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1 John 4:8-9 Anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. |
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Why did Jesus Christ have to Die? Why did Jesus Christ have to die by Crucifixion; why not by some other means? |
| Why did Jesus Die?
Jesus was born to die. In His own words, Jesus said, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28. But why did Jesus have to die? The Scriptures tell us that Jesus died so that we might have life. In the beginning, God created man perfect, in His own image and likeness. God intended for man to have perfect health and happiness—to live forever on a perfect earth. See Genesis 1:27; 2:7; 15-17. But in order to continue to enjoy this blessed privilege of life, God required one thing—perfect obedience. Adam was tested by God and he failed. Adam disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. The penalty for this disobedience was death. While this may seem a harsh penalty—the fact is—God cannot and will not allow willful and disobedient beings of His creation to retain their gift of life. And so the dying process began with Adam. No longer did he enjoy perfect health—mentally, morally, or physically. And we each inherit this same condition from Adam because this was all he had to give us. It became our inheritance. See Genesis 3:17-19; 5:3. God’s wrath concerning death because of sin is fair, consistent, and measured. He is a perfect being and we had been given a perfect life that was ours to keep so long as we remained obedient. God did not give up on His creation when Adam sinned. We were not written off as a failed experiment. God had a plan for redeeming us from our sin and that plan existed before man was ever created. God arranged that His only Begotten Son—Jesus—would release man from the penalty of death. Jesus would pay the debt on our behalf; He would give His life instead of us each having to give our own lives for the sin we commit. In order for someone else to pay the debt of another, he needs to be in a position to be able to pay that debt. Romans 6:23 states that the wages of sin is death. The payment God requires for sin is death. Romans 3:23 states that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The Scriptures make clear in 1 John 3:4 that sin is transgression of the law and adds in 1 John 5:17 that all unrighteousness is sin. And according to Scripture, the soul that sins shall die and those who sin shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. See Ezekiel 18:4; Galatians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
Given that we each have committed sin—we each are condemned to die. Death however is not the mere extinction of our life but also includes a condemnation to hell. Much has been written and said about hell and for this discussion hell will be described simply as an eternal separation from God—a chasm and isolation that exists and cannot be crossed to enter into God's Kingdom because the unrighteous have been shut out. See Luke 16:26; 2 Thessalonians 1:9. Having described that all persons sin and because of this all persons are unrighteous and as a consequence are to be condemned to a place where God does not have to look upon sin, the logical conclusion arises that all persons are destined for hell—an eternal separation from God. Therefore, there is no human who can substitute for us in hell. We each must pay for our sins. Under God's plan, the person responsible for the sin is the one who must pay the consequence. It would be ideal to be able to find someone upon whom our sin could be piled. And extending that, it would be ideal to be able to find someone upon whom to pile the sins of the whole world. But that someone would need to be sinless for the simple reason that he does not have a debt to pay already. God thought ahead and designated Himself to pay the penalty. He is sinless. So God chose His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, to be the someone upon whom all sin can be piled. And Jesus paid not only for the sins of the world previous to His crucifixion but for the sins to come. This makes great sense since God is the alpha and the omega—the beginning and the end. God is the master of time.
The whole human race is released from the death penalty by the perfect obedience of the one perfect man—Jesus Christ. God's justice is thus satisfied—an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth, and a perfect life for a perfect life. See Romans 5:14-19; 1 Timothy 2:3-6. The perfect life of Jesus satisfies the sin committed by the perfect life that had been granted to Adam, but which he lost because of his disobedience. Jesus did not die on the Cross just to pay for our sins. God, in His mind, already had taken care of our sins before the foundation of the world. In the fullness of time, God's plan to send His Son was fulfilled. See Galatians 4:4. What is most amazing is the responsibility God has toward us. We are His creation and He has mercy and compassion toward us. Just as our parents correct and pay for the mistakes we make—including our willful disobedience—so does God the Father, the Creator. In order for humanity to be redeemed, God Himself pays the penalty for sin. He becomes a man incarnate. And through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the price of sin is paid in full. The question arises as to what it means to be the Only Begotten Son of God. Jesus was the only, one-of-a-kind, unique Son of God. As divinity born as a man of a woman, Jesus Christ became the new Adam—the replacement perfect man unstained by sin. God poured out his spirit into flesh. And by doing so, He showed His love for us each and the world as a whole. Before Jesus Christ, the Law was written in stone—literally and figuratively. There was not an understanding of God’s love by those under the Mosaic Law. But through the crucifixion of Jesus, we humans see God’s love revealed. It becomes real and tangible to us. God’s Law in stone becomes written in our hearts. And this is ideal because Salvation takes place in our hearts. We are His people and He is our God.
In order for God to make us whole with Him again, He has to make His love real in our hearts. This happens only when we believe in Him and choose willingly to obey Him. God wants us to be with Him. Notice in the passage above that He cancels each of our transgressions for His own sake. That speaks volumes and explains why He sent Jesus to take our place in suffering and paying for each of our sins. The Scriptures in 1 Corinthians 6:11 proclaim that we each have been washed clean. We have been purified by a complete atonement for sin and have been made free from the guilt of sin. We also are consecrated and pronounced righteous, by trusting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit of our God. Not believing in God takes away His life changing voice in our lives.
