4. Why did Jesus have to die?

C. S. Lewis, in his book “Surprised By Joy” (as far as I remember, but it may have been another one), tells us how one day, while he was at university, one of his fellow students came into the room with a document in his hand and stated, “You know all these stories about dying gods? Well, it looks as if one of them might actually be true!”

Indeed there are many myths and legends of dying gods, such as Baal in the Middle East or Osiris in Egypt, and most, if not all, are related to what you might call the cycle of nature – winter falls, the world becomes cold and dark, everything withers, the god has died; but then here comes the light and warmth of spring, nature revives, all is green and lush and the birds are in full song; the god has risen once again.

But the death and resurrection of the god who really did die and rise again had nothing whatsoever to do with the cycle of nature. Instead, it had everything to do with the greatest need of human kind – the need of salvation.

The name of the god was Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh, God Manifest.

There are many religions in the world, and most of them have a strong, charismatic founder, a great leader, a great teacher – Confucius, Moses, Gautama the Buddha, Jesus Christ, the prophet Mohammed. But Confucius did not have to die, nor Moses, nor the Buddha, nor Mohammed.

However, as you read through the four Gospels you’ll find that they all emphasise the central importance of the final days of Jesus’s life on earth, the details of the events surrounding His crucifixion, and His miraculous resurrection on the third day following His death.

Is the teaching not enough? Is His modelling of a sinless, righteous life not enough? What’s the point behind this grotesque and gruesome execution?

Why did Jesus have to die?

In all, there are six major reasons why the God-Man had to die and rise again. There may well be others which I have not yet become aware of, but these six are the most important ones.

1. Forgiveness of Sins

Approximately 600 years before Jesus of Nazareth was arrested, tried, and unjustly executed by crucifixion, the prophet Isaiah wrote about a ‘suffering servant’ of God, who would be persecuted and eventually killed by his own people, but that his death would be a sacrificial death which would open the door to forgiveness and reconciliation with God.

In your own Bible, please read Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

I heard someone ask one time, “If God wants to forgive people, why can’t He just forgive them?"

Well, if God was only interested in mercy, then I suppose that He could. But God is not only interested in mercy. He is also interested in justice.

Imagine someone who is, let’s say, a thief. Every time the police catch him and bring him to court, the judge extends mercy to him and awards him an absolute discharge. What will the outcome be?

Obviously, he will continue to steal. And why not? His crime pays, and there’s no punishment.

God does not simply want to forgive the sinner. God wants the sinner to become righteous. This means that the sin has to be paid for. But, as we have already seen, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Were God to demand that every sinner pay the price for their sins, every sinner would die.

What’s the solution?

Under the law of Moses, when someone had committed a sin and were sorry and wanted to be forgiven, they brought a sacrificial animal to the priest, laid their hands on the head of the animal, confessing their sin, and the priest killed the animal and offered it as a sacrifice to God (Leviticus 4).

This is a graphic picture of the SUBSTITUTION of the animal for the man or woman who had sinned. In other words, God is accepting the life of the animal as a substitute for the life of the sinner.

The two technical terms that are used in relation to this are:

• ATONEMENT, which we could think of as ‘at-one-ment’. My sin has separated me from God. Our relationship is broken because I have offended Him (Isaiah 59:1-2). In order for me to be reconciled to Him, I have to repent of my sin. He wants to forgive me and restore the relationship, but justice demands that the sin be paid for. He accepts the atoning sacrifice as payment for the sin and accepts me back into relationship with Him.
• PROPITIATION, which means restoration to a position of favour. Through my sin, I have lost God’s favour. The atonement restores me to a place of favour with God. I am back in His good books, you might say.

Look at the following verses from Isaiah 53:

Just as the sins of the sinner in Leviticus 4 were transferred to the sacrificial animal, so in this case the sins are being borne by the Suffering Servant. Can we identify who this Suffering Servant might be?

