Why did Jesus have to die?

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Deborah_

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In some ways, Christianity is a very odd religion. For it makes the claim that God Himself, in the form of a young Jewish teacher, was put to death in a manner that was not only shockingly brutal and inhumane but also intensely shameful (crucifixion was reserved for the dregs of society). Even more strangely, His death was not by murder or accident, but by judicial execution (although He was innocent of the charges laid against Him). Since a victim of crucifixion fell under the curse of being “hung on a pole” (Deuteronomy 21:22,23), this death should have disqualified Jesus of Nazareth from any claim to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. And yet this is precisely what His followers and worshippers have always proclaimed Him to be - a message that has always been “a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (I Corinthians 1:23) The paradox is so scandalous that Islam, in order to honour Jesus as a prophet, has to deny that He ever died at all…


The Cross has always been offensive. The first Christians were mocked for giving their devotion to a man who died such a shameful death. These days, our more sensitive society is horrified by the sheer barbarity of it. If we’re going to have religion, we want a clean, sanitary religion - not one centred on bloodshed and violence. All manner of evils - even child abuse - have been blamed on Jesus’ crucifixion!


The writers of the four Gospels, however, were not in the least embarrassed by it. Quite the reverse: they all devote a large proportion of their story (from a quarter to a third) to the events immediately surrounding Jesus’ death, which is itself related in considerable detail. And while Jesus’ disciples may have been shocked at the time by what happened, they are at pains to point out that He Himself was not only expecting it but regarded it as somehow necessary. As Mark puts it, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31) His death was no accident or mistake, but part of God’s eternal purpose!


The crucifixion has always been central to the Christian faith. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…” (I Corinthians 15:3) Millions of people were crucified under the Roman Empire; but the crucifixion of Jesus has a unique significance. “Christ died for our sins” is, however, a deceptively simple statement. What exactly does it mean?


Fortunately the New Testament supplies us with a number of analogies to help us understand the meaning of Christ’s death:

It is a sacrifice, to remove our sin and guilt and to restore our relationship with God.

It is a ransom, to deliver us from our slavery to sin.

It is victory over the devil (who caused the problem in the first place).


It is important to recognise that these pictures are not mutually exclusive; rather, they interweave with one another. Each one highlights a different aspect of an event that was unique in human history - an event with cosmic implications.
 

marks

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Yes, the scandal of it all!

And the scandal of grace!

I also like to remember Jesus as our Ark. God's judgment would destroy us, so He came to be our shelter from the storm, as it were. We survive God's judgment being in Jesus. If He had not gone to the cross, we would not be able to do that.

We can survive His judgment, and then be qualified to be born His children.

Much love!
 

Hidden In Him

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In some ways, Christianity is a very odd religion. For it makes the claim that God Himself, in the form of a young Jewish teacher, was put to death in a manner that was not only shockingly brutal and inhumane but also intensely shameful (crucifixion was reserved for the dregs of society). Even more strangely, His death was not by murder or accident, but by judicial execution (although He was innocent of the charges laid against Him). Since a victim of crucifixion fell under the curse of being “hung on a pole” (Deuteronomy 21:22,23), this death should have disqualified Jesus of Nazareth from any claim to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. And yet this is precisely what His followers and worshippers have always proclaimed Him to be - a message that has always been “a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (I Corinthians 1:23) The paradox is so scandalous that Islam, in order to honour Jesus as a prophet, has to deny that He ever died at all…


The Cross has always been offensive. The first Christians were mocked for giving their devotion to a man who died such a shameful death. These days, our more sensitive society is horrified by the sheer barbarity of it. If we’re going to have religion, we want a clean, sanitary religion - not one centred on bloodshed and violence. All manner of evils - even child abuse - have been blamed on Jesus’ crucifixion!


