It was an early Sunday morning following a late-night youth
group activity and I was driving a rented 15 passenger van to church. I was
living in Cuyahoga Falls at the time and my route to the church was through the
back roads going through the valley. There had been a heavy snow fall that
morning, but I did not want to take the long way around Akron on the highway,
so I thought I’d stick to my normal route.
As I was driving down Bath road, I began to feel less and
less confident about the road conditions. I started thinking about turning
around but kept going. Then there was this moment, the moment when I crossed
the “point of no return” line. I had just crested the steep part of the hill
and saw immediately two cars in the ditches on opposite sides of the road. I
prayerfully navigated between them, knowing I could not hit my breaks or I
would slide in too. As I passed them I could see farther down the hill and I
saw three more vehicles in the ditches. Praise God, He allowed me to make it
safely to the bottom of the hill.
In this story, there was a distinct “point of no return” a “defining
moment that changed everything.” It has continued to impact my driving
decisions in the snow to this day for sure. But each of us faces defining
moments in our lives. There are decisions or situations that we encounter that
alter our history forever.
As we consider our own record of history, there was an event
that changed our records for all time: the life, death and resurrection of
Jesus. Notice our calendar is measured in two units BC and AD, meaning “Before
Christ” and AD is Latin for “In the Year of our Lord”. There has been attempts
to remove the name of Christ from our history using BCE and CE, “Before Common
Era” and “Common Era”, but even those are measured by the event of Jesus
Christ.
So, we ask, Why did Jesus die?
Now I would remind
you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which
you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I
preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the Scriptures… 1 Corinthians 15:1–3
I’d like to explore four reasons why Jesus died, although
there are many, many more. Tonight we are going to look at 1) The Depravity of
Mankind, 2) The Holiness and Justice of God, 3) Prophecies, and 4) The Love of
God.
The Depravity of
Mankind (The Bad News)
The short answer is this, Jesus died on the cross so that we
don’t have to. We are depraved human beings, meaning we are all fallen sinners
and cannot earn our way back to God. The Bible is very clear on our sinfulness
and our desperate need for a Savior. As
we look back at the Old Testament, we see that God began the world and created
us good to be in a relationship with Him. But Adam and Eve chose to eat the
forbidden fruit and it brought sin and death into the world (Romans 5:12).
We can’t sit here and blame Adam and Eve, for all of us have
chosen, and continue to choose, to do our own thing (Isaiah 53:6). God created
us, but our sins separated us from Him and we cannot earn our way back. So God
sent His Son to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.
The Holiness and
Justice of God
Jesus came to die because God is a holy God and cannot
approve of sin. His justice demands that He punish sin. One commentator said it
like this,
“If God were not
unchangeably just, and mankind not incurably depraved, the death of Christ for
our sins would not have been necessary.”
The Scriptures testify to a God who will one day bring an
accounting to all the evil in the world. Romans 2:1-5 speaks of God’s goodness
and kindness is made known in order to draw us to repentance. Repentance is
needed because there is the very real danger of encounter the wrath of God’s
justice.
However, Jesus canceled out our record of sin by nailing it
to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14) when He shed His blood for the forgiveness of
sin (Hebrews 9:22). In this act, the Holy God is able to punish sin and appease
His wrath because of the sacrifice of Jesus.
Prophecies
One of the most amazing opportunities we have is to look
back on the record God has left us and see that His plan was always to send
forth His Son to die for our sins. Not only did God promise as Savior, but He
specifically laid out details on how Jesus would die.
Crucifixion was created by the Persians in 300-400BC and
then “perfected” by the Romans as a way to torture and kill the worst kind of
offenders. This method of execution was not in existence when the writers of
the prophecies penned these words:
“For dogs encompass
me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet…”
(Psalm 22:16 written by King David around 1000BC).
“But he was pierced
for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah
53:5 written by the prophet Isaiah around 600BC).
“And I will pour out
on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and
pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced,
they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly
over him, as one weeps over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10 written by the
prophet around 520BC).
Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies just like these
during His life and through His death. The precision and accuracy are amazing
and demonstrate the divine inspiration of the Bible. It would be impossible for
any man to fulfill the prophecies concerning Jesus unless He was God.
The prophecies show us that God had set a plan in motion and
is working out His plan of redemption.
The Love of God
It’s been said that the Bible is God’s “Love Letter” to us,
and in many ways, it is. The story of Hosea and Gomer is a small illustration
of God’s great love for us. If you would take a few minutes and look up John
10:18; John 15:13; Romans 5:8, 10 for instance you will learn a lot about how
the death of Jesus demonstrates the love of God.
As we read this, we see that Jesus declares that He is a
voluntary participant in the drama about to unfold. He chose to lay down His
life and face the cross for the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). The
greatest display of one’s love is to lay down their life for someone. Jesus was
willing to lay down His life for us while we were still rebelling against Him.
This is the length Jesus was willing to go to, in order to
show you and me how serious He is about loving us. You are loved beyond
measure. If you doubt that truth, look to the cross. This is why Jesus came,
this is why He died, to show you His love.
In the Year of Our
Lord
And so today we learn that our sins separated us from God. A
great gulf is fixed and we cannot cross it. God, in His holiness and justice,
cannot overlook sin and requires a just sacrifice. He promised to make away and
Jesus came to fulfill that way. Why would He do this? Because He is and kind
and merciful God who loves us very much. Do you know Him? Have you trusted Jesus’
perfect sacrifice for your sins?
Next week we will look at the evidence for the resurrection!
Happy Holy Week and a very Happy Easter to you!
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