Why Jesus Had to Come to Earth

In his book Follow Me, David Platt tells that he was once sitting with a group of Muslim men at dinner who began to ask him what he thought about God.  When he began to tell them about Jesus and how He came to earth as one of us, one of the men, Raahil, stopped him and said, “That is not true. God would never do that. His character is too great.”

Platt replied, “I agree that God’s character is great, and that is precisely why he came to earth as a man. Let me tell you a story and then ask you a question. The story is about me and a girl. I loved this girl and I wanted to marry her. So, when it came time for me to tell her how much I loved her and to ask her to marry me, do you think that I sent one of my friends to relay the message for me?”

“No, of course not,” replied Raahil. “You need to be the one to tell her.”

“Exactly,” responded David. “I needed to go to her and tell her myself, because in matters of love, one must go himself, right?”

“Yes, that is right,” said Raahil.

Then David replied, “This is how God shows the greatness of His character toward us. He has not ultimately sent this person or that prophet…to communicate His love. Instead, He has come Himself, because in matters of love, one must go himself.”[1] [end quote]

Only Jesus lived a perfect life on this earth, so only He was qualified to die in our place. He came to pay a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay. Because He did this for us, we can find His forgiveness. Settle it with Him today.

[1] David Platt, Follow Me (Tyndale, 2009), 40-41.