The writers of the four Gospels, however, were not in the least embarrassed by it. Quite the reverse: they all devote a large proportion of their story (from a quarter to a third) to the events immediately surrounding Jesus’ death, which is itself related in considerable detail. And while Jesus’ disciples may have been shocked at the time by what happened, they are at pains to point out that He Himself was not only expecting it but regarded it as somehow necessary. As Mark puts it, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31) His death was no accident or mistake, but part of God’s eternal purpose!


The crucifixion has always been central to the Christian faith. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…” (I Corinthians 15:3) Millions of people were crucified under the Roman Empire; but the crucifixion of Jesus has a unique significance. “Christ died for our sins” is, however, a deceptively simple statement. What exactly does it mean?


Fortunately the New Testament supplies us with a number of analogies to help us understand the meaning of Christ’s death:

It is a sacrifice, to remove our sin and guilt and to restore our relationship with God.

It is a ransom, to deliver us from our slavery to sin.

It is victory over the devil (who caused the problem in the first place).


It is important to recognise that these pictures are not mutually exclusive; rather, they interweave with one another. Each one highlights a different aspect of an event that was unique in human history - an event with cosmic implications.

Like your post, Deborah. About the title, was that a rhetorical question, or were you actually seeking input over it?
 

Deborah_

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Like your post, Deborah. About the title, was that a rhetorical question, or were you actually seeking input over it?
You could take it either way.
There's a lot more that could be said on the subject. Any comments would be welcome.
 

Hidden In Him

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You could take it either way.
There's a lot more that could be said on the subject. Any comments would be welcome.

Yes, there's a lot that could be said.

I believe the primary reason why He was crucified from the foundation of the world was because God planned for His kingdom to be an everlasting kingdom, and therefore needed His right to rule be beyond question. Arranging that the Lord would die for the sins of the world made that a reality. No one will ever question His right to rule in eternity. Without His sacrifice on everyone's behalf, no one would even have entered the kingdom to begin with.
 
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amadeus

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In some ways, Christianity is a very odd religion. For it makes the claim that God Himself, in the form of a young Jewish teacher, was put to death in a manner that was not only shockingly brutal and inhumane but also intensely shameful (crucifixion was reserved for the dregs of society). Even more strangely, His death was not by murder or accident, but by judicial execution (although He was innocent of the charges laid against Him). Since a victim of crucifixion fell under the curse of being “hung on a pole” (Deuteronomy 21:22,23), this death should have disqualified Jesus of Nazareth from any claim to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. And yet this is precisely what His followers and worshippers have always proclaimed Him to be - a message that has always been “a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (I Corinthians 1:23) The paradox is so scandalous that Islam, in order to honour Jesus as a prophet, has to deny that He ever died at all…
An odd religion consisting of peculiar people admittedly and I would guess also purposely:

"[our Savior Jesus Christ] Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."Titus 2:14

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:" I Peter 2:9

The Cross has always been offensive. The first Christians were mocked for giving their devotion to a man who died such a shameful death. These days, our more sensitive society is horrified by the sheer barbarity of it. If we’re going to have religion, we want a clean, sanitary religion - not one centred on bloodshed and violence. All manner of evils - even child abuse - have been blamed on Jesus’ crucifixion!

"Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" Matt 18:7

All of those evils to which you allude perhaps were part of why it was necessary for Him to die, but ultimately why did it come down to this?

The writers of the four Gospels, however, were not in the least embarrassed by it. Quite the reverse: they all devote a large proportion of their s
ory (from a quarter to a third) to the events immediately surrounding Jesus’ death, which is itself related in considerable detail. And while Jesus’ disciples may have been shocked at the time by what happened, they are at pains to point out that He Himself was not only expecting it but regarded it as somehow necessary. As Mark puts it, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31) His death was no accident or mistake, but part of God’s eternal purpose!

So then it all started much sooner than what is recorded in the gospels, didn't it? We might want to think more on what God's eternal purpose was...


Knowing that man would disobey Him from the very beginning, why did God create that first couple, Adam and Eve, as He did? What does God expect us to do about it now? What is the entirety of His plan?

