When people speak about Christ coming to earth the first time, they usually talk about how he came.

But the great emphasis of Scripture is on why he came.

Today, we examine the purpose statements found throughout the gospel records. Each of them

help us to understand more about Jesus. Join Scott Pauli now as we open the Bible and gain

a fresh glimpse of the Lord. I was walking across the campus of the University of Tennessee many years ago

and trying to speak to people about the Lord.

And I met a young man and just trying to find an entry point in our conversation about spiritual things

because he seemed interested.

I said to him,

do you believe the Word of God? Do you believe the Scriptures? And his immediate answer to me was,

oh, I believe the Old Testament. Well, I found out very quickly that the young man was a Jewish

young man who indeed believed the Old Testament, but he did not believe the New Testament.

He believed all that the Old Testament foretold, but had not yet accepted what the New Testament fulfilled.

In other words, he saw them as totally separate from one another.

On the reverse of that, I have met a few people through the years who've said,

oh, I love the New Testament. I love all these passages about Jesus, but boy, I don't like the Old

Testament. That Old Testament God. Now, that's a different thing. No, my friend, you fail to miss

the unity of Scripture and the unity that is found and fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.

You see, the New Testament is the

fulfillment of the Old Testament, and Christ is the fulfillment of the law. We've come today in

Matthew chapter 5 to this discussion of why Jesus came. We know he came. That fact remains. We

talk a great deal about what he did when he came and how

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