Why Was Jesus Born? The True Reason God Sent His Son

The One through whom the stars were made (John 1:3) was wrapped in cloth and laid in a feeding trough as a newborn (Luke 2:7). Anyone who stops to look at that scene can find a question rising on its own: why was Jesus born, and why like this? Carols, lights and school plays retell the story every December, and the reason behind it can get less attention than the shepherds and the star.

Why Was Jesus Born? The Answer the Angel Gave on the First Christmas

Quick Answer: Jesus was born to save his people from their sins, because God loved the world and sent his Son to rescue it. The rescue needed a real man to carry it, so the Son came through a birth.

“Unto You Is Born a Saviour”

The first announcement of Jesus’s birth went to shepherds on night duty in a field near Bethlehem (Luke 2:8). The angel’s announcement came with a title for the child: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

The angel could have named a teacher, a miracle worker or a king. The title he gave the child was Saviour. A saviour only makes sense where something needs saving, so the very first Christmas message points to people who need rescuing.

Read also: Lessons From Luke 2

The Name Is the Reason

Joseph heard the same answer in a dream. The angel told him about Mary’s son: “thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The reason sits inside the name. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “the LORD saves.”

Matthew adds a second name taken from Isaiah: “they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Jesus saves, and he comes to be with us. Matthew closes his Gospel with what many read as an echo of that promise, with Jesus saying, “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

Why Jesus Was Born, in His Own Words

Jesus spoke about why he came more than once. He is the best witness the question has, and what he said lines up with the angel’s announcement.

To Seek and Save the Lost

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He said it at the house of Zacchaeus, a tax collector. Jesus had invited himself to stay there (Luke 19:5), and the crowd murmured that he had gone to be the guest of a sinner (Luke 19:7). His sentence about seeking and saving was his answer to that scene.

Elsewhere he put the same purpose in these words: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). Seeking and saving describes what Jesus does. Calling to repentance describes what he asks of the person he finds, which is to turn back toward God.

Read also: What Does Grace Mean in the Bible

To Give His Life a Ransom

“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). A ransom is the price paid to set a captive free. Jesus described his own life as that price.

In his last week he spoke about it again: “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour” (John 12:27). The hour he meant is the hour of his death, which he had just compared to a grain of wheat falling into the ground (John 12:23-24).

To Be King and Bear Witness to the Truth

Standing in front of Pilate, with his death hours away, Jesus spoke of his birth and his kingship together. Pilate asked, “Art thou a king then?” and Jesus answered, “Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:37).

In his answer, kingship and truth sit together. He says he is a king, who came to bear witness unto the truth.

Did Jesus Come to Bring Peace or a Sword?

Christmas cards carry the angels’ song, “on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). Jesus once said something that sounds like the opposite: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34).

He explains the sword himself in the next verse. He came “to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother” (Matthew 10:35). The sword is the division his coming brings, and he says so plainly. Following him can cost a person peace at the family table.

The peace he came to give starts at a deeper level: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). To be justified means to be declared righteous before God. That peace with God can hold even when peace at the family table gets harder.

Why Did God Send Jesus?

The reasons in this article trace back to one underneath them. The apostle John names it: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).

A propitiation is the sacrifice that satisfies God’s justice. John says God provided it himself, and that he made the first move.

The same love stands behind one of the best-known verses in the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The next verse tells us what the sending was for: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).

Paul adds that God’s love arrived before anyone had earned it: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The love is a gift at the start. Scripture also gives a sober word about what a person does with the gift: “he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). The same chapter that says God sent his Son to save also says the Son must be believed.

Why Didn’t God Just Forgive Without Sending Jesus?

Plenty of people ask this honestly, and Scripture gives an answer to what God did without claiming to list everything God could have done.

Sin has a cost. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). When a neighbor breaks a window and the owner says “forget it,” the glass still has to be paid for, and the one who forgave is the one who pays. Forgiveness is real and the cost is real, and both land on the person doing the forgiving.

Paul explains the cross in those terms. God set forth Jesus “to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.”

Paul says the aim was “that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:25-26). Remission means sins being cleared away. God wanted to remain fully just and also to be the one who forgives.

Scripture says God was present in the one who bore that cost: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). The writer of Hebrews calls this fitting: “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10).

Read also: How to Accept God’s Forgiveness and Forgive Yourself

Why Jesus Had to Be Born as a Baby

God formed Adam from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7), and Genesis shows him at work in the garden from the start (Genesis 2:15). Why did the Son come through a birth instead of appearing fully grown? Scripture points to at least three reasons.

Born a Son of David, to Be the Promised King

God had promised David a descendant whose throne would last forever (2 Samuel 7:12-16). Isaiah later spoke of a child born to sit on David’s throne: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder.” Of that government, “there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom” (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Gabriel carried the promise to Mary: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32-33). A throne promised to a descendant of David needs a descendant, and descendants are born. Matthew opens his Gospel by naming Jesus as David’s son: “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).