The crucifixion has always been central to the Christian faith. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…” (I Corinthians 15:3) Millions of people were crucified under the Roman Empire; but the crucifixion of Jesus has a unique significance. “Christ died for our sins” is, however, a deceptively simple statement. What exactly does it mean?

Jesus came to open the closed door, the locked gate to Life which those first parents had lost for us and we...?

We, were born naturally in a terrible place of death inherited from our first parents. God provided through Jesus the open Way to Life in Him. Some few, although given the alternative of seeking the best possibilities for their flesh in this world, nevertheless upon recognizing who He was, would choose to go toward Him they had come to love. They are the ones for which He set up the whole plan. He knew that few would seek and find and pass through that strait and narrow gate to Him. But... ultimately it was for those few that Jesus died.

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matt 7:13-14


Fortunately the New Testament supplies us with a number of analogies to help us understand the meaning of Christ’s death:

It is a sacrifice, to remove our sin and guilt and to restore our relationship with God.

It is a ransom, to deliver us from our slavery to sin.

It is victory over the devil (who caused the problem in the first place).


It is important to recognise that these pictures are not mutually exclusive; rather, they interweave with one another. Each one highlights a different aspect of an event that was unique in human history - an event with cosmic implications.
So complicated, but so simple. Complicated to the man who strives to figure it all out, but so simple to the one who simply surrenders to God and follows the lead of the Holy Spirit.
 
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Enoch111

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It is important to recognise that these pictures are not mutually exclusive; rather, they interweave with one another. Each one highlights a different aspect of an event that was unique in human history - an event with cosmic implications.
Good job Deborah. Your are quite correct. You could add one more thing -- to deliver us from the wrath to come.
 

Deborah_

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Judgement


Jesus came to execute judgement upon all the sins of mankind. “Now is the time for judgement on this world,” He said, a few days before His death (John 12:31). But when that judgement was passed, to everyone’s surprise, it was the Judge who died…


We all know, deep down, that there is something terribly wrong with our world. The amount of injustice and suffering inflicted by human beings upon one another is horrendous: racism, slavery, war, exploitation, rape, robbery, murder, genocide… And because we are made in God’s image, every crime against humanity is also a crime against our Maker. The Jews were expecting their Messiah to bring in the rule of God, a Kingdom characterised by righteousness and justice. Now we would all applaud the righting of wrongs and full compensation for suffering. The shocking truth, however, is that however much we might like to see ourselves as the hapless victims of injustice (or as innocent bystanders), we are actually the ones who are in the dock. We are all sinners; we are all guilty.

“Do not bring Your servant into judgement,

for no-one living is righteous before You.” (Psalm 143:2)


And here lies our problem. To paraphrase Anselm, only man should make reparation (since it is we who have defaulted); yet only God could make the necessary reparation (since only He has the resources to pay our debt in full). But here it is God (the wronged party!) who has taken the initiative. He has always longed to forgive us, but can only do so in a way that also satisfies His justice. The solution to this dilemma is Jesus. “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) It was Christ’s death, as a sacrifice for sin, that made our forgiveness and reconciliation possible while ensuring that justice is also satisfied.


It goes without saying that the punishment must fit the crime. What kind of punishment would be appropriate for the sins of the world? Crucifixion was no ordinary death penalty; it was an extreme form of execution, quite possibly the cruellest ever devised. It also put the criminal under the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13).



But how can it be just for God to punish Christ instead of us? In the context of moral responsibility, how can one person take the place of another? As a general rule, moral liability is non-transferable. But Jesus is neither a disinterested third party nor just any other person - He is the Messiah, the second Adam (I Corinthians 15:45)! He has been divinely appointed as our Mediator (I Timothy 2:5) and stands before God as the Representative of all humanity, just as Adam represented the entire human race in the Garden of Eden. It is therefore not unreasonable for Christ to take on Himself the responsibility for the sins of the whole world.


