Why Christ Came: To Do the Father's Will

Not one of the Father's expectations were unfulfilled in Christ. When Christ said, "It is finished," He meant it (John 19:30). By His obedience to God's will, even in the things that He suffered, He secured salvation for us. As our high priest, Christ teaches us that we have no other way of dealing with our moral failure and its penalty than to come to God and say, "Nothing in my hand I bring, / Simply to thy cross I cling."

As we study the early chapters of the Gospels, it is difficult to feel the full weight of Jesus' statement: "I come… to do thy will, O God." But later, especially as we read about Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, we begin to sense the depth of that commitment. In the garden, Jesus wrestles with the reality of Isaiah 53:10: "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him." In the garden, Christ was "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," and "sore amazed" (Matt. 26:38, Mark 14:33). Paintings of Christ praying while He serenely looks up to heaven greatly distort the reality of his garden experience. In Gethsemane Christ lost His composure, falling to the ground in agonizing prayer (Mark14:35). The overwhelming terror of bearing God's judgment against our sin pressed out of Him great drops of bloody sweat. Still, Jesus submitted to His Father, praying, "Not what I will, but what thou wilt" (Mark 14:36).

Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation, Joel R. Beeke & William Boektestein, Reformation Heritage Books, 2013, pg. 3.