Why
Jesus Had To Die
Christians
have widely celebrated the birth of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ during our
observance of Christmas Day. Christians have also marveled at the amazing
miracles He performed and the words of the wisdom He provided for mankind that
only the Son of God could bring. Further still, as the Son of God we might have
asked ourselves: “Couldn’t He have blocked the attempts of the Enemy to destroy
Him?” As a result, many have sought an answer to the question: “Why did
Jesus have to Die?” Our Bible contains
several answers to that question.
The first
and probably most critical answer was explained in the Book of Genesis shortly
after Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden.
Do you remember the penalty that the LORD God pronounced on the Serpent (Lucifer/Satan)
for his actions leading to Adam’s sin? That sin brought death into the world for man
and God’s creatures. It also ended man’s dominion over the Earth. Then the LORD God said to the Serpent: “And I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3: 15)
To
better understand the full meaning of this punishment, we can turn to the
Strong’s Concordance. It provided the following definitions for some key words:
“Seed”
– Strong’s Number 02233 – Hebrew Dictionary – “This verse (Genesis 3: 15) uses
the word in several senses. The first appearance means both the descendants of
the snake and those of the spiritual being who used the snake (Satan and evil
men). The second appearance of the word refers to all the descendants of the
woman (mankind) and ultimately to a particular descendant (Christ).” That last reference to “Christ” was further explained
in describing Him as the descendant “of moral quality (a practitioner of
righteousness)”.
“Bruise” – Strong’s Number 7779 –
Hebrew Dictionary – “overwhelm, break, crush, bruise, to fall
upon” (Emphasis added) [To kill a snake, you crush its head!!]
As
we learned through our Bible study, the “LORD God” who spoke those words was later
identified as “Jesus of Nazareth”. (Exodus 6: 2-3; Acts 2: 36; Philippians 2: 9-11; Titus 2: 11-13) He
was alerting the Enemy (and us) that He Himself would punish the Serpent /
Satan by destroying him and those who would help him. (Revelation Chapters 19
and 20) Further, the LORD God / Jesus was
telling the Enemy (and us) that He Himself would bear the penalty of death on
behalf of mankind by allowing Himself to be crushed / broken. (However, by
allowing only His “heel” to be so “bruised”, we were to understand that the injury /
harm was not to result in a permanent death as would be suffered by the Enemy.
Because of His love for man, saving
believers from the death penalty inherited through Adam’s sin was the primary
reason that Jesus had to die. Most Christians recognize
this through the familiar Bible verse found in John 3: 16, which says: “For God
so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
A
second key reason that Jesus had to die was to complete the process of shedding
the blood that defined His human nature. Remember, that in order to pay the death penalty
for all mankind through His death, He had to leave heaven and take on the form
of a man and be born by birth through the Virgin Mary. The LORD explains in our Bible that “the life of all flesh is in the blood”, and
it is the blood that makes the atonement for the (sins of) the soul.” (Leviticus
17: 11-14; Exodus 24: 8; Matthew 26: 28)
[This also explains that as with Adam, when God gave us that first
breath at birth, our soul / spirit was imparted through our lungs into our
blood stream. (Genesis 2: 7)]
Because
man committed the sins, it would require the blood of a man to atone for those sins. But only the pure, sinless blood of “the man Jesus” could meet
the standard of Righteousness required by God to atone for the sins of mankind.
That is why Jesus had to die…and take His sinless blood to the altar in
Heaven for presentation to and acceptance by our Heavenly Father. (John 20:
11-17; Hebrews 9: 11-28)
A
third key reason that Jesus had to die was explained by our Lord Jesus to His Disciples during His
Earthly Ministry. Near the end of that
Ministry, He had come to Jerusalem for that last time for the Feast of
Pentecost. When some Greeks / Gentiles sought to meet with Him, He responded by telling
His Disciples: “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit.” (Underline
added)(John 12: 20-26) Through His shed blood, and having removed the “unrighteousness” from those who would
follow and believe in Him, He would open the pathway for the “Comforter”, the Holy
Spirit to “take up a residence” inside of them / us. (John 16: 1-22; Acts 1: 1-8, 2: 1-4; Romans 8:
1-17; 1 Corinthians Chapter 12)
In
His Divine knowledge of God’s Plan for the salvation of mankind, Jesus knew He
was going to fulfill His mission to die to atone for the sins of mankind. He
also knew that through His death, the numbers of His followers would grow tremendously….including
us today. The Enemy noted above in Genesis 3: 15 could “bruise His heel”,
but would not be able to destroy all the “seed of the woman.”
A
fourth reason that Jesus had to die was so that He could return to “sit on the
right hand of the Father” in Heaven. (Psalm 110: 1; Matthew 22: 44; Acts 2: 34; and others.) As you might
recall, the Enemy of Genesis Chapter Three deceived the woman, who later
influenced Adam to sin and thereby bring death into the world. Since then that
same spiritual Enemy (Lucifer / Satan) has continued to approach God’s Throne
in heaven to serve as “The Accuser” of those who follow Jesus, when they
sin by breaking one of God’s Laws. (Revelation 12: 7-10). However, the Holy
Spirit who resides in believers continues to inform our Ascended Lord Jesus
that we as believers are under the protection of His blood. He has already atoned for our sins. In that
manner, our Lord Jesus serves as “The Advocate” for us with the Father.
(1 John 2: 1-2)
These
are some key reasons why Jesus had to die.
There might be others, but those were quickly brought to mind by the
Holy Spirit. If you think of others,
please let me know.
Dr.
W. A. (Bill) Robinson
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