Unveiling the
cross
Why
Jesus
had to died
If you want to
understand why Jesus died, you have to understand what would have happened if
Jesus had lived…
1
Why did Jesus die?
“And so it was with me, brothers
and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom
as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing
while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified.”
--1 Corinthians 2:1-2
Jesus died for two reasons
that are very closely related and intertwined together:
I. Historical reason WHY
II. Biblical reason HOW
I.)
Historical reason - He died because He was King …and judgment would be
postponed to the future
I have often wondered to myself
throughout my Christian life how exactly did Jesus pay for our sins by dying on
the cross. The answer came to me after many years after I asked the question a
slightly different way. When I asked myself, “What would have happened had Jesus lived?” the answer became much
more apparent and easier to understand.
So why was Jesus crucified in
the most basic terms? In the most basic terms He was crucified because He
claimed to be a king in the face of the world’s most powerful government at the
time--the Roman Empire. In fact, the official charge against Him written on a
sign in three languages and hung on his cross by a representative of that
government, Pontius Pilot, identified Him for the record for all the world to
see as, “Jesus of Nazareth, the KING OF THE JEWS”.
II.)
The Biblical reason: He died to take our sins from us and provide a way of
salvation
So Jesus was crucified because
He was king. But what does that mean? It must be understood what it meant to be
king of the Jews. Jesus was not just an ordinary earthly king like any the
earth had ever seen before. He was king of the Jews. He was the promised,
prophesized king that was to come. He was the messiah. He was the head of his
own kingdom. And that kingdom was not like any other kingdom that the world had
ever seen before. His kingdom was to be an eternal kingdom. It would not have
physical borders determined by rivers, or lines, or mountain ranges, or land
masses. It would not be confined to a single continent, but it would be
worldwide. Neither would its citizens be of one race of people or of people of
a certain genetic makeup. Its citizenry would not be determined by the physical
biology of flesh and blood or their DNA but by the spiritual make-up of their
minds and the faith they held in their heart. And this kingdom would not even
be confined to a certain time period or generation of people. Jesus was to be
King of this, an eternal everlasting kingdom that would span all human beings,
all land, all continents, all countries on the entire globe throughout all
time, generation after generation, for as long as the earth should endure. He
was the king of God’s never ending, eternal kingdom.
And last but not least, this
kingdom would be a kingdom based upon righteousness.
And so this kingdom’s king must
be righteous Himself. And anything not righteous would have to be removed. Sin
would have to be judged, condemned, and removed.
So Jesus was a king. He was
not an ordinary earthly king. He was an eternal king, He was a righteous king.
In fact, He was a sinless king. He was perfect. What’s more-- He was God in the
flesh. The very creator of the universe Himself in human form. So if He were to
have lived He would have become king. And being king of a righteous kingdom
would have meant that sin would have had to have been judged. Let’s face it,
this world has a lot of sin that would not have been able to have been ignored.
So if Jesus had lived He would have been a perfect sinless, righteous king—head
of an eternal righteous kingdom. Any sin in it or by its citizens would have
had to have been judged and dealt with. The problem was—and it was a rather BIG
problem was that all its potential citizens were guilty of having committed
sin. If sin was to be judged fairly and completely (and it would have to be by
a perfect, righteous and sinless king) no one would be left to inhabit the
kingdom.
So one might say, at least
from a mere human perspective, that this situation created a dilemma. How was
this righteous kingdom going to be if it had no one in it? Sin would have to be
dealt with and in so doing it would disqualify any future membership. If Jesus
had lived and become king this was what it meant for Him as king.
But there was one other
option. To populate his kingdom, sin could be forgiven.
So then why did Jesus have to
die? Why couldn’t He just forgive and it would be done? Well, remember God is
perfect. When God does something He does not do it half-baked or go off
half-cocked. When God does something He does it completely. He does it
perfectly. He does it so it is absolute.
Had Jesus just forgiven within the confines of His own mind, the world would
have never known anything happened. No, forgiveness would have had to have been
demonstrated, proven, and displayed for the whole world to see in order that
people would know it was Jesus who would have to be sought in order to attain
forgiveness.
