Why did Jesus die?

Why did

Jesus die?

ï&#x20AC;&#x201A; Looking Deeper

 Looking Deeper Why did Jesus die?

“J

esus died to save us.” This is often the standard answer to the question “Why did Jesus die?” And it’s true; but it doesn’t explain much. We can fully believe that statement and yet still be left wondering, But what does that really mean . . . ? Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection are the very centre of our faith. But it’s not necessarily something we find simple to explain. Maybe people are asking about what you believe, or maybe you want to get a better understanding yourself. Whatever your reasons for picking up this booklet, you are not about to read a theological essay on the cross. Ultimately, the reason we explore what Jesus did for us on the cross is not just so we grow in knowledge and sound clever. We study the cross to get to know Jesus better, appreciating who He is and all He has done for us. Hopefully we will discover that we cannot remain unmoved and unchallenged as we look at the cross. And as we study Jesus’ sacrifice, we will be brought into a deeper thankfulness and love for Him.

What we need to know

hen Paul wrote his first letter to the church in Corinth, he addressed a lot of issues they were having, including their mistaken understanding of what they thought it looked like to be growing in wisdom. They seemed concerned about becoming cleverer and knowing lots of ‘stuff’. Paul brought them back to basics, telling them that wisdom, knowledge and clever words do not impress God. He reminded them about how he first introduced them to Jesus: “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 2:2, emphasis added). Paul’s challenge to the Corinthians (and to us) is to remember that Christianity is not ultimately about logic, philosophical theories or winning arguments for God’s existence. Neither is it a religion built on traditions, good works, rules or ceremonies. When Paul was sharing Christianity in Corinth, and establishing a church there, he simplified it all down to one thing. He “resolved to know nothing . . . except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” The heart of Christianity is Jesus Himself; our relationship with Him and the fundamental truth that [2] WHY DID JESUS DIE?

He died to bring us into a new life with God. This was shown very clearly to us when Jesus actually died on the cross: [A criminal being crucified next to Jesus] said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” —Luke 23:42-43 How much did the criminal really understand about all that Jesus was achieving for him on the cross? He probably couldn’t have given a lecture on the new status and future Jesus had given him. All he knew was “Jesus Christ and him crucified”—and that he needed Jesus for himself. He was promised a place in heaven with Jesus simply because he turned to Him The heart of and trusted Him. “Jesus died to save us” Christianity is is true. For many of us it Jesus Himself; is the wonderful starting point of our life with Him. our relationship Yet there is a depth to this with Him and the truth for us to enjoy and explore. As we do, we will fundamental truth realise more and more that He died to how perfect our salvation bring us into a is because of everything Jesus achieved when He new life with God gave up His life for us.

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Exploring the cross

et’s explore some of the things Jesus’ death on the cross achieved. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it contains some of the basic, life-changing truths of “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Jesus’ glory. We do see Jesus . . . now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death. —Hebrews 2:9

This is possibly not the place we would expect to start. The idea that Jesus died to be crowned with glory and honour sounds really self-serving. Jesus’ death on the cross was an incredible act of love—but our sin confuses our understanding of what real love is. Sin puts me at the centre of the universe. So my happiness is based in myself, who I am, what I achieve, etc. The reality, though, is that I am not the centre of the universe, God is. And my happiness cannot ever be fully satisfied in myself and who I am, but in Him and who He is. And so I am shown most love not when my ego is boosted and I am directed more to myself, but when I am directed to Him. And so, the end result of Jesus’ death on the cross is the “glory of God”—and us turning our full attention to Him in praise and thankfulness: [4] WHY DID JESUS DIE?

Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. —Philippians 2:8-11 The presence of God is where we are most content and joyful (see Psalm 16:11). The end result of John Piper puts it like this: Jesus’ death on “If we are to be as happy as the cross is the we can be, we must see and savour the most glorious “glory of God”— person of all, Jesus Christ and us turning himself. This means that to love us, Jesus must seek our full attention the fullness of his glory to Him in praise and offer it to us for our enjoyment”1. Jesus died to and thankfulness. regain His full glory and, in doing so, we can know Him perfectly and find the true happiness only He can give. Judgement. We have all loved other things, and ultimately ourselves, much more than God. We have put ourselves at the centre of the universe and cut Him out, no matter how passively we might have done it.

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Our just, perfect God cannot simply let this go— sin, and the messy lives that come from it, deserves His judgement. And so we’re told we are under God’s “curse” because no matter how hard we try, we can never live up to His standard of perfection (Galatians 3:10). His judgement is good and necessary; it is a response to all those things (big and small) which corrupt the world He created and damage the people He loves. And we are all guilty: “There is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12). Yet this is the incredible truth of what happened on the cross: “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus took our place to absorb the full judgement of God, leaving us with no trace of His wrath still to face. Jesus didn’t ‘get rid’ of God’s judgement, He took it for us—because our sin must be punished, rather than just swept away. This is what leads John to write: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). We will never truly stand in awe of God until we realise what Jesus has rescued us from (God’s almighty and correct judgement) and how (by taking it on Himself). When we realise how unworthy we are of this rescue, then we will start to comprehend the amazing love of God for us, shown in the death of His Son in our place. God’s love displayed. As we read in Romans: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). [6] WHY DID JESUS DIE?