Jesus was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish authorities, but was presented to the Roman governor on a charge of treason ('coincidentally', the two fundamental sins of mankind against God). He underwent a mockery of a trial where judge and witnesses all knew that the Prisoner was innocent of all charges - and yet He was condemned to death. If this is in any sense an outworking of the will of God, then there is only one possible explanation:

“He was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5)

“Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” (I Peter 3:18)
 

Deborah_

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Substitutionary sacrifice


To most modern Europeans, the whole idea of animal sacrifice seems barbaric. Even those of us who happily eat meat have probably never actually seen an animal being slaughtered. But sacrifice was an essential component of almost all ancient religions, and in Judaism it was the very basis of the worshipper’s relationship with God (as the turgid first seven chapters of Leviticus bear witness).

Why was all this killing necessary? Why can’t God just forgive?

Our problem is that we have inadequate concepts of God, sin and forgiveness. First, God: because we have the privilege of calling Him ‘Father’, we have come to imagine Him to be like an indulgent grandfather. But God is absolutely just as well as loving, and He must remain true to every aspect of His nature. Second, sin: we are almost completely blind to its true nature, but the fact is that we are rebels against God’s rightful authority and deserve to die! Third, forgiveness: we forget that genuine forgiveness is always costly. Most of us have never had a major sin committed against us, but those who have suffered abuse, torture or the murder of a close relative will know that it simply isn’t possible to “just” forgive; the gravity of the offence demands recompense.

And so there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22). God cannot simply overlook our sin, nor can He just pretend that it doesn’t exist. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) - but the sacrificial system of the Old Testament demonstrated how another life (that of a domestic animal) could be taken instead.

Of course, an animal (even a perfect specimen as stipulated in the Law) is not equivalent in value to a human being (Matthew 12:12). But Jesus, the ‘sacrificial lamb’ provided by God to be our sin offering (Genesis 22:8; Isaiah 53:7,8; John 1:29), is the Son of God - and therefore worth more than millions of human beings.

So Jesus died on our behalf, taking the punishment for our sins (John 11:49,50). But He was neither an unwitting nor an unwilling victim; not only did He go to His death voluntarily, but He also performed the role of the priest, making the offering of Himself (Hebrews 10:11-14).

“The LORD has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Was this expiation or propitiation? It comes down to the same thing: because it is our sins that provoke God’s wrath, their removal (expiation) causes His wrath to subside (propitiation). And because His wrath has been appeased, we can now be at peace with Him (Romans 5:1).
 

aspen

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Dying on the cross was the ultimate expression of love
 

Enoch111

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To most modern Europeans, the whole idea of animal sacrifice seems barbaric.
Europeans are essentially hypocrites. They do not believe that abortion is barbaric and murder, but animal sacrifices are barbaric. and then they go and open their doors to the barbaric hordes of Muslims!
 

Deborah_

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Propitiation and reconciliation


Propitiation is probably the aspect of the atonement that our culture finds most difficult to come to terms with. Perhaps because Christians have been preaching for two millennia about the God who is Love, people in the West seem to have forgotten that the human race does not currently enjoy a good relationship with Him! Yes, He loves us all; but we are alienated from Him, because we have rebelled against His rightful authority. Although He loves us, our sins offend and anger Him - yes, they anger Him! People who have suffered deeply at the hands of others (as a result of abuse of various kinds, abandonment, rape, murder of someone close to them, etc) generally experience a deep (and justified) anger against the perpetrator/s. How much more must our loving Creator be hurt and angered by those who have wronged Him?


The Cross has been described as a case of ‘cosmic child abuse’: an angry Father punishing an innocent Son. If love is to be found there at all, surely it must be a loving Son appeasing an angry Father? But the apostle John sees the Cross as the supreme example of God’s love. “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him…” (I John 4:9,10) God doesn’t love us because Christ died for us - He loved us before Christ died for us! That was why Christ came to die for us!