At one point in the ministry
of Jesus a crowd wanted to take Jesus and make him their king by force. But
Jesus slipped away from them and went off alone by Himself. Those people did
not understand what would have happened had Jesus actually become king because
they still did not understand completely who He was and what being king would
have meant. Basically it would have meant Jesus would have had to judge the
world and its people for it sins.
Judgment day would have
commenced and the world would have been brought to an end. Jesus would have had
to do then what He will do when He returns the second time.
Those that had lived and died
up to that point in time would have been condemned. And anyone who has lived in
the past 2,000 years would never have been born. You and I would not exist. So
by dying, Jesus quite literally saved the world. Judgment was postponed until
far off into the future.
But Jesus did not want to take
His rightful place at that point as the king of the universe. If He had He
would have had to judge the world. And He did not want to do that…yet. First He
wanted to provide forgiveness to those that would believe in Him and obey His
message. So how was He to provide forgiveness?
Remember I said when God does
something He doesn’t do it half way? He does it completely. He does it
perfectly. He does it so it is absolute.
In order to avoid becoming King and judging the world for its sins there
was one thing Jesus could do. There was one thing that would demonstrate and
absolutely prove that God was willing to forgive men of their sins by
completely giving up the right to judge--
He could die…
A dead king cannot judge.
Jesus had the right to judge. He
was sinless.
He had the authority to judge.
He had the power to judge.
But He gave up all those
things.
So by dying, Jesus was
literally putting the Law itself to death.
And this is what the Jews have
such a hard time understanding to this day. They look for their Messiah to be
conquering and all victorious, all authoritative and powerful. Jesus was all
that. He had to be because without it He would have had nothing to sacrifice by
dying. He would have had nothing to give up. His death would not have been any
different than any other person who was a sinner and so became subject to death
for their own sins.
But Jesus was immortal and
eternal. How could he die?
He couldn’t.
Unless
He chose to surrender his
life.
Unless He chose to lay His life down.
Unless He willingly gave it up.
But being sinless eternal God
He could not experience death.
He had no sin. He was not
subject to death.
Unless
He took on sin……
But He had no sin….
So He would have to get sin
from somewhere else…other people’s sins….our sins…my sins…your sins.
And this is the other thing He
did by dying on the cross: He actually paid for and took on our sins, and not
just one sin or some sins. All sins of
all mankind ever committed or would be committed in the future. He did not just
die for some sins of all people or all the sins of some people. The bible says “He
died once for all.” (Romans
6:10, Hebrews
7:27, 9:12,26,
10:10) The Bible says His sacrifice was PERFECT (Hebrews
10:14). He died for all sins of all people…for every single sin of every
single person who has ever lived or ever would live. God is just. He is fair.
He does not show favoritism. (Acts
10:34, Romans
2:11, Galatians
2:6) So that meant it was an all or nothing proposition. God had to be
willing forgive all sins or none of them.
And in so dying, by giving up
His life and subjecting Himself to death, He forgave mankind of their sins and
saved those that had died up to that point and how He saved a future world that
would not have ever come into existence. That is how He saved the world past,
present, and future--His death for our sins.
And in order to prove to the
entire world that this forgiveness was available God raised Jesus from the dead.
His death was an execution carried out by the most powerful secular authority
on earth which acknowledged His Kingship and displayed His death for the entire
world for all of history to see so that it was absolutely undeniable.
Jesus lived like no other man
ever had. Jesus died like no man ever had. And Jesus came back from the dead
like no man ever had.
His sacrifice on the cross is
what makes salvation possible for any human being who will repent of their sins
and follow Jesus the rest of their life by putting their faith in his death,
burial, and resurrection—accomplished through His work on the cross.
Our physical
bodies are not immortal. When Adam and Eve sinned their bodies became mortal
and since then we all inherit from them the physical condition of their mortal
bodies which are subject to death and disease. The spirits in our bodies
however, are immortal—we will exist for all eternity—whether in heaven or in
hell.
2
How
was Jesus able to take sin from the whole world by dying?
“If any of you lacks
wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault,
and it will be given to you.” --James 1:5
To better understand this idea
of why Christ had to die and how that action takes away our sins we have to understand
these four basic principles:
1.) Death is the result of sin
2.) All are guilty--we have all sinned
3.) God is not only fair, He is JUST
4.) Jesus was eternal and immortal—in the flesh: John
5:26-27; 10:17-18—last
Adam 1Cor
15:45
1)
Death is the result of sin
If we are to understand the
cross in its fullness the first point we need to understand is that death in
the world is the result of the presence of sin.
