If He only had to come:
To tell us Who He is He need only have come for 3 seconds
To explain His mission to save us He need only have come for 3 minutes
To die for us He need only have come for 3 hours
To die and to rise again He need only have come for 3 days
To see His harvest ripening He need only have come for 3 months
To preach the gospel He need only have come for 3 years
To show us how to live He need only have come for 30 years
To do all that He had to do He came for 33 years
Additional details:
His miraculous Transformation down into the womb for 3 trimesters
From His anointing to His death Christ ministered for 1260 days (3½ years)
His time on earth with His risen saints from His resurrection to His ascension 40 days
From the womb to the tomb —
His work of redemption is called a mystery, and it is indeed the mystery by which everlasting righteousness is brought to all who believe. The race in consequence of sin was at enmity with God. Christ, at an infinite cost, by a painful process, mysterious to angels as well as to men, assumed humanity. Hiding His divinity, laying aside His glory, He was born a babe in Bethlehem. In human flesh He lived the law of God, that He might condemn sin in the flesh, and bear witness to heavenly intelligences that the law was ordained to life and to ensure the happiness, peace, and eternal good of all who obey. But the same infinite sacrifice that is life to those who believe is a testimony of condemnation to the disobedient, speaking death and not life. 7BC 915