Of course we can. In your own Bible, please read Acts 8:26-40, where the evangelist Philip identifies Jesus as being the subject of Isaiah 53. Those verses speak about Jesus, and so do these ones:

Just as the sinner of Leviticus chapter 4 laid their hand on the head of the goat, confessing their sins and seeking forgiveness, and the goat took those sins upon itself and was slain, so everyone who has sinned today can come to the cross of Jesus Christ, confess their sins, and receive forgiveness from the Righteous Judge, who sees those sins as being paid for by Christ, who gave Himself to be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.

2. Victory over Sin

John tells us that God wants not only to FORGIVE us for the sins that we have committed, but to CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness.

What’s the difference?

Imagine a school-boy returned to school on the first day of the new school year with his new shoes, new blazer, new trousers, new shirt, new tie. On the way home after school, he and his mates go to play on their favourite patch of waste ground. When he arrives home, his mother is horrified to see him not only covered in mud but clothed in rags. His blazer is ripped at the shoulder and the breast pocket is hanging off. At least three buttons are missing from the shirt. The trousers are split at the crotch and both knees are naked. The new shoes are scuffed and scored, and one is missing its lace. The tie is nowhere to be found.

Seeing his normally loving mum beyond livid and ready to string him up to the rafters, he pleads for forgiveness, tears streaming down his cheeks. Her heart broken, she reaches out and hugs him, assuring him that he is forgiven and that all is well. She then sternly commands him to go upstairs, strip himself of the ruined outfit, and get into the shower.

She now has to determine what to do about the uniform. The buttons can be sewn back on to the shirt, and the blazer can probably be mended professionally. The trousers are beyond repair and must be replaced, as must the missing tie. The shoes can probably be made presentable again with a good scrub and polish.

The sin has been forgiven, but the mess still has to be cleared up. Somebody has to do the work, and somebody has to pay the price.

When I first gave my life to Christ and confessed my sins, I received God’s forgiveness, but something more needed to be done. Twenty-three years of sin (as it was in my case – perhaps more or less in yours) had left ingrained unrighteousness in my soul. I had developed all sorts of bad habits of thought, speech, and behaviour which needed to be cleaned up, and I was in no position to be able to do this by myself. I needed the help of God. I needed His grace. I needed the power of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ to wash away the stains.

Listen to Paul speaking to the church in the Greek city of Corinth:

You were WASHED, you were SANCTIFIED, you were JUSTIFIED.

You were made CLEAN, HOLY, and RIGHTEOUS by the power of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and by His resurrection from the dead.

The thief will always go back to thieving; the liar will always go back to lying; the adulterer will always go back to adultery unless something happens to cleanse their soul from the iniquity, the unrighteous tendency, that drove them to sin in the first place.

Isaiah tells us that the Suffering Servant would provide the solution:

And Paul tells us that it was Jesus who accomplished it on the cross, where Christ became sin for us. He became as we are so that we might become as He is:

As Jesus hung, bleeding and in agony, on the cross, He cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).

The reason was that, as Paul puts it, He had BECOME SIN, bearing in His own being the iniquities, the sins, the evil and the wickedness of the entire world. As a poultice draws the toxins out of a wound, so Christ was taking the poison of sin into Himself so that you and I might be cleansed of it.

But the poultice must be applied to the wound if it is to be effective.

I must come to the cross, confess my sins, and surrender my wicked heart to Christ so that He is permitted to carry out the operation.

The doctor can only heal me if I allow him to.

3. Victory over Satan

Who is Satan and where does he come from?

There are two passages of scripture in the Old Testament which give us some clues, although these passages do not state specifically that Satan is the subject. They are Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28.

Let’s have a look at the key verses:

Here we are presented with an individual who is called ‘Day Star’ and ‘son of Dawn’. In the King James translation it is, “O Lucifer, son of the morning”, ‘Lucifer’ being a Latin word meaning ‘light-bringer’. Clearly we are dealing here with a creature who is outstandingly resplendent, shining brightly like the brightest of stars in the heavens.

But look what goes on in his heart in verses 13 and 14. Instead of fixing his gaze upon the transcendent glory of Almighty God, he turns his attention to his own glory and decides that he should no longer be just another servant. He honestly believes that he can make himself like the Most High.