The only way we are made right in the Law is when we harness the strictures of the Law as an expression of our love in submitting to God’s saving work. In Matthew 22:33-40, Jesus answered a Pharisee who asked which is the greatest commandment in the Law:
Were one to investigate this statement made by Jesus, he would discover that the Old Testament confirms these two statements. The question asked by the Pharisee was an intellectual exercise—the answer to which should have been known by him. But when one reads the Scriptures for sets of rules by which to conform, the person tends to overlook the principle and purpose behind the Law. God seeks for each of us to cleave to the spirit of the Law, not the letter of it. But, knowing the shortcomings of humanity, God send Jesus Christ to rescue us from blind adherence to the Law. We are to know the Law in our hearts by way of inspired love, not by way of having dutifully memorized the words in our minds. A story may help illustrate the point.
To be under the Law is to have a list of duties posted on a wall. The only way we can express the law is to take the list down and place it in our hearts.
Jesus Christ as the innocent sacrifice Hebrews 9:22 states that the Law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. God told Moses in Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life which it represents.” This meant that sin had to be cleansed by sacrificing innocent animals. One can imagine that in the days previous to Jesus, the temple and the altars in the communities of the Jews would be strewn with blood. God required a life in substitute for our disobedience. Jesus came as a mediator of a new covenant to replace the end cycle of blood sacrifice. It wasn’t that God abolished the requirement that a blood sacrifice need be made for sin. That remained. But God ended the endless cycle of animal slaughter and replaced it with a single blood sacrifice that would wash clean all previous sin and sin to come. In order that a person receive the benefit of this all-encompassing blood sacrifice, he would need to recognize that it exists. That requires the person to seek out the blood sacrifice and ask that it be presented to God on his behalf. The sacrifice is not presented automatically on behalf of all humanity. Each individual must ask for it to be received by God. This explains the passages of Scripture that state that the only way to God is through His Son, Jesus Christ. To reject the sacrifice of Jesus upon the Cross for each of us means that we would need to continue presenting animal sacrifices. And that is a poor substitute. It was accepted by God under the Old Covenant, but the New Covenant replaced the continual blood sacrifice requirement. So, one who would continue that practice would not be listening to the new requirements God has to atone for sin. § The curse on the head of Jesus In order to understand the significance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ it is necessary to discuss the role that Christ assumed on our behalf. One may wonder of all the deaths Jesus could suffer, why he was crucified. Deuteronomy 21:23 states that anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. Thus, Jesus died an infamous death. He was humiliated and degraded. It wasn’t enough for the Jewish leaders to simply have Jesus killed quickly and efficiently. No, it was to be without dignity; it was to be slow and agonizing. Jesus was displayed as a hanging carcass for all to see. It was the most inhumane of all deaths. In the Roman world, crucifixion was reserved for the rebellious and mutinous, and for the most vile criminals. Crucifixion was viewed not just as a means of death, but also as a means of portraying shame. Therefore only the most despicable were crucified. To be hung on a cross meant more than that a crime worthy of death had been committed. It meant that the accused was considered to be a lowly, vile, reprehensible person—in addition to being a criminal. The person was considered the most base. It was for this reason that crucifixion was done in very busy, public settings. Part of the intent was to deter others from committing such crimes. Quintilian, a Roman rhetorician from the era stated that "Whenever we crucify the guilty, the most crowded roads are chosen, where the most people can see and can be moved by this fear." But the primary motive was to inflict the greatest amount of physical torment and public shame on persons of such reprehensible and detestable character. The Romans had more than retribution in mind; they also were expressing disgust and utter contempt. Although the Jews never practiced crucifixion as a means of capital punishment—except during a brief interval during the Hellenistic-Hasmonean Period—they did have a similar custom for expressing a high degree of contempt for undesirable persons. After a criminal had been put to death by some other means, such as by the sword or by stoning, the dead body would be strung up on a tree as a symbol of shame and dishonor. This public exposure gave the people an opportunity to express their venomous hatred for such a despicable criminal as they hurled their insults and mockery at the strung-up victim. Hanging the body exposed the person to public humiliation. The criminal was under the curse of God. He was removed from the covenant community as a perpetrator of the worst kind of sin. And that judgment was displayed. The humiliation of hanging his body in public showed that that person is under God's curse. It was for this reason that Joshua hung the body of the king of Ai on a tree, see Joshua 8:29, and the bodies of the five kings of the southern confederacy on five trees, see Joshua 10:26-27. He was interested in more than their execution. He was primarily motivated to exposing them to public shame and ridicule. In Galatians 3:13, the Apostle Paul quoted the Jewish law stated in Deuteronomy 21:22-23 when he described the reason for Christ's death on the Cross. Paul stated that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law." Jesus Christ not only died for our sins in a judicial sense, paying the required penalty for our disobedience; but He also bore our curse—the utter shame associated with our blatant disobedience against the Lord God, the Creator. When Jewish leaders pressed Pilate for the sentence of crucifixion, they were expressing their contempt for anyone guilty of the sin of blasphemy. This was their accusation against Jesus. Knowing that the Roman principles surrounding crucifixion mirrored their practice of hanging on a tree, the Jewish leaders would be satisfied with nothing less than having Jesus crucified. They wanted Him put to shame and they wanted to display that He was cursed of God. We are not only deserving of death; we are deserving of shame. Pilate did not choose the cross for Jesus and neither