdom<\/strong>: His kingdom is \u201cnot of this world\u201d (John 18:36), as the Jews then were expecting and as millions now still falsely expect. His kingdom\/church (Mat. 16:18\u201319) is spiritual in nature and has existed since Pentecost when He first added men to it (Acts 2:38\u201347).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To judge the world<\/strong>: He came the first time to save it (John 3:17; 12:47). When He returns, He will come as Judge, with condemnation for those who rejected His Word and with no further opportunity for salvation (John 12:48; Acts 17:30\u201331).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">[<strong>Note: <\/strong>I wrote this article for and it appeared in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX, September 20, 2013.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution: <\/strong>From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 1[Note:\u00a0 This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles-1\u00a0 page.] Jesus Himself tells us clearly why He initially came down from Heaven: \u201cFor the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost\u201d (Luke 19:10). At various&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8550\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Jesus\u2014Some \u201cWhy Nots\u201d of His Coming<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,15,25,38,494,216,311],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deity-of","category-judgment","category-prophecy","category-repentance","category-righteousness","category-serving","category-word-of-god","wpcat-137-id","wpcat-15-id","wpcat-25-id","wpcat-38-id","wpcat-494-id","wpcat-216-id","wpcat-311-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8550"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23434,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8550\/revisions\/23434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}