“Why Did Jesus Have To Die?”
March 14, 2016
“Why Did Jesus Have To Die?”
“He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”
(Mark 8:31)
“Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”” (Luke 18:31–34)
“Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to?” (Polly Toynbee)
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
- Forgiveness Demands the Cross
““As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
- God Has Been Wronged
“The serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” … she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 3:4–6)
“When two people offer you contrary advice for how to live and stake their character on the wisdom of their counsel and you choose to follow one and not the other, you defame the other’s character. It is inevitable. And that is what we do to God every time we sin instead of following in his way.” (John Piper)
““And now what do I have here?” declares the Lord … all day long my name is constantly blasphemed.” (Isaiah 52:5)
“Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”” (Galatians 3:10)
“When I really face off with the Cross, I’m brought to my knees in my own agony over what I’ve done—what I still do—that put him there. I’m chastened, put right, and reoriented by the Cross. As Isaac Watts so poignantly put it, ‘When I survey the wondrous cross . . . [I] pour contempt on all my pride.’” (Kelli B. Trujillo)
- Forgiveness Is God’s Only Problem
“Sin and the forgiveness of sins (I say it again with reverence) is the only problem God Almighty has ever faced. Nothing else is a problem for him.” (Timothy Keller)
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”” (Matthew 1:21)
[ Picture: “Lady Justice” ]
- Forgiveness Always Has A Cost and Somebody Pays
“And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9)
“you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:20)
“If you say God can forgive sins apart from faith in Christ, you have no idea of the Christian understanding of sin as a debt. You have no idea what a difficult thing forgiveness is for God, and you also have completely trivialized and made absolute mincemeat of the logic behind the death of Jesus Christ. It is now evacuated of its glory. You can’t have it two ways. Either Jesus Christ’s death is the only way to God or Jesus Christ’s death is utter absurdity. You choose. You tell me.” (Timothy Keller)
“Salvation comes no other way; no other name has been or will be given to us by which we can be saved, only this one. (Jesus)”” (Acts 4:12 Message)
“The Son paid for our sins, and in him we have forgiveness.” (Colossians 1:14 NCV)
- Jesus Pays, i.e., God Pays
“God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured.” (Romans 3:25 Message)