Do you remember way back at
the beginning? All the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? God had
made this huge wonderful creation. He made the sun and the moon, and the stars;
He made the earth and everything in it. And after God had finished with all His
creating, He saw that it was all very good. There was nothing wrong with it.
And God created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman. And they too were good.
Then God told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
or they would die. Well, you know the story—they disobeyed and ate. And just as
God warned them if they ate, they would die… they died—they became mortal and
therefore their bodies became subject to the effects of sin. This was the first
time sin came into the presence of the human race and its effects were entirely
lethal. Before the Fall, there was no death. After,
death has been forever a part of the human experience. In fact, sin and death
became so deadly that it had not only altered mankind’s experience but it
altered the entire creation as well (See Romans
8:19-22).
2)
We all are guilty of sin
The second thing to understand
is that sin is universal to the human race. We are all guilty of committing
sin. With the exception of infants and small children we are all guilty before
God. But although babies and children may be in a temporary state of innocence
before God their bodies still suffer the consequences of the presence of sin in
our world. Through no fault of their own that is why we still have childhood
diseases and birth defects. (As babies grow older they eventually go astray and
commit sin like the rest of us and become subject to its consequences. See Matthew
19:14, Romans
5:12; Romans
7:9, James
1:14-15) Romans
3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” The
Bible also says that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans
6:23).
Romans
1:18-32 states more emphatically just how deeply guilty we all are of sin.
So… according to the Bible,
death is caused by sin.
And we are all plagued by sin.
And its prognosis, if left
unchecked, is terminal.
3)
God is not only fair, He is JUST
Now since the Bible teaches that
all are guilty of sin and no one deserves salvation, it also teaches that God
has not abandoned the human race and left us in a hopeless predicament. It
teaches that God is willing to forgive. The Bible also teaches us that God is
not only a fair God but also a just God. To be just means to be absolutely fair
in the highest moral sense. So since we are all guilty before God and cannot
earn salvation, and since we therefore do not deserve to be forgiven—if God is
going to be willing to forgive one guilty, undeserving sinner, He has to also
be willing to forgive all guilty, undeserving sinners.
And being a fair, just God, He
does not show favoritism (Acts
10:35; Romans
2:11; Galatians
2:6)
And just as sin universally
affects us all, so also, God’s plan of salvation is available to us all.
Which leads us to our fourth
point to understand how God provides for our salvation…the death of His Son,
Jesus.
4)
Jesus was sinless, eternal and immortal—in the flesh
A)
Remember when God created Adam? Adam was immortal. It was not until he
committed sin that he died—that he became mortal. And since then the human race
exists as mortal beings. But in 1Cor
15:45 the Bible refers to Jesus as the second
Adam. Jesus was the only other man beside Adam to enter this world as an
immortal being.
B) “Very
truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the
voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has
life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he
has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.” (John
5:25-27)
“For as the Father has
life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”
So what does this mean? Jesus
was eternal. Jesus was immortal. That means he couldn’t die, right? But he was fully
human so of course he could die right? Yes, he was fully human just like us,
except remember although He had an earthly human mother, He was different from
us also in the fact that He did not have an earthly human father. His father
was God Himself. He was born of a virgin. So although He was just like us in
most ways, He was different in this other way. He was not only born of a
virgin, He Himself was the very Son of God in a human body—sinless, eternal,
and immortal. He could not die.
How can you say He couldn’t
die? He did die!
Well, the only reason Jesus
died, was He let himself experience the effects of death on his human body. He
allowed death to affect him and overcome him when He had the power to not allow
death to overcome him. As he explained to the disciples, “The
reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority
to lay it down and authority to take it up again...” (John
10:17-18)
Now I know what I am going to
say next might come as a big surprise to you. But if Jesus had not chosen to
submit his body to death there is nothing in God’s creation that would have
killed him!
If you had walked up to Jesus
and shot him in the heart with a gun, if He had so chosen, He would have lived.