Read also: Lessons From Isaiah 9

Born of a Woman, Under the Law

In the Garden, God told the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

Christians have long read that verse as the first promise of Christ, and Paul’s wording about the birth seems to echo it: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

“Under the law” means Jesus lived beneath the law of Moses, a standard everyone else falls short of (Romans 3:23). He entered that place as a baby, grew up in it, and kept it, so that he could redeem, or buy back, those who stood under it.

Made Like His Brothers

Hebrews gives the plainest reason: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). A body was needed for him to die.

The writer goes on: “in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). In older English, “behoved” means it was necessary, and a high priest was the one who stood between God and the people.

That likeness was real. Jesus grew weary on a long walk (John 4:6), and he wept over the death of a friend (John 11:35). He was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Hebrews also records him speaking as he enters the world: “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5). The cradle and the cross belong to one plan, and the body he was born with was the body he offered (Hebrews 10:10).

Read also: Is Jesus God in Human Form

Was Jesus Born to Die?

Yes. Hebrews says he was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death, “that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9). His death is at the center of why he came.

Scripture gives his birth a wider purpose than his death. He was also born to live. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). Some thirty years of sinless life came before his public ministry began (Luke 3:23), and Peter calls Christ “a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19).

He also said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The cross is followed by an empty tomb (Matthew 28:6). And the baby of Luke 1 was promised a kingdom with no end, so the birth looks forward to a throne as well.

The Other Reasons Scripture Gives for the Birth of Christ

Each reason below can be read as another side of the same rescue.

To Show Us the Father

“No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Philip once asked Jesus to show them the Father, and Jesus answered, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). A person who wants to know what God is like can look at how Jesus treated people.

To Destroy the Works of the Devil

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Hebrews adds that Jesus took on flesh and blood so that through death he might “deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15).

Read also: Is the Devil Responsible for Our Sins

To Keep God’s Promises, at Just the Right Time

Bethlehem was named in advance: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel” (Micah 5:2). A virgin was promised too (Isaiah 7:14). Paul sums up the pattern when he says that Jesus Christ came “to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Romans 15:8).

Scripture says God sent his Son when “the fulness of the time was come” (Galatians 4:4). It presents that moment as God’s own choice and leaves the reasons unstated.

To Make Us Sons of God

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). Galatians 4:5 called it “the adoption of sons,” and Hebrews 2:10 pictures Jesus “bringing many sons unto glory.” The Son of God was born so that people could be brought into God’s family.

Why Was Jesus Born Poor, in a Manger, and Announced to Shepherds?

Luke records the facts without explaining them. Mary “wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). The angel told the shepherds, “this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).

Their means show when Mary and Joseph bring their offering, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons (Luke 2:24). That is the offering the law allowed for those who could not afford a lamb (Leviticus 12:8).

Luke leaves the meaning of the manger for the reader to weigh. The scene fits Paul’s description of Christ’s coming, where he says Jesus became poor for our sake (2 Corinthians 8:9). The shepherds found the child lying in the manger (Luke 2:16), and a Saviour who could be found by working men fits an announcement of joy for all people.

Read also: Bible Luke 2 Quiz with Answers

What the Birth of Jesus Means for You

It Was Said to You

The angel said “unto you,” and he said the joy was for all people (Luke 2:10). Maybe you have heard this story every December since you could talk. Maybe this is the first year you have wondered what it is for. The word reaches both.

Scripture also calls this a gift: “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). A gift can sit on a table with your name on the tag and still go unopened.

What to Do With It

Jesus gave the response himself when he began to preach: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Repent means turn back toward God. Believe means trust that Jesus is the Saviour the angel announced. The same Jesus who came to seek the lost also said he came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32), so receiving him and turning from sin go together.

If you are explaining Christmas to a child, one sentence from Scripture carries it: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Read also: What Is Cheap Grace

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Articles to Read Next

• Lessons From Matthew 1: the genealogy, Joseph’s dream and the name Jesus.
• Is Jesus God or the Son of God: what Scripture says about who was laid in the manger.
• Lessons From Luke 1: Gabriel’s visit to Mary and the promise of a kingdom without end.
• Lessons From Isaiah 7: the sign of the virgin and the child called Immanuel.
• Is Grace a License to Sin: how receiving the gift and turning from sin belong together.

Picture the manger one more time. The One who set the stars in place lay in a feeding trough, and the rescue he came for had already begun. The angel’s words are still being delivered: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour” (Luke 2:11). This week, read Luke 2:1-20 once and ask which line of it was meant for you, then tell one person why Jesus was born, using the angel’s own words.