Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

In order to answer this question, we must begin with the topic of sin.  Sin is the reason for His death, but why is a death required for sin?  Sin, by the definition of the word, is simply missing the mark.  The mark is God’s righteous requirement for entrance into His Kingdom (Heaven).  Scripture says over and over again about how we are to keep His commandments.  If we keep His commandments, we are His disciples and we will enter His Kingdom.

                To rebel against His commandments is to rebel against the King.  If a King sent you an invitation for entrance into his kingdom and in that invitation the King set forth obligations that needed to be met, you would have to meet those obligations in order to be allowed in.  To not meet the obligations, is to reject the King and his invitation.  The New Testament makes it clear that the moral requirements of God’s Kingdom are to keep His commands.  A quick review of the Ten Commandments will reveal that we are unable to keep His commandments.  Scripture also declares that if you fail in one point of the law (Mosaic Law), you are guilty of the whole law.

                Now let’s look at Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:1-24.  I’m sure you know these verses quite well.  What was the real reason sin entered the world?  Was a simple act of disobedience the issue or is there something more going on?  I Timothy 2:14 tells us that Eve was deceived when she took of the fruit, but Adam willingly ate of it.  This act was not merely disobedience, but rather a direct rebellion against God and his commands.  The heart of Adam became rebellious against God the moment he chose to disobey the One who gave him life.  Adam’s act of rebellion involved the following:

• ·         Lack of trust in God
  
• ·         Conscious decision to disobey
  
• ·         Doubted what God had said about the fruit
  
• ·         Denied the consequences God had warned him about
  
• ·         Failed to exercise dominion over the Serpent
  
• ·         Finally, he broke a covenant between him and God
  

                Knowing good and evil, Adam and Eve hid from God and then tried to cover up their sin using fig leaves.  What is wrong with the way they responded to their sin?  Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” And Acts 3:19 says, “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out”.  Man wants to cover his sin whereas God wants to blot out our sin.  How does God blot out sin?  Hebrews 9:22 says, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins”.  The shedding of innocent blood is necessary for the forgiveness of sin.

                How can God be loving and just at the same time?  This question is often worded, “How can a loving God send people to Hell?  We know He is loving, however we forget that He is “a God of justice” (Isa 30:18) as well.  We find a striking dilemma regarding this very question in Exodus 34:6-8 – “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”  In these verses, God describes Himself as loving; forgiving all kinds of sin, but will “by no means clear the guilty”.  Is God contradicting His own word?  In Exodus 23, God is rebuking the actions of the judges of the law when He says, “Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.” In addition, Proverbs 17:15 says, “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.”  Is God saying one thing and doing another?  Is God, by His own words making Himself an abomination by forgiving sin?  How can He forgive the guilty and not clear the guilty at the same time?

                Here is the great question that must be answered.  In order for God to remain just, He must punish sin.  If a judge sets a guilty man free, we would consider that judge to be unjust.  We might even seek his dismissal.  Is God simply above all that and we justify this act by saying things like, “’Well, He is God and He can do what He wants.’ or ‘One just has to accept it by faith’”?  To the natural man, this does not make sense and might even frustrate them.  We are not rightly describing the One True God.  How can God being Holy and Just tolerate sinful man without inflicting the full penalty for sin?  This time the answer is the all-time favorite Sunday school answer, “Jesus”.  Here is why we are forgiven:  Col 2:13-14 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”  In the Greco-Roman world, the “record of debt” was a written note of indebtedness. Paul uses this as a word picture to characterize each person's indebtedness to God because of sin. God himself has mercifully resolved this problem for all who put their faith in Jesus by taking this note and nailing it to the cross, where Jesus paid the debt. The image comes from the notice fastened to a cross by the Roman authorities, declaring the crime for which the criminal was being executed (ESV Bible note on Col 2:14).  When God spoke in Exodus 34, He was explaining His redemptive plan.  The guilty can be forgiven because of the finished work of Jesus. 

                What work then did Jesus accomplish?  We know that He was sinless; therefore He was not guilty of sin.  Romans 3:23-26 says, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.  For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”   Jesus is the propitiation by His blood.  What is propitiation?  Propitiation means to appease one person and grant favor to another.  In this passage, Jesus appeases God’s wrath and grants forgiveness to the sinner.  It is important to note that this appeasement is for those who have “faith in Jesus”.  We see Jesus considering the wrath that was to come when He went to Gethsemane and prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  Jesus did not fear the beating He was about to take or the Garrison of soldiers who would spit on Him, though this was part of His suffering; He anguished over the Cup of God’s Wrath that was to be pour out on Him for the sin of the world.  This Cup of Wrath was appeased or satisfied by Jesus “so the he might be just and the justifier” (Rom 3:26).

                The love and justice of God is only found in the person of Jesus Christ.  The person that rejects Jesus is rejecting the only acceptable appeasement of God’s wrath.  Therefore, God does not send the sinner to Hell; the sinner sends himself.  God in His great love and mercy provided a way to escape this wrath.  If God is to be just, He must punish sin.  The sinner that is not covered by the blood of Jesus WILL suffer the same wrath that was poured out on Jesus.  I will close with Romans 1:18-25 – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”