Crazy you say? Not really. Consider His wounds from the cross. Not only were
the arteries in His wrists and feet pierced so He would slowly bleed to death,
the Roman spear thrust through his lungs and heart was basically equivalent to
a gunshot wound to the chest. And after Jesus was raised from the dead, He
appeared to Thomas and had Thomas place his fingers into the wounds in His
hands and side. These were the wounds caused by the crucifixion nails and the
Roman spear. They all saw it. Jesus was dead. And yet Jesus now lived. He
walked. He talked. He breathed. The nail holes were still there but Jesus did
not bleed out. The gaping hole in his chest was still there and yet it was not
gushing blood with every heartbeat. This was not a different body than the one
that hung on the cross. This was not a “glorified body” as some refer to it as.
No; It was the same one!
Let me put it to you like
this: If you had set off a nuclear bomb beneath Jesus and He had so willed it
to be, He would have come out of that explosion completely unscathed!
Completely.
Now before you scoff at the
idea and reject it, first consider that this is what basically happened in the
Book of Daniel. (Daniel
3) The things that are written in the Bible are not fairy tales. They are
real stories of real events that really happened. If you recall, Daniel’s three friends,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were tied up and thrown into a blazing furnace
that was heated seven times hotter than normal by Babylonian King
Nebuchadnezzar. (The closest thing we have from ancient times that would be
comparable to the heat of a nuclear explosion) The three men survived and came
out completely unscathed while the men who were ordered to throw them into the
furnace were burned up by the blast and incinerated instantly. At the sight
King Nebuchadnezzar declared that he saw a fourth man walking around in the
flames with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—one that looked like “the son of the
gods”. Most bible commentators believe this fourth man to be Jesus Himself. Now
I am sure someone will point out that this was Christ in his preincarnate form but that is to ignore the fact that He
could also protect three very human sinners from the astronomically hot burning
temperatures. When these three men walked out of that furnace they did not even
have so much as the smell of smoke on them!
Other Bible commentators think
this figure was merely an angel. But consider this: if it were only an angel, that
angel had the ability to not only protect himself from the blazing inferno but
he could also protect humans who were in there with him. So if this were merely
an angel, a much lesser being and much less powerful than the Christ Creator--
and this “angel” could perform such a feat-- the much more powerful Christ
would be able to do immeasurably more!
So when Jesus told His
disciples that He had life in Him just as the Father had life in Him and that
no one takes His life from him, but that He lays it down on His own accord He
was telling them He couldn’t die-- unless He allowed it. Yes, Jesus was 100%
human but He was also 100% God. Although He had an earthly mother, He did not
have an earthly father. His father was God Himself. So although Jesus was just
like us in one way—in His humanity, He was also different in a very important
way. Jesus had demonstrated for three years walking around earth doing
miracles, healing the sick and raising the dead that He had absolute power and
authority to control the most powerful curses that plagued and perplexed
mankind and over which mankind was completely powerless to fight against.
And by going to the cross and
surrendering His own immortal life He would demonstrate and prove to the world
He had absolute power and control over the most universally heinous and potent
enemy mankind has ever encountered--death.
Jesus had so much power that
even death itself submitted to Him while
He was dead!
Putting
it all together
So how did He submit to death?
By submitting to and taking on sin-- our sin.
By dying He would not become
King and therefore end up judging the world. The judge would die --and a dead
judge cannot judge. By “going away” (John 16:7) Judgment Day was postponed.
By dying the world would hear
the single biggest news story the world has ever known.
By dying the sinless and
immortal, fair and just God paid the consequences of and took upon Himself the
sins of the entire world.
So
if Jesus paid for everyone’s sins, then why do people still go to hell?
The reason people still go to
hell even though Jesus paid for their sins is that they fail to apply the
sacrifice of the cross to their lives… they fail to apply the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ to their sins…So how is that done?
Now THAT is the question to
ask! The answer is found in Romans
6:3-5:
“Or don’t you know that
all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We
were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the father, we
too may rise to new life. For if
we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Romans
6:3-5
The cross is how God applied
your sins to Jesus 2,000 years ago—long before you were even born. Baptism is
how God completes the circle and applies the sacrifice of the cross to your
sins today.
Let me say that again. The cross is how God applied your sins to
Jesus. Baptism is how God applies the cross to your sins.
So you see, as much as baptism
is about water, baptism is really about the cross. In fact, you might just say
the water of baptism is about nothing other than the cross!