The key here is “while we were still sinners.” We had This is love: not no value in ourselves for that we loved Jesus to give His life for ours. We were enemies of God, but that God because of our sin, he loved us and turned against Him with no intention or ability sent his Son as an to turn back. And so the atoning sacrifice cross was not in response to our worth (as we were for our sins. “still sinners”) but to His 1 John 4:10 incredible love for us. We can only turn to and rest on the unchanging, immeasurable love of God. There is only one explanation for God’s sacrifice for us: “the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). As John Lennox summarises: “God has completed the work on which salvation rests: the death of Christ for human sin on the cross. In order to enter God’s rest we must rest on the work that Christ has done— not the work we do.”2 New life. People who have given their lives to Jesus have been made brand new by His death and resurrection (John 3:3). We are “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). His blood, shed in our place, pays for all our sin and “cleanse[s] our consciences” (Hebrews 9:14). We are given a totally clean slate. What is our “new creation”? We are God’s own children (John 1:12-13; 1 John 3:1)! Jesus’ death has

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transferred us into God’s family forever. We have a new purpose now: to live with and for Him. We have a new future now: God’s own home where we will be with Him face to face. And we have a new self: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. —Galatians 2:20 In Jesus’ death, we have also effectively died—in the sense that we no longer live for ourselves. Now our new life is all about Jesus. He gives us strength for each day; He leads us and directs us; He sets our purpose; and He will present us to God as holy and blameless. Jesus died to do away with our me-centred lives so we could be Jesus-assured and Jesus-centred instead. And we live this new life “by faith”. The cross achieves this new life and gives us everything we need in Jesus. So our role is to trust Him and keep on trusting Him, which is what it means to live “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Freedom from sin. Having a clean slate is one thing . . . keeping it clean is quite another! Jesus’ death frees us from facing sin’s penalty and from sin’s power over us. But our new life doesn’t just live itself. We are to “count [ourselves] dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). This means that we [8] WHY DID JESUS DIE?

recognise that the part of ourselves that wants to walk on the old sinful path has been crucified! The old ‘us’ is dead, and Jesus now lives His life through us. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires” (Romans 6:11-12). This isn’t about our ability or strength. While we are to actively live for God, the power for this new life comes from Him alone: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. —Revelation 1:5-6 We are given a new way of life already through Jesus’ blood which has freed us from sin. We are likened to “priests”, now living for God. Sin is no longer our master, Jesus is. There are still so many things we struggle with, and ways of living we want to see change—but these things do not affect what Jesus’ death has achieved for us. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross allows us to continue placing all burdens and failures on His shoulders for Him to bear. It also means we can always “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). We now have the choice to say no to sin and yes to God, and Jesus’ strength to do it in. How do we practically live this life and see this choice taking effect? We ‘die’ with Jesus on the cross (Matthew 16:24; Galatians 2:20). We give up our rights, our instincts,

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our needs and lay them all at the cross (1 Peter 2:24). It means we simply trust Jesus alone. As we do, we’ll find He is more than enough. God’s Spirit is within us so that we can be “led” by Him (Galatians 5:18) and live according to His good, loving character (vv.22Let us then 23). “For the Spirit God approach God’s gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, throne of grace love and self-discipline” with confidence, (2 Timothy 1:7). The more we get to so that we may know Jesus now, the more receive mercy we will find we want to and find grace live for Him and by the leading and strength of to help us in our His Spirit—because while sin is still an influence time of need. this side of heaven, it has Hebrews 4:16 now lost its condemning power over us. The devil defeated. The devil is referred to in the Bible as our “accuser” who “accuses [us] before God day and night” (Revelation 12:10). But “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). It’s like the devil is the prosecutor in the world’s courtroom, listing our crimes and the evidence of them to God the judge. But in Jesus’ death, our crimes are paid for in full and God’s justice is fully satisfied. [10] WHY DID JESUS DIE?

The devil now has absolutely no power to accuse us. We are free from condemnation (Romans 8:1). [God] forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. —Colossians 2:13-15

Satan is now “disarmed”! He did have power over us and a strong case against us, demanding that we be condemned. But Jesus has made a “public spectacle” of those accusations and that power, “triumphing over them by the cross” where he became the accused for us and took the just punishment in full. Now there are none who can stand against us, accuse us or judge us as unworthy of heaven. The church. In Revelation this song is sung to Jesus who is the “Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6): With your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. —Revelation 5:9-10

Church isn’t just the place we meet up with other Christians—Revelation gives us a powerful picture of who we truly are as God’s church: His own special

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people. Because Jesus’ blood has been shed in our place, we have been made into “a kingdom and priests to serve our God”. No matter who trusts Jesus—where they are from, what they have done, what language they speak or what time in history they live—we are all given the incredible title of “priests to serve our God” and will all “reign on the [new] earth”. Paul also talked about the unity and new kingdom that Jesus’ death and resurrection created. In Ephesians, Paul even described how God’s purpose for Jews and gentiles, with totally opposing histories and stances towards God, “was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:15-16). So whether “far away” or “near”, all “have access to the Father by one Spirit” (vv.17-18). Now there is one people with one foundation and purpose, united by something much stronger than likes and interests. Those who trust Jesus are, together, the family of God. In Him, all divisions can end and love for others can truly begin.

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Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, John Piper (pg. 117) Seven Days that Divide the World, John Lennox (pg. 114)