Why Did Jesus Have To Die?
With the Easter-holiday that has come and gone, it is necessary to address this all so very important date [on the Christian calendar], for all Believers in the world. While the secular [business] world seizes the opportunity to make their pitch for making money off this holiday by advertising their goods as per ‘Easter specials’, and the all to eager foolish public that fall hook, line and sinker for it, one cannot but come to the conclusion that there is no – more respect for the meaning of what this time of the year holds for the so-called Christian world.
But for us who know Jesus as Lord and Saviour this is a time of remembrance that God Almighty was and is reconciling the world [mankind] back to Himself through the death of His Son Jesus.
2Corinthians 5: 18+19 states, ‘And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation [v18]; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation [v19….KJV]
Colossians1: 19+20 states, ‘For it pleased the Father that in Him [Jesus] should all the fullness dwell [v19]; and, having made peace through the blood of His Cross; by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven [v20…KJV]
Romans5: 10 states, ‘For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His [Jesus] life. [KJV]
So there we have it clear as daylight that God through His Son Jesus Christ was and is still reconciling the world back to Him-self. There was no other way in which God Almighty, could repair the relationship that He [Father, Son and Holy Ghost], had with His most prized creation, Mankind!!!! In the Old Testament dispensation there always had to be the shedding of [innocent] blood, for the forgiveness of sin.
Hebrews 9:22 states, ‘And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission [KJV].
In other words, if there is no shedding of blood of innocent animals there would have be no reconciliation with God. All through the time of the ‘Old Testament Law of Moses.’ the Israelites [Jews] had to go through the ritual of slaughtering a lamb, with no blemishes [no physical defect, or flaw or spot], according to Exodus 12: 5+6. If the lamb had any blemishes God Almighty would reject the offering or sacrifice. In Genesis 3:21, God was the first to slaughter an animal to clothe Adam and Eve with the skins, because of there disobedience [sin] to His commands. Because of Adam’s disobedience to God’s commands, the Lord put forth this prophecy;
Genesis 3:15 says, ‘And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise its heel [KJV].
Jesus Christ the Redeemer and Saviour fulfils this prophecy through His victory over Satan. This wonderful promise of a Messiah, spoken of here can be clarified through the following scriptures.
Isaiah 9:6, ‘For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace [KJV].
Matthew 1:23, ‘Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name ‘Immanuel’, which being interpreted is, God with us [KJV].
Galatians 4:4, ‘But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law [KJV].
Romans 16:20, ‘And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly [KJV].
And so God Almighty fulfils His promise by sending the ‘Offspring’ of the woman’s seed [Genesis3:15]. The ‘fullness of time’ of time had arrived and the second [2nd] Person of the Triune God, ‘The Word’, now enters the world arena.
At the appropriate [or right] time God sent His Son [Jesus] as the ultimate sacrificial Lamb. As the ritual of slaughtering [literally] thousands of ‘bulls and goats’ year after year was of divine appointment, and very excellent and useful in its time and place, yet, when it was up in competition with Christ [as it was designed to only lead the people], it was very proper and necessary to show the weakness and imperfection of it.
Let’s see what the apostle Paul has to say concerning the imperfections of these sacrifices.
Hebrews 10:1 says, ‘For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year continually, make the comers there-unto perfect’ [KJV]
Hebrews 1:2 says, ‘For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins’ [KJV]
Hebrews 1:3 says, ‘But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sin every year’ [KJV]
Hebrews 1:4 says, ‘For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin’ [KJV]
Are you staring to get the picture what the apostle is saying; why it is impossible that the blood of animals can no longer take away or cleanse us from our sin. According to the law this was only a ‘temporary covering of sin’
What do you say we take a look see what Matthew Henry has to say in his Commentary on pp 2395?