Compare this heart attitude to that of the true Son of God:

Satan (or Lucifer), the servant, set his heart on the place that belonged to the Son.

Jesus, the Son, let go of the place that was rightfully His and adopted the role of a servant.

Now let’s look at what Ezekiel says:

In this case, we see an individual who is assigned a place and a responsibility as a guardian cherub. Please don’t think of a cherub as being a baby boy with wings, as portrayed on some old paintings. A cherub is a powerful heavenly being who watches over the things of God and is God’s attendant (e.g. Genesis 3:24; 2 Samuel 22:11; 2 Kings 19:15; Ezekiel 10:1-3).

Assuming that this is Lucifer, who became Satan, and he was in Eden as a guardian cherub, this would explain how the serpent of Genesis chapter 3 came to be in the Garden of Eden. It would seem that the one who should have been on guard was actually the one who needed to be guarded against! The game-keeper had turned poacher!

He was made blameless, but became unrighteous and violent as he spent more and more of his time and energies on his own self-aggrandising agenda.

Crucially, he corrupted his wisdom in his quest for personal splendour, which means that although he is extremely intelligent, his vision is clouded and he, along with all the other spiritual ‘rulers of this age’ who joined him in his rebellion, is prone to serious errors of judgement, as Paul tells us:

By having Christ crucified, Satan was the architect of his own defeat:

Now, this does not mean, unfortunately, that the devil has been locked up in jail and is unable to cause havoc in the world. He is still at large, and as wicked as ever, ruining the lives of as many people as he can get his hands on.

The good news is that for everyone who has laid hold of the cross of Christ and has had their sins forgiven and is in the process of being purified, sanctified, and justified, they are under divine protection against Satan, the accuser, who is unable to touch them.

Satan knows that he is going to end up in the pit, but his strategy is to put off the evil day by turning as many people as he can against God. Before Christ died on the cross, this was easy. No-one was able to resist him.

But now, anyone who has put their faith in Christ is able not only to resist the devil himself, but set others free from his evil spirits, or demons:

4. Victory over Sickness and Pain

Sickness, pain, disease, illnesses of all kinds, whether physical or mental, are all effects of the fall, all the fruit of human sin.

Now, your personal sin may not be the immediate cause of your ailment – a congenital heart condition, for example, or being blind from birth (see John 9:1-7) – but mankind’s sin and Satan’s evil influence have brought about a degradation and a degeneration that makes us prone to weaknesses and sicknesses of various kinds.

On the cross, Jesus not only bore our iniquities; He also bore our infirmities and our diseases. Just as you can be cleansed from sin through faith in the Lord Jesus, so you can be healed from your ailments and set free from your addictions, and anything else which makes your life a misery.

Let’s look again at the words that Jesus spoke to His apostles as He commissioned them following His crucifixion and resurrection and before He ascended to heaven, as recorded in Mark’s Gospel:

All of these powers are enabled through Christ bearing our ailments, infirmities, and pains on the cross, but the key to us seeing them realised in our lives is faith – believing, which means being convinced of the truth, that what Isaiah said about Christ’s suffering actually took place and that God is empowering His servants, His children, to live in the fulness of that reality.

Divine healing is a subject on its own, and many books have been written, many sermons preached, many conferences held, and many ministries dedicated to bringing healing, health, and wholeness to those who are in need of it.

Often God will perform an instant miracle, but sometimes the miracle takes place in stages, or gradually over a long period of time.

Many ailments are of our own making, and can be rectified by a change of life-style or habit, and no miracle is required.

Many are the result of psychological injury or abuse, and may be alleviated by counselling or prayer for healing of the soul.

Many can be fixed by means of medication or surgery. God has no objection to working through the skilful hands of a doctor.

However, the door to all of our victories over sickness, pain, and trauma of various kinds was opened to us through the cross, where Jesus “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:17 – KJV).

God wants us not only to be forgiven and to be cleansed from our sinfulness, but also to be whole and healthy in spirit, soul, and body so that we can live full and fulfilling lives on this earth:

Sickness and pain are not ingredients of an abundant life.

