WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?

Jesus died on the cross to bear sin’s punishment
for believers. Many people have doubted Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, despite historical evidence. Muslims question, “Why would Allah require His prophet Isa to die?”

The Scripture explains that
Jesus Christ died for our sins:
“Christ died for our sins in
accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3b-4).

Scripture affirms that the
sinless Jesus bled and died on
the cross to pay the
punishment for believing
sinners. Let’s study the
Scriptures, the Bible, to find out why Jesus’ death and
resurrection provide the only
entrance for sinners into
paradise.

THE PUNISHMENT FOR SIN IS DEATH

The Bible says the holy God
created earth and man
perfectly. But Adam and Eve fell to the temptation of Satan and disobeyed God. Ever since Adam’s sin, sin has infected the human race. Each person is guilty: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Sin is not just big things like
murder or blasphemy but also
includes lying, lusting, and
stealing. Even the love of
money or hatred of enemies is sin, according to the Bible. Good works cannot make up
for wrongs against the holy
God. Compared to His holiness, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6b).

Having sinned against God, we deserve His punishment. A
judge who pardons lawbreakers isn’t a good judge. Likewise, God will not overlook sin. He pours out His righteous wrath against sinners (Romans 2:1-11). Unbelieving sinners pay for their sin by suffering eternal death in hell: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a).

THE PROMISE REQUIRED AN INNOCENT DEATH

Although God banished Adam
and Eve from the garden and
the tree of life, He gave them
hope of salvation and paradise. He promised to send the woman’s offspring—Jesus— Who would conquer Satan (Genesis 3:15). Until then, men would sacrifice innocent lambs as a substitute for the punishment they deserved. Sacrificing an animal showed men’s humble
acknowledgement that their sin required death and showed their faith in the future offspring and sacrifice from God—Jesus—Who would bear the believer’s penalty once and for all.

THE PROPHETS FORETOLD JESUS' DEATH

From Adam to Jesus, God sent
prophets to mankind, warning them of sin’s punishment and foretelling the coming Savior. Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah described Him:

“Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been
revealed? For he grew up
before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or
majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was
despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as
one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our
transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has
laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he
was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he
shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a
portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the
transgressors; yet he bore the
sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:1-12).

The prophet compared the
coming Savior to a lamb,
slaughtered for the sins of
others.

Centuries later, Jesus fulfilled
Isaiah’s prophecy. Although
Jesus is eternally one with God, God the Father sent His Son to earth (John 3:16). Jesus is the promised offspring of the woman (Genesis 3:15), born in human flesh to the virgin Mary.
God witnessed that Jesus is His own Son (Matthew 17:5). On seeing Jesus, the prophet John the Baptist cried, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Taking the sin of the world as
the sacrificial Lamb of God is
why Jesus had to die. He came to take the punishment for sin -death. Jesus prophesied His own death many times: “And taking the twelve, he said to them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be
accomplished. For he will be
delivered over to the Gentiles
and will be mocked and
shamefully treated and spit
upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the
third day he will rise’" (Luke 18:31-33).

GOD SACRIFICED JESUS FOR SIN

During the life of Jesus, crowds thronged around Him for healing and teaching, but the religious leaders scorned Him. They arrested Him and charged Him with blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God (Luke 22:70). Mobs cried out, “Crucify Him!” Soldiers beat, mocked, and crucified Him.

On the cross, Jesus bore the punishment of sin. At His
death, He cried out, “It is
finished” (John 19:30b). Jesus finished paying the
punishment for sin as the
perfect Lamb of God.

As Isaiah prophesied, Jesus
was crucified in between two
criminals and was buried in a
rich man’s tomb. But Jesus
didn’t remain in the grave. As
He prophesied, Jesus rose from the dead, proving His victory over sin and death.

WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?

Jesus died for believing
sinners. We cannot reach
paradise on our own merit.
Remember, the holy God will
not let sin go unpunished. If we bore our own sins, we would suffer judgment in the flames of hell. But God sacrificed Jesus as the believer’s perfect Substitute.

The Scripture says, “For while
we were still helpless, at the
right time Christ died for the
ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified [made righteous/good] by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation
[restored relationship].

“Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. . . . So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the
many will be made righteous.
The Law came in so that the
transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:6-12; 18-21).

Jesus died to provide the only
way to eternal life. If God is
showing your sin and need of
Jesus, repent, turning from
your sin and own way of trying to please God. You cannot fix yourself. Believing the Bible’s truth about Who Jesus is and what He did, trust in Jesus as Savior from sin and follow Him as the Lord of your life. He will
lead and strengthen you through His Word, the Bible.

By Tim LaHaye