How Jesus also saved us through his LIFE/

Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me?

He who has seen Me has seen the Father?

We know the main message to be that we are saved by grace through faith in the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.
Through his death (he took on what we deserved) and his resurrection defeated death and when we believe the work done on the cross as a personal matter to self (him dying for us) then we are saved for our penalty then is paid by him. {Ephesians 2:8-9}, {romans 4:25)

Bu why didn’t he just come down on that Friday and get crucified and pay the sacrifice without those 32 years prior to that day?
Why was his life necessary for us to see, learn of and know?
As we know that (mostly) his death was the necessity for our salvation why not just that?

He didn’t just give us the sacrifice he came to show God’s character and how a saved (perfect life) looks like.

Why: John 1:18 ** **No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten [h]Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
*(*Jesus came to declare the Father. Without His life, we may have known God can forgive, but we would not have seen the heart of God in human form)

Satan also made accusations against God’s character
"Satan represents God's law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator..." (The Desire of Ages, p. 24). - So Jesus came to show us and all the other worlds that the law of love can in fact be kept- which no other has demonstrated.

_ : The Father Revealed
**7 **“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
**8 **Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
**9 **Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? **10 **Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. **11 **Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

Had it not been Jesus who would’ve we looked to {to) know what God is like or God’s full love manifested (Moses? (Remember him at the rock? And how he spoke to the Israelites? , perhaps Noah? (Who got drunk and embarrassed himself front of his children? Or may be Abraham? (Who lied about his wife “being his sister?) what about Elijah who was so great? (Was afraid and prayed to die? Or be like Paul? (….) Who????)

Even these great role models who did so wonderfully in showing us how to walk with God **(failed at some point and we can not fully build our full “walk” on any of them **completely. - perhaps “we can’t look to them as examples if we’re aiming for perfection” after “failed at some point” to make it it clearer?

BUT with JESUS, we can. The cross shows the depth of God’s love, but the life of Jesus shows the daily character of God’s love — how God treats the weak, the guilty, the sick, the outcast, the proud, the confused, and the broken.

His life was necessary because we needed steps to follow.- imitate me as I imitate Christ.
He did not only save us from guilt He showed us the path of the saved life.
John 13:15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
( if you were to copy and paste your behavior like anyone it must be like Christ’s for who else could meet the standards? Bu he who lived perfectly?)

Jesus Himself says His actions were an example. His humility, service, gentleness, obedience, prayer, forgiveness, and love were not some random details. They were shown so we would know how His people are meant to live.
Mathew 11:29-30 “ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am [++a]gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. **30 **For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Here he’s saying “Believe in Me.” He also said, “Learn from Me.” His life becomes like our learning classroom.

**John 8:12 **Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Without his life as an example for us we would be probably easily confused by the world (with no perfect example) like false misleading religions or our own feelings (how we feel about things).

He also tells us to be the light of the world, how would we know how to do that if He hadn’t shown us.

…This is the way, walk in it… Isaiah 30:21

1 John 2:6 “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”
Why not just believe He died, without needing His life as our pattern?
Because abiding in Him means walking as He walked. His death saves us from condemnation, but His life shows the shape of the walk.

Why did He needed to experience human life?

Hebrews 4:15 “ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Why?— then we know that our saviour understands what we go through bcz he went through it all (even worse) so he perfectly understand the struggle, he didn’t guide us from the distance or just from up there ( the cloud eventually came down in a human form to show us how to actually walk through the desert) (walking through all of the things we go through - temptations, suffering, rejection PAINNN (YET WITHOUT SIN PREVAILED)
Hebrews 2:17-18 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as [a++]by the Spirit of the Lord.”
(We are changed by beholding, so had HE not showed us how to live (gave us his life to behold) where then would we look at? His life gave us something to fix our eyes on

Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. **2 **And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”

Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5
Chapter 89 — “The Character of God Revealed in Christ”
Page / Paragraph: 5T 738.1 “Hence he has sought to misrepresent the character of God, to lead men to cherish a false conception of Him.”

The Signs of the Times February 13, 1893, par. 6
“It was through Satan’s misrepresentation of God’s character that man was led to doubt the reality of his love”
“Christ came to reveal God to the world as a God of love, full of mercy, tenderness, and compassion.”

Such is the character of Christ as revealed in His life. This is the character of God. It is from the Father’s heart that the streams of divine compassion, manifest in Christ, flow out to the children of men. Jesus, the tender, pitying Saviour, was God “manifest in the flesh.” 1 Timothy 3:16. 

“This work only one Being in all the universe could do.” DA 22.1 “God With Us”

“The world’s Redeemer came not only to be a sacrifice for sin but to be an example to man in all things” 3SM 138.3 sec: “Our Example and Sacrifice for Sin”

“Christ came to the world to counteract Satan’s falsehood that God had made a law which men could not keep.” FLB 114.2 The Faith I Live By “Proving the Will of God,” April 18

“Jesus has led the way, and He wishes us to follow in His steps.” TMK 229.4 “The Faith God Accepts,” August 11 That I May Know Him

“If we take Christ for our guide, He will lead us safely along the narrow way.” OFC 155.3 The March to Victory,” May 23 Our Father Cares