5. Victory over Death

Do you remember the one and only rule that God set before Adam in the Garden of Eden? Here it is, to remind you:

Now, we can see from chapter 3 that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of that tree but remained alive. Satan, in the guise of the serpent, had assured Eve that “you shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4).

Did Satan get it right and God get it wrong?

The devil would certainly like you to think so, but he was telling a half-truth. They did not immediately die physically, although the process of their physical death had been initiated, but they did die spiritually.

God is the author of life (Acts 3:15; John 1:4), and all life comes from Him alone. Life cannot be sustained apart from God. Our sins create a separation between us and God (Isaiah 59:2). The further we are separated from Him, the less life we can draw from Him. The further we are from God, the closer we are to death.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the immortal Author of Life, surrendered Himself to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8), not for Himself, since He had the power to rise again from the dead (John 10:17-18), but for you and me, who were subject to death because of our sinfulness, with no hope of ever breaking free from its shackles.

But listen to what Jesus Himself said to his friend Martha following the physical death of her brother, Lazarus, whom Jesus was about to raise from the dead before hundreds of witnesses:

We will all die physically, and Christ has power over physical death, as He demonstrated by raising Lazarus, but more important is that He rescues us from spiritual death. This He accomplished on the cross, by entering into death Himself, then bursting its bonds to release all who would follow Him by faith:

There is, however, some hope for the physical body too, as Paul tells us:

6. A Change of Covenant

When God called Abraham out of paganism to be a worshipper and a follower of the One True and Living God, He entered into a covenant with him (Genesis 15). This meant that God and Abraham were now in a life-long committed relationship which could never be broken, except by the death of one of them.

The book of Exodus narrates how God led the people of Israel, Abraham’s descendants, out of slavery in Egypt and established a covenant with them, as a nation, to be His people and He would be their God forever (Exodus 19:3-8). Again, this meant a life-long commitment, which could only be annulled by either the death of the nation of Israel or the death of God Himself.

Many years later, at a time when Israel was in their deepest period of rebellion against Him, God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about a new covenant that He was going to make with the people of Israel:

The letter to the Hebrews identifies this new covenant as being initiated by the Lord Jesus Christ:

Now, the important point about a covenant, as has already been noted, is that the covenant is in force while both parties are still alive, but if one party dies, the covenant is annulled.

Moses was the mediator of a covenant between God and the nation of Israel:

In those days, a covenant was ratified in blood, expressing the seriousness of it. If two men were making a covenant together they would say something along the lines of, “May what has been done to this animal be done to me, and more also, should I ever break the terms of this covenant”, referring to the bloody death of the animal which had been slain for the sake of the covenant (for example, see Ruth 1:17).

Moses threw half of the blood against the altar, representing God, and the other half over the people. This covenant, which became known as the Covenant of the Law, would stand forever, unless either Israel or the Lord Himself should die.

On the evening before He went to the cross, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples.

With these words, the Lord Jesus was telling us that the ‘new covenant’ which Jeremiah spoke of was about to be instigated in His blood.

This new covenant is often referred to as the Covenant of Grace.

On the cross, Jesus shed His blood and died. This is significant in relation to these two covenants:

1. Since Jesus was God, His death brought an end to the Covenant of the Law, which had been made between God and the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai.
2. He shed His blood in order to establish the New Covenant, which is made between God and any individual man, woman, boy, or girl who confesses their sins, receives forgiveness, and surrenders their life to Him.

Do you remember this verse, which was quoted in a previous article?

The angel told Joseph that Jesus would save HIS PEOPLE from their sins. Not just anybody, but His people. So who was the angel referring to?

His people are those who have entered into a covenant relationship with Him through His sacrificial death and the shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary.

His own people (the nation of Israel) did not receive Him. They rejected Him. In fact, they handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified. But that very crucifixion made it possible for everyone else, including every individual Israeli, male or female, to enter into a personal covenant relationship with God and become one of His own precious, beloved, forgiven children.

And the good news is that that includes you.