I had an old friend ask the following: "Where in the Bible does Jesus say, "I will go save humanity"" (Or something along those lines). I tried to explain God is Jesus, and it was his will. But they were looking for the exact verse. I couldn't think off any the top of my head.
I know it says the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the earth. But that doesn't really say it all. This person is having trouble understanding why Jesus (in particular), would do this for us bad people.
There are indirect passages that state this.
John 3:16-17 ESV For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John the Baptist had this to say:
John 1:29 ESV The next day he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ... "
Jesus himself never outright said "I am God. Worship me." He did this because he wanted his followers to have faith in him. His miracles testified to his Godliness.
John 10:24-25 ESV So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me...
John 14:8-11 ESV Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
John 10:31-33 ESV "I and the Father are one." The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
Note the last passage: people say that Jesus is claiming to be God and want to kill him because of it, and Jesus does not correct them.
The following verses might be relevant.
Gal 4:4-5 KJV (4) But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (5) To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Mat 1:21-23 KJV (21) And she [Mary] shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (22) Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, (23) Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Joh 1:14 KJV And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
2Co 5:19 KJV To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Mat 18:11 KJV For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.
I didn't remember that statement from Jesus in the Bible, either, so I did a text search of a number of translations on Bible Gateway for that phrase, and it does not appear in any that I searched. Searching for individual words also does not show a result of any verse that substantially matches the meaning of the phrase.
The closest verse I can think of that parallels the meaning that your friend poses is in the Gospel of John, chapter 6: In verse 51, Jesus teaches, in part,
I am the living bread come down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever..."
The Bible doesn't have any clear and unambiguous statements of the second person of the trinity saying that he would come to earth to save humanity before he did so, but once he was here, Jesus did indicate that it was a completely deliberate move which he chose himself. One great passage which talks about this is John 10:6-18. It should give you a good starting point, and you could look up other passages in a Bible with cross references to see other passages (or use Bible Gateway's cross references.)
Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
“The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.” (John 10:6-18, NLT)
You should also look at the idea of The Covenant of Redemption, which is an idea in Reformed Theology that within the Godhead the second person of the trinity agreed to save humanity. Wikipedia describes it as:
The covenant of redemption is the eternal agreement within the Godhead in which the Father appointed the Son to become incarnate, suffer, and die as a federal head of mankind to make an atonement for their sin. In return, the Father promised to raise Christ from the dead, glorify him, and give him a people.
This is because the person is looking for the answer and stopping at Jesus - without continuing to God. Yes, they are one and the same, but bear with me.
We know God does this for us because He LOVES us:
John 3:16 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.
As well as verse 17 which LCIII supplies.
Through Scripture we learn that God created man and woman in His image, and throughout His creation all things were created to be good. Adam and Eve sinned by not adhering to God's simple rule to not eat of the forbidden fruit, and sin entered the world. This caused a very obvious rift between the Lord and the people He created.
A lot of people have asked me "Why didn't God just do away with sin to begin with?" Well, that is easily answered in our gift of free will. Unlike angels (assumed anyway, depending on the person you ask), mankind has always had a choice as to whether or not we believe and truly worship the Lord. Why would He undo the very will He gave us, if it meant we could no longer choose? He wouldn't. He wants us to choose. This is why we are told of the gifts for believing in Him and His Son, and the end result of not believing. In essence, we are given the foundation and told "Choose wisely.", the sad fact is that many do not.
Jesus was, and is, a model of Love. The Love that God has for all of us despite what we have done, the love that we should have for God and Jesus, and the love we should have for one another.
Nowhere in the Bible that I can recall do we see Jesus using the exact words "I will go save humanity", but we see it stated throughout the New Testament. In the Old Testament we see that God, through the Prophets, wrote about the coming of Christ.
I'm looking for the same answer because I'm teaching on the resurrection tomorrow, in Sunday school. I found what I need in Isaiah.
The Lord starts off by saying how sin has increased and in Isaiah 1:11 he says that he is tired of so much bloody animal sacrifices. If you keep reading Isaiah, you will see how the Lord keeps prophesying about humanity's redemption.
In Isaiah 9:6 it talks about Jesus' birth and that he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
In Isaiah 11:1-3 it talks about Jesus coming with the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and the Spirit of the fear of The Lord.
Then we find our scripture verse on the reason why Jesus came to give His life for us. Isaiah 53:7 says that as a lamb led to the slaughter He opened not His mouth. Verse 10 is our KEY VERSE. It says He gave His life as a SIN OFFERING.
So because God was tired of too many bloody animal sacrifices, Jesus gave His life as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Read Isaiah 52: 13-15 and all of Isaiah chapter 53. We are so grateful because sin separated us from God but Jesus came to reconcile us to God. Hallelujah!
