Why did Jesus have to die?

But let us not fail to notice that before the judgment actually came upon the firstborn in Egypt, God did, in His great love and pity, proclaim by His servant the way of safety. So He does now by the gospel, blessed be His name! The people of Israel were told to search for and take a lamb without blemish. This was the first thing. It must be without a spot, in order to be a fit type of Him it was intended to represent, who would hundreds of years after this be found here as the holy, pure, and perfect Lamb of God. Then, observe, this spotless, unoffending lamb must be killed, because nothing could meet our need less than the death of the holy Son of God. Most pure and perfect as His life was, yet had He stopped short of death, whatever other sufferings He had endured, no one could have been saved. It was absolutely, imperatively necessary that Jesus should die; for the wages of sin is death; and, blessed be God, Jesus did die — He "died for the ungodly." This was His perfection, He "was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." For this, too, He came down from heaven; for He "was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." Then, on the cross bearing sins, and forsaken of God because our sins were upon Him, He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. However precious the life of Jesus was — and most precious it was to God, and is to us — yet His death, the shedding of His blood, the laying down of His life, became necessary to meet the holy and righteous claims of a just God against sin to deliver us from its guilt and condemnation, in order, too, that "we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

The reason of this is very plain. Death is the penalty of sin. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). If that is so, ONLY death can meet that penalty. If the sinner is to be forgiven the consequences of his sin, someone must die for him. That someone must be one who is sinless himself, one on whom death has no claim. Who can answer to that test? Only One, and that One is the Lord Jesus Christ. So He could say: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by Me" (John 14:6).

The salvation of sinners has always been connected with blood-shedding and death. The reason is obvious. Sin's wages is death. The law of holiness and truth is, that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Death, then, is God's just appointment to man, because he is a sinner. Man dies only because of sin. Death entered into the world by sin. The only way, therefore, of justly putting away sin was by death; and that no sinful man could die for the sin of another is clear, because he must die for himself. The Son of God, on whom death had no claim (because He knew no sin), was able to die for others. Nothing less than His death could save us, because we deserved death. Therefore, in matchless grace, Christ died for us — the just for the unjust. "He died for our sins;" and as the life of the flesh is in the blood, so the shedding of blood is spoken of, in Scripture language, as the laying down of life. Hence we are told that "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."

The answer is plain. We must needs die because we have sinned; He must needs die if we are to be saved and blessed. So the Word of God goes on to say the reason of His being lifted up on the Cross is "That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:15).

He loved Sinners. His desire was to save them and fill heaven with them; but if the glory-gates were to be opened and sinners welcomed to God's home the judgment which their sins deserved had to be endured. The life of a holy, spotless Victim had to be offered instead of the guilty, if the guilty ones were to be pardoned. And so great was His love that we read Christ died for the Ungodly.

God does not want the death of the sinner; He would like all to be saved (Ezek. 18:23; 2 Peter 3:9). But it would be incompatible with His character as a just Judge to save sinners simply because of His love for them. He would be violating His own law if He did so. Suppose the Judge, after pronouncing sentence on the guilty, proves His love by sending His own Son to undergo the death sentence that the guilty one deserved. Would not the Judge then be just in setting the guilty one free? That is exactly what God has done; He justified us by the blood of His Son. His well-beloved Son has “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26). “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

I feel I have given you the simple message that seemed to be laid upon my heart. We began with the desire, “O God”, not just Israel but for all of us, ‘O God if only the poor world could be saved from all its troubles!’ Yes, but there could be no salvation from trouble until there is the settlement of sin. Sin separates from God, that must be dealt with, that is the root of all the troubles, and the blessed Lord Jesus came into the world in order that He might save His people, those who receive Him in the simplicity of faith, to whom He is Lord and Master that He might save His people from their sins and to that end He suffered for sins when He died on the cross of Calvary and He died there that this awful wedge of sin that has been driven in between us and God might be removed.

There is a remarkable New Testament scripture bearing on this point, I should like you to notice. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also likewise took part of the same (that is, he became a man), that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death — that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14-15). Wonderful tidings! You and I die because we are men. He became a man that He might be able to die. He could have passed up into glory from this earth at any moment of His history, for death had no claim on Him, He being sinless, but then He would have left every man behind Him. He says to the one who believes in Him, I came down and died for you. I bore your judgment, and died your death, and I bring you to God in righteousness. I bore your judgment that I might deliver and redeem you. Just as David cut off Goliath's head with his own sword, so by death — which is what the devil terrifies a man with — does Jesus deliver the soul that trusts in Him. Death, which was the wages of sin, has now opened the way of life for me, for "AS it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin to salvation" (Heb. 9:27-28). Death opens the pathway to glory for the believer now, because in the death of the Saviour atonement has been made. That atonement has been presented, and God has accepted it, and what has been the result? God has raised from the dead, and glorified the blessed Man, who died on the cross. His exaltation is God's answer to the sufferings of the Saviour, and is the proof of His absolute victory over every foe of God and man. Hallelujah!

What a picture is this of the victory of Jesus! Coming into this poor sin-stained world, He found man the servant of sin, the vassal of Satan, and consequently under the power of death, with its after-consequence — judgment. Satan had, and could wield, the power of death over man's conscience. But what do we read of Jesus? "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, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14-15). Wondrous fact for men to hear! We die because we are men — sinful men. He became a man — a sinless man — that He might die, and deliver us. Blessed Saviour! What a deliverer and what a deliverance! Death is our portion. Christ, on whom it had no claim, took it. See this, and you get free. Goliath's head was cut off with his own sword. The chain of torture Satan can hold a sinner by — death, as the wages of sin — is snapped the moment you see Christ "made sin" — that "he died for our sins according to the Scriptures," yea more, that He "died for sinners." His death breaks Satan's power, puts away my sins, glorifies God about sin, and sets me free.

We have redemption through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins, because God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. Our sins were laid upon Him, and He was made a curse for us. In this way He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. The wrath of God was thus poured out upon Him instead of us, so that "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed?' Hence, on the ground of strictest justice and holiness, God can speak of us as a redeemed people, washed from our sins in the blood of Jesus, and that our sins and iniquities He will remember no more. The alone ground, therefore, of forgiveness of sins is not our works, our experience, our frames, or our feelings, but the blood of Christ; for without the shedding of blood is no remission; and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Nothing therefore relieves man's guilt and fears, or removes the burden from the conscience, or speaks peace to a sin-convicted soul, but "THE BLOOD OF CHRIST."