Why Jesus Died, Part 1

Chuckle: After reading Romans 3:23 NIV, one pastor said to his audience, Let's all bow our heads and pray for our falling shorts."

Great Quote: "Man's way leads to a hopeless end . . . God's way leads to endless hope." --Unknown Source

JESUS DIED FOR OUR SINS

"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit..." (1 Peter 3:18 NIV).

The answer to the question, "why did Jesus die"?, seems incomprehensible to those who have never heard and understood the gospel message. Someone who has never been led to understand the dimensions of God's love for each and every person has a hard time accepting the reason Christ died such an agonizing death on a cruel wooden cross two millennia ago on a hill outside Jerusalem known as Golgotha.

But because of God's unfathomable love, we learn from Scripture that God sent his Son, Jesus, to the earth for this specific divine purpose. "For God so loved the world that he gave (sacrificed) his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16 NIV).

Since Adam and Eve, every man, woman, and child who has ever lived, was born under the burden and penalty of sin. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3-23 NIV). "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10 NIV). The penalty of our sins is death. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23 NIV). But God's love reigns supreme. "God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 NIV).

The fact that Jesus died to pay our sin debt once and for all is a simple truth that we learned prior to beginning our Christian experience, but it is also a profound truth that rings in the hearts of believers and fills us with deep gratitude and amazement all the days of our lives. An old chorus proclaims,

"He paid a debt He did not owe,

I owed a debt I could not pay,

I needed someone to wash my sins away,

And now I sing a brand new song

'Amazing Grace' all day long

Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay."

Love, Jerry & Dotse