Jesus: Example or Sacrifice?

Some people believe that Jesus came to be our example of how to live a good life. To be sure, Jesus is our example of righteousness. We are to grow up into His nature and become like Him. But that isn't the reason Jesus came - Jesus came to die for us, to redeem us. His purpose was to be the sacrificial, substitutionary, all sufficient atonement. If Jesus didn't come for this reason, why did Jesus die? what purpose would His death have if not forgiveness?

Jesus could have spared His own life. His power to calm raging sea, to heal and deliver, is evidence of His ability to summon the forces of heaven on His behalf. His quick thinking and speaking in outwitting the scribes and Pharisees are evidence that He could have argued His case favorably before Pilate.

If Jesus had insisted on His natural human will in the matter, He could have walked away from Gethsemane, walked away from Jerusalem, and walked away from the cross long before His arrest in the garden - but instead He submitted His will to that of His heavenly Father, saying, "Not as I will, but as you will" (Matt. 26:39)

Again, in the New Testament we are confronted with the message. Christ died for us. Jesus Christ came so that you and I might transfer our guilt to Him, and accept, by faith, that He is the quiltless One who has received our sin and taken it to Himself.

If you are looking for an answer and asking for forgiveness on the basis of your pleas, promises, and performance, you will remain in sin and guilt. But once you have received the life of Christ, it is no longer natural for you to sin. Your nature now is to walk in close relationship with God. Thats part of what it means to be a "new creation" in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.