The error lies in pitching the Son against the Father, as if they were two completely separate individuals. But Jesus always insisted that He had been sent by His Father and was doing His Father’s will - a will that He gladly obeyed, right up to the most harrowing of ends. “I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 6:38) The Son is not being unjustly punished by a harsh and cruel Father, nor is He wresting forgiveness from a mean and reluctant Father. Propitiation is the work of both the Father (who is its author) and the Son (who is its agent) together (II Corinthians 5:18-20)! In order to reconcile the rebellious human race to Himself, God takes the consequences of that rebellion on Himself, in the Person of His Son. And God suffers both anguish (as a loving Father who must watch His beloved Son die) and agony (as a loving Son who will do whatever it takes in order to set the human race free).


In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed in great anguish, “Take this cup from Me.” (Mark 14:36) This was the ‘cup of God’s wrath’ (Jeremiah 25:15) symbolising His judgement on sin.

“In the hand of the LORD is a cup

full of foaming wine mixed with spices;

He pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth

drink it down to its very dregs.” (Psalm 75:8)

God’s righteous anger cannot just evaporate; it must be channelled somewhere if it is not to fall on us, and Jesus offers Himself as the ‘lightning conductor’.


In summary:

Sin provokes God’s wrath.

We cannot appease His wrath, so He in His love bears the cost and the pain Himself.

Thus our relationship with Him can be restored.
 

Deborah_

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Redemption

Redemption is a technical term. In ancient times, the usual reason for becoming a slave was bankruptcy. It was like pawning a valuable article, only that article was yourself! You sold yourself into bondage, so in order to be set free again you had to be bought out by someone. This ‘buying out’ was redemption - and it always involved paying a price of some kind (a ‘ransom’). In Israelite society, it was the responsibility of the ‘next of kin’ to redeem anyone enslaved in this manner.


The nation of Israel as a whole also had a Redeemer:

“Our Redeemer - the LORD Almighty is His name -

is the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 47:4)

“I, the LORD, am your Saviour,

your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Isaiah 49:26)

When the people were enslaved in Egypt, God came to their rescue - and their deliverance is described as a ‘redemption’. “I will free you from being slaves to the Egyptians, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgement. I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God.” (Exodus 6:6,7) Now Israel had never sold themselves into slavery; the Egyptians had enslaved them by force. Today, of course, we regard no form of slavery as permissible; but even by Iron Age standards Pharaoh had no right of ownership over the Israelites and was not entitled to any payment for their release. However, Pharaoh reckoned that “possession is nine points of the law”, and he wouldn’t let the Israelites go without a battle. So there was still a cost to Israel’s redemption - because battle always involves bloodshed. This cost was the death of the firstborn sons; but Israel’s firstborn sons escaped, because each had a lamb slaughtered in his place.


It was no accident that Jesus’ death happened during the Passover festival; for He is “our Passover lamb.” (I Corinthians 5:7) “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) For we are all born in spiritual slavery. The New Testament tells us that we’re enslaved in various ways: to sin (John 8:34), to idols (Galatians 4:3), and to the fear of death (Hebrews 2:15). Satan holds us in his grip; like Pharaoh, he has no rights over us, but he’s never been one to care much about legalities! By becoming human, Jesus became our ‘kinsman’ with the right to redeem us. By giving up His life on the cross, He paid the costly ransom price. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed… but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (I Peter 1:18,19)


So this was not a crude commercial transaction - but it was, nevertheless, costly. Centuries earlier, Judah had volunteered to be enslaved in place of his brother Benjamin - an offer that turned out to be unnecessary (Genesis 44:33). Jesus really did take the place of all His human siblings under the power of sin and death, enabling us to be liberated.


