WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?
By: Jack Guyler
There is no simple answer to this question. After His death and resurrection, there is no clear explanation of what His death meant. In the Gospels, there is no clear explanation of the meaning of the cross. Hints are given through his life and teachings, but no definitive answer. Paul, in his writings, is the one who gives insights as to what the cross means to those of us living on this side of the cross. The early church struggled and debated as to what the meaning of the cross meant. And through the centuries, even to the present day, people struggle to define exactly what the cross means for us.
First, we need to be clear that Jesus didn’t have to die, but rather chose to die – He willingly gave up His life so we could live and experience life with God. On the human level, we know there were many false Messiahs prior to Jesus and during his life time that used violence and claimed they would free Israel from Roman control. These false Messiahs were killed and often many of their followers as well. Because Jesus didn’t use violence nor did He free his people from Rome, He was rejected as their king.
Also, He was a threat to the religious leaders because He taught the Kingdom of God was already in their midst through Him. His claim to be the Son of God, or equal with Yahweh, was the ultimate offense to the religious leaders. This was blaspheme and they wanted Him executed. But the real question is, why did Jesus willingly die when He could have prevented it and saved Himself from torture and death?
Two things seem to be clear both from scripture and in everyday life – there is something within all of us that leads to a propensity to do selfish things (the bible calls this sin) that seems to control us or enslave us like a drug. We know this in our own lives as we experience urges, desires and almost uncontrollable emotions to do things that we shouldn’t. Sin is missing the mark for worshipping God and living the way He designed us to live. The other thing is there are forces at work that continues to pull us away from God and toward evil, as Paul talks about in Ephesians 6. As we watch the news on a daily basis, we are very much aware of the evil around us and in our world.
The cross addresses both issues that plague us and our world.
First, the cross addresses the things we do that are against God and others. The cross is where God forgives us and absorbs the pain of what we have done upon Himself. When someone hurts or offends us, we have one of two options. We can make the other person pay (maybe it’s money or loss of a relationship or finding ways to get payback). Or we can decide to absorb the loss and not hold it against the other person. In other words, we cancel their debt – whether that be monetary, emotional, or relational.
I remember in my wayward years as a teen, I did many things to hurt my dad. My dad chose to forgive me, absorb many of the financial costs I had incurred, and kept the door open for us to have a restored relationship. I am so thankful that he did. I wasn’t in the headspace as a teen to have done this. We ended up having a better-than-ever father-son relationship after this. But the point here is, he absorbed the losses and as a result, brought healing to me and our relationship. Why did my dad do this? Because he loved me that much.
I think this is a picture of what Jesus did at the cross. God was in Christ, reconciling us to Himself. Paul puts it like this in 2 Corinthians 5:17-19
“ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”
Sometimes we forget that the ultimate message of the cross is about God’s love for us. Only love would have motivated Jesus to endure such pain and suffering for us. It is God’s love that compels Him to want to be close to us – to cling to us. The people you love most in your life you want to be close to. God has those feelings for us.
Sin always keeps us in bondage to things other than in love with God. God freeing us from those things that keep us in bondage is a picture of His love for us. Just as we despise seeing people we care about addicted to things that are destroying their lives, God hates to see us addicted to things that destroy our relationship with Him. Why did God free His people in Egypt? Because He loved them. Why did Jesus die to free us from bondage? Because He loves us.
Timothy Keller puts it this way:
“God did not, then, inflict pain on someone else, but rather on the cross absorbed the pain, violence, and evil of the world into Himself. Therefore the God of the bible is not like the primitive deities who demanded our blood for their wrath to be appeased. Rather, this is a God who becomes human and offers His own lifeblood in order to honor moral justice and merciful love so that someday He can destroy all evil without destroying us.” [1]
To really love someone means to enter their world…walk in their shoes…share their pain…live in the mess with them. You can’t live unattached and really love people. This is what God did on the cross. He entered our world…walked in our shoes…felt our pain…lived in our mess.
The cross reminds us that our God is not a distant God. He is not a God who can’t relate to us and our pain. God shares in our suffering as Hebrews 4:15-16 states:
“we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 1 Let us then 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.”
The other thing the cross of Christ addresses is the evil found in our world. The cross gives us hope that one day it will be done away with and that all of creation will exist as it was originally intended to be. Easter is about resurrection and new life – not just for Jesus, but for all people and all of creation. The bible talks about heaven coming to earth. Jesus encouraged us to pray for this. It talks one day about a new heaven and earth being established. The cross turns evil on its head and puts right things that were wrong. N.T. Wright puts it this way:
“The real enemy, after all, was not Rome but the powers of evil that stood behind human arrogance and violence…on the cross the kingdom of God triumphed over the kingdom of this world by refusing to join in their spiral of violence…on the cross Jesus would love His enemies, turn the other check, go the second mile.” [2]
The cross of Christ addresses both justice for wrongs that have been committed. They aren’t just forgotten or swept under the rug. They are dealt with. Justice prevails because God paid the price for our wrongs and sins. But it also addresses forgiveness. We are forgiven and set free from the sins and powers that hold us in bondage as we come to Christ through grace.
As I close, perhaps this word picture will help you see and feel what God has done for us through the cross of Christ. I had a good friend, Thom, who started a collie rescue (rescuing collies, but he would really rescue any dog that needed rescuing) many years ago in our area. He had a big heart for dogs who came through puppy mills, who were abandoned, neglected or abused. He would rescue them, take them in, clean them up, give them the food and water they weren’t getting, he would take them to the vet, and while he would try to get sponsors and donors to help, often he paid for their care out of his own pocket. He would do whatever it took to help restore them to being a fully alive dog again – what they once were when they were a puppy.
Some were so mangled that they couldn’t even walk. He would build carts for their little back ends to help them get around and have the feeling again of getting around on their own. Some of these dogs were the happiest dogs on earth despite their abusive backgrounds. I know because I spent time with Thom at his rescue and our family would end up rescuing three of them. They were the best dogs you could imagine.
But notice that it was Thom who paid the price to help rescue and restore these dogs. He spent his own time, sweat, energy and money to help heal these dogs and make them feel like what they were designed to be. He paid the price of helping to unite these dogs with homes and people who would love them and care for them.
I think this is a picture of what God has done for us through the cross of Christ. God Himself paid the price for us to be set free from the powers that have enslaved us. It is God who calls us home to be cared for, healed and made whole through Him.
[1] The Reason for God, (2008) Timothy Keller, p. 200
[2] Simply Christian, (2006) N.T. Wright, p. 110