So when people tell you you don’t need to be baptized to be saved, that’s like
saying you don’t need the cross to be saved! Nothing could be further from the
truth.
Jesus was both
our high priest and sacrificial lamb.
Normally, the
high priest would sacrifice the Passover lamb. But not this high priest. This
high priest was different. He would not sacrifice a lamb. He was the lamb.
This high
priest would sacrifice Himself.
3
The Blood of the Lamb
“They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb and by the word
of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from
death.”
–Revelation 12:11
From the very beginning God’s
plan of salvation for mankind has been about the blood of the lamb “slain from
the creation of the world” (Revelation13:8). When the Israelites exited the
land of slavery (Egypt) they made the exodus because the angel of death struck
all of Egypt’s firstborn but spared the Israelites who obeyed the command to
place the blood of lambs on their
doorposts. Paul refers to this in 1Corinthians 10:1-4:
“For
I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our
ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all
passed through the sea.
They
were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and
in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank
the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that
accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.”
What
is the illustration from Israel’s history?
EGYPT
Represents
being under slavery
Exodus
13:3
Then
Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt,
out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty
hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.
Exodus
13:14
“In
days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With
a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of
slavery.
Exodus
20:2
“I
am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of
slavery.
Deuteronomy
5:6
“I
am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of
slavery.
Deuteronomy
6:12
be careful
that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of
the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy
7:8
But
it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors
that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the
land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of
Egypt.
Deuteronomy
8:14
then your
heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought
you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy
13:5
…the
Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the
land of slavery.
Deuteronomy
13:10
…the
Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Joshua
24:17
It
was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt,
from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes…
Judges
6:8
he sent
them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I
brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Jeremiah
34:13
“This
is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your
ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery…
Micah
6:4
I
brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.
Jesus
said, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John
8:34)
“All have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God…”
(Romans
3:23)
What is the illustration from Israel’s
history?
God
rescues us from being enslaved to sin through baptism!
The exodus and the blood of
the Lamb:
Romans
6:3-5
Or
don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We
were therefore buried with him through baptism into
death in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we
too may live a new life. For if we have been
united with him in a death like his, we will
certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Baptism
and the blood of the Lamb:
What was the exodus about? It
was about the Passover event. And what was the Passover about? It was about
judgment and the blood of the lamb.
What is baptism about? It’s
about the cross of Christ. What is the cross pf Christ about? It’s about
judgment, and the shedding of the blood
of the Lamb!
So
now what?
Well, if you have never been
baptized for the forgiveness of your sins I urge you to do this before it is
too late. The Bible says there is only one baptism (Ephesians
4:4-5) And this one baptism is full immersion in water for the purpose
of being forgiven, reborn, and saved after one has repented or turned away from
their sins and desires an active relationship with God. (Acts 2:38; John 3:3-5;
1Peter 3:21; Acts 8:26-40; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 22:16) If you have not yet
received the one baptism taught in Scripture it is easy enough
to remedy and takes only a few moments to accomplish once the prerequisites of faith and repentance are met. In this faithful act of obedience God will not
only save you from the fire of eternal hell and grant you eternal life with a
new body in the kingdom of heaven but will also give you the gift of His Holy
Spirit to live in you and provide comfort and strength as a deposit
guaranteeing what is still yet to come (Acts
2:38, IICor 1:22; 5:5,
Galatians
3:26-27:4:6-7)
“Therefore
every Christian has enough in Baptism to learn and to practice all his life;
for he has always enough to do to believe firmly what it promises and brings:
victory over death and the devil, forgiveness of sin, the grace of God, the
entire Christ, and the Holy Ghost with His gifts. In short, it is so
transcendent that if timid nature could realize it, it might well doubt whether
it could be true. For consider, if there were somewhere a physician who
understood the art of saving men from dying, or, even though they died, of
restoring them speedily to life, so that they would thereafter live forever,
how the world would pour in money like snow and rain, so that because of the
throng of the rich no one could find access! But here in Baptism there is
brought free to every one's door such a treasure and medicine as utterly
destroys death and preserves all men alive. Thus we must regard Baptism and
make it profitable to ourselves…”
--Martin
Luther
1483-1546
Why
Jesus Died – Unveiling the Cross
This
page updated: May 15, 2022