Why did Jesus have to die?
For Meditation (Ed Satterfield)
We talk about Jesus dying for us and it is a central aspect of the good news we believe. But did Jesus have to die? Could He have brought about our salvation some other way? We will explore this critical question this Sunday. God is God so He is certainly capable of solving problems in different ways.
As we have seen throughout our study of these great questions this summer, God’s ways are beyond our comprehension and there is a lot of mystery. We rely on what God has told us about the questions we raise and God’s Word is full of information about why Jesus died.
As we read the gospels, Jesus Himself told his disciples repeatedly, I must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and then be raised on the third day (Luke 9:22). He knew and purposed to die. Why did He do that? Did He have to?
Understanding the problem of our sin and the damage it does helps us see why Jesus died for us. Paul tells us that “the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23). Our sin causes massive destruction in our lives, our relationships, and our world. It demands a consequence. We owe a debt that we must pay and the penalty is death.
Jesus willingly goes to the cross, suffering and dying for us. His death not only pays our debt, it also brings restoration to all the damage we have done in our sin. Jesus death and resurrection are the central pieces of the work that Jesus has bring justice for sin and the damage we create and to heal the world. It is all due to God’s deep love for us expressed so graphically in Jesus. When we grasp how desperate our situation is, how helpless we are, we only have adoration and gratitude for the amazing thing that Jesus does in dying for us. We’ll celebrate that this Sunday as we study God’s Word and celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper!
For further reading: Romans 5:6-21; Hebrews 10:1-25
Hebrews 10:10-14
We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.