“That the law had a shadow, and but a shadow, of good things to come; and who would dote upon a shadow, though of good things, especially when the substance has come? The things of Christ and the gospel are good things; they are the best things; they are best in themselves and the best for us: they are the realities of an excellent nature. These good things were under the Old Testament, good things to come, not clearly discovered, nor fully enjoyed. That the Jews then had not but the shadow of the good things of Christ, we under the gospel have the substance.
The legal sacrifices, being offered year after year, could never make the comers there-unto perfect; for then there would have been an end of offering them. Could they have satisfied the demands of justice, and made reconciliation for iniquity – could they have purified and pacified conscience. But this was not the case; after one day of atonement was over, the sinner would fall again into one fault or another, and so there would be need of another day of atonement, and of one every year, besides the daily ministrations.
Whereas now, under the gospel, the atonement is perfect, and not to be repeated; and the sinner, once pardoned, is ever pardoned as to his state, and only needs to renew his repentance and faith, that he may have a comfortable sense of a continued pardon. The atoning sacrifice must be one capable of consenting, and must voluntarily substitute him-self in the sinner’s stead: Christ did so!!
There was a time fixated and foretold by the great God, and that time had now come, when these legal sacrifices would be no longer accepted by Him or useful to men. Thus industriously the apostle [Paul] laid low the Mosaic dispensation.”
This is what Matthew Henry has to say concerning the doing away of ‘animal sacrifices’ and the time of repeal of the Levitical laws was foretold by David [in Psalms 40:6+7], and is recited here as now come.
So the coming of the Messiah [Jesus] put an end to the ritual of animal sacrifices, as atonement for the sins of mankind. John [the Baptist] introduced Jesus as the ‘Lamb of God’.
John 1:29 states, ‘The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’ [KJV]
The prophet in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah had this to say about the Messiah [Jesus Christ] as the sacrificial Lamb; ‘He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth [v7 KJV].
The apostle Peter had this to say about the Messiah as regards the sacrificial Lamb;
1Peter1:19 states, ‘But [you were purchased] with the precious Blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot [KJV].
1Peter1:20 states, ‘Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you’ [KJV].
So even as the prophet Isaiah through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit spoke of the coming Messiah as of a sacrificial lamb; so does John [the Baptist] who as a ‘voice in the wilderness’ and a fore-runner, announces the Messiah as the Lamb of God ‘who taketh away the sin of the world’; so the apostle Peter proclaims that we were bought with the Precious Blood of Jesus, like manner of a [sacrificial] lamb without blemish or spot. The apostle also proclaims that Christ was chosen and fore-ordained [destined and foreknown] before the foundation of the world, that He would be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.
Well there we have it folks! Jesus Christ the spotless Lamb of God was and is the ultimate sacrifice for all of fallen mankind. According to Hebrews 9:28, He died once for all, and will appear a second time [the Rapture and the Second Coming], not to carry any burden of sin, nor to deal with sin [except to judge the unrighteous world], but to bring to full salvation those who are [eagerly, constantly, and patiently] waiting for and expecting Him.
Hebrews9:28, ‘So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation’ [KJV].
As I close this message, it is interesting from the research I did as regards the Jewish nation [Israel]. The Jews had rejected the sacrifice of Jesus as replacement for the ‘animal sacrifices’ [Read up on this in Matthew 27]; and surely the most damaging words spoken by the chief-priests, and the elders and the people [Jews] on that fateful day can be found in verse 25.
Matthew 27:25 reads, ‘Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be upon us, and our children’ [KJV]
Approximately seventy [70] years later, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Jewish nation [Israel] scattered all over the world. God Almighty [in His plan for Israel] brought the nation [Jews] back to their promised land only in 1948. And today the ‘slaughtering of animals’ have been replaced by some of the following customs and religious—festivities;
Rosh Hashanah --- The Jewish New Year
Shabbat --- The Day of Rest
Yom Kippur --- Day of Atonement
Sukkot --- Festival of Booths
Purim --- Festival of Lots
Passover --- Feast of Freedom.
Be blessed in this time of remembrance as regards the death and resurrection of the world’s Redeemer.
Shalom!!
William Cook
