Why Jesus Had to Die

Outside the city of Jerusalem is a place called Golgotha. There we see the man, the Son of God, hanging upon a cross – a man who had done nothing worthy of death. We see him hanging until he finally dies. We ask ourselves, as we look at the Son of God placarded before the eyes of the whole world, Why did such a sinless man have to die? What did he accomplish in his death? How are we forgiven through him?

Jesus had to die in the first place because he was mortal, he was subject to the nature which God had condemned to death back in Genesis 3. But more than that – why die on a cross? He died on the cross because God asked him to, as a representative man, for us, to show us what needs to be done to the flesh which we possess.

Hebrews 2:14 summarises one aspect of what Jesus Christ showed upon the cross: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." He destroyed whatever had the power of death, called here "the devil". What had the power of death? What is the devil? It is called elsewhere "the enmity", and results from the weakness of the nature we possess. This nature is the consequence of the first sin, so that every living person is susceptible to temptation, sin and death.

Therefore the Lord Jesus, in his life and in his death, destroyed every impulse to sin and declared this openly on the cross.

The weakness and frailty of mortality is inconsistent with God’s eternal kingdom, and our bodies must be changed if we are to live for ever. If this was true for an innocent man, a man who had never succumbed to evil desires, then it must be true of us, too, who sin constantly. When Jesus allowed himself to be nailed to the cross, he was declaring that God’s condemnation of sin was just: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness : that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:25-26).

Jesus showed that God was righteous in His condemnation of sin, and by sentencing Adam to a life of mortality because he was disobedient. Thus Jesus:

Declared God’s righteousness for the remission of sins (Romans 3:25).

Destroyed sin in his body of flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:14).

In the Lord Jesus Christ’s death and sacrifice, God is exalted and vindicated and sin is destroyed and crucified. The moment Jesus died upon the cross the battle between flesh and spirit was finished, the desires and impulses ravaging through his body were put to death, the serpent power in him was destroyed, and the mind of the spirit was victorious.

What has the Lord's death accomplished for us? If we come in faith, honouring God, and identify with these principles Jesus showed in his death, God will forgive us. If we confess and declare our sins, recognizing just what position we are in, God will forgive us upon the foundation of these truths shown in His son’s sacrifice.

Photo: Bro John Muyala during his missionary trip to Mwanza, giving the word of exhortation

Bro. John Muyala (Bungoma, Kenya)