did the Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrin. God chose the Cross, for it was the perfect means of inflicting death through the shedding of blood, while also expressing shame through public humiliation. No means of execution was more fitting to display the full punishment for sin. The Scriptures in Romans 6:23 state that the wages of sin is death and it also makes clear to us that the horror of sin is in its ultimate shame—as written in Galatians 3:13 and Deuteronomy 21:22-23—“Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” Hebrews 12:2 sums this: “Let us keep looking to Jesus, the author, founder, and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and now is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus not only endured the cross as He suffered the physical torments of crucifixion; He also despised the shame as He hung in that place of ridicule. Two things happening on the fateful day—Jesus was dying for our sins and He also was bearing our infamous shame as He hung on a tree. In doing that, Jesus Christ won an incredible victory over sin and death so that a third thing is said of him—He is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. That is the place of honor occupied by the victorious Son of God. The death and shame were overwhelming. But accomplishing and securing our redemption was the basis of His joy. We each are redeemed from the curse of the law and the accompanying shame. In closing, it is important to emphasize this fact—the ultimate purpose of the life of Jesus Christ was not to teach, to heal, to cast out demons, to serve as an example of how to live or what to do—although He did all those things. His ultimate purpose was to become a servant to all humanity by willingly going to the Cross and giving His life as a ransom. Sin has a death grip on each of us and it does not let go until full payment is made. That payment can be made by each of us personally or it can be paid by Jesus Christ if we each choose to accept His great exchange. Here is what the death of Jesus accomplished. To all those who believe in Him and follow Him, Jesus Christ came to earth to live and die:
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God created human beings—male and female. He created them in His image to be like Himself—patterning them to be godlike so as to reflect His nature. The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath and spirit of life, and the man became a living being with a living soul.
Of note: The Hebrew word for man—adam—sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for ground—adamah. It is also the name Adam.
Of note: The same essential chemical elements are found in man and animal life that are in the soil. This scientific fact was not known to us until this modern era, but God was displaying it here.
Cross-reference:
The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. But the Lord God commanded him, "You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden, except tree of the knowledge of good and evil. "It has the power to allow you to distinguish the difference between right and wrong. "And if you eat any fruit from that tree, you surely will die." Then to Adam, the Lord God said, "Because you have listened and given heed to the voice of your wife instead of Me, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, telling you, 'You shall not eat from it';
When Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness—in spirit and image—whom he named Seth. There is a great chasm between us and you, and no one from either side can cross over. The great gulf is fixed so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot; nor can those from where you are cross to us. Those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus will be punished with eternal & everlasting destruction & ruin. They will be banished forever from the presence of the face of the Lord—the Master—shut out to suffer exclusion from the shining, wonderful majesty of His power, might, and glory. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—the Lawgiver—even over those who did not themselves sin by breaking or transgressing a positive command of the Lord God, as did Adam—who was a prefigure pattern of the One Who was to come. The One Who was to come to reverse the fate of humanity cast by Adam. But the free gift of God is not to be compared to the trespass because His grace overshadows the fall of man. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man because of his lapse and offense, how much more did God's grace—His unmerited favor—and the free gift that came by the grace of the One Man—Jesus Christ—overflow and abound for the benefit of many. Again, the free gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin—the judgment and sentence followed Adam's one sin and it brought condemnation, but the free gift followed many trespasses, transgressions, and false steps—and it brought justification; it is an act of righteousness that leads to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men. . For if, by the lapse and offense of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ—the Messiah and Anointed One. Consequently, just as the result of one transgression was condemnation for all men—so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One Man the many will be made righteous and made acceptable to God and brought into right standing with Him. This is good and acceptable in His sight when you pray. It pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved from the punishment of sin and to come to a discerning, precise, and correct knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator standing between God and men—the man Christ Jesus—who gave himself as a ransom for all men to purchase humanity's freedom from the hold of the power of sin—and to reconcile us with God. This is the testimony message God gave to the world at the proper and due time. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, Jesus Christ, born of a woman, born under and subject to the the Law. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your might. Do not seek revenge, take vengeance, or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord God . Joshua hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset, he ordered the body to be removed from the tree and to be throws down at the entrance of the city gate. And a large pile of rocks was raised over the body, which remains to this day. Then Joshua struck and killed the kings and hung them on five trees, and they were left hanging on the trees until evening. At sunset Joshua gave the order and the were taken down from the trees and thrown into the cave where they had been hiding. At the mouth of the cave a large pile of rocks was placed, which is there to this day.
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