Reply #43: Only one of those says that he did.

[laconicsax]

(I'm replying here instead of to your post #39 so I can read what you wrote while responding.)

Matthew 20:28 has him implying that his death pays a debt of sin. That answers my question. As for the rest...

I think you took Mark 2:17 out of context--verses 15 and 16 have Jesus answering a direct question about who he associates with.

¹⁵And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. ¹⁶And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? ¹⁷When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The question was about dinner guests and his answer in verse 17 is straight out of a TV skid-row mission. "I bring these men of ill-repute into this house so that they may be saved!" It's a big stretch to say that Jesus is saying that he's going to sacrifice himself so that all may be saved.

Matthew 4:17 is similar--Jesus is starting a ministry centered on repentance in anticipation of the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven.

John 12:27 is in the middle of a conversation between Jesus and God (?).

²⁶If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. ²⁷Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. ²⁹The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him.

Put back into context, it doesn't really seem to carry a meaning of "I came to die for your sins."

John 18:37 seems to have Jesus saying something along the lines of "I am the King in the Kingdom of Heaven" which makes a lot of sense if he's supposed to be God.