But being set free is not quite the end of the story. God redeemed the Israelites from Egypt so that they would belong to Him. And “Jesus Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14) The One who paid the redemption price has a right to expect the gratitude and loyalty of the one redeemed. So what does that mean for us? “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” (I Corinthians 6:19,20)
 
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Deborah_

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Victory over Satan

The whole Bible is the story of a war - a war that begins in the book of Genesis and ends in the book of Revelation. Way back at the beginning of human history, the first human beings were tricked into rebelling against their Creator - and thus the whole of our species joined the side of God’s arch-Enemy, the devil. But because of this, God declared war on the devil:

“I will put enmity
between you and the woman
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
(Genesis 3:15)


This is the nucleus of the Gospel. Man lost his battle with sin and the devil, but Woman (who by her actions brought sin into the world) will eventually give birth to the One who will remove sin from the world (Galatians 4:4,5). Christ will avenge mankind by defeating Satan - although in the process of doing so He will be mortally wounded (for the bite of the snake is presumed to be poisonous). “He shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14)

The cross, then, was the site of the decisive battle against sin, death and Satan. And to the casual observer, it looks as though Christ lost that battle; He died shamefully, and apparently to no purpose. This is the ultimate paradox of the Christian faith: that Christ reigns precisely at the moment when He seems to be utterly defeated and powerless. But we know that He has in fact won the victory, because of His Resurrection! “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:15)

This triumph did not put an end to all hostilities immediately. It was, however, decisive - just as the successful D-day landings in World War 2 were crucial to the final victory in Europe. Once the Allies had established a bridgehead on the continent, Hitler’s eventual defeat became certain; but the Germans kept on fighting for almost a year afterwards, in a vain attempt to stave off the inevitable. Similarly, although Satan has been comprehensively defeated, he refuses to admit it! “He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short” (Revelation 12:12) - and he continues to do as much damage as he can.

Those of us who have surrendered our lives to Christ are no longer the helpless prisoners of the devil, but free citizens of the Kingdom of God. But there is still a war going on, and so we are enlisted to fight in the army of Christ until the final day of victory, when the last enemy (Death itself) will be destroyed (I Corinthians 15:24-28).
 

Miss Hepburn

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Judgement
Jesus came to execute judgement upon all the sins of mankind. “Now is the time for judgement on this world,...
Baba..b, b...but, I thought he came for us to have an abundant life, not to fear...teach us nothing is
what it seems, (water, illness, death, near empty baskets, our Father's wrath, our private thoughts...
ask and rely on the Father for anything)...No?
 
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Miss Hepburn

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The whole Bible is the story of a war ...
“I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers;he will crush your
head,and you will strike his heel.”
(Genesis 3:15)
This is the nucleus of the Gospel.
W,w,what?..... I thought love was.
<<tilt>>>
 
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Not me

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In some ways, Christianity is a very odd religion. For it makes the claim that God Himself, in the form of a young Jewish teacher, was put to death in a manner that was not only shockingly brutal and inhumane but also intensely shameful (crucifixion was reserved for the dregs of society). Even more strangely, His death was not by murder or accident, but by judicial execution (although He was innocent of the charges laid against Him). Since a victim of crucifixion fell under the curse of being “hung on a pole” (Deuteronomy 21:22,23), this death should have disqualified Jesus of Nazareth from any claim to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. And yet this is precisely what His followers and worshippers have always proclaimed Him to be - a message that has always been “a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (I Corinthians 1:23) The paradox is so scandalous that Islam, in order to honour Jesus as a prophet, has to deny that He ever died at all…


The Cross has always been offensive. The first Christians were mocked for giving their devotion to a man who died such a shameful death. These days, our more sensitive society is horrified by the sheer barbarity of it. If we’re going to have religion, we want a clean, sanitary religion - not one centred on bloodshed and violence. All manner of evils - even child abuse - have been blamed on Jesus’ crucifixion!


The writers of the four Gospels, however, were not in the least embarrassed by it. Quite the reverse: they all devote a large proportion of their story (from a quarter to a third) to the events immediately surrounding Jesus’ death, which is itself related in considerable detail. And while Jesus’ disciples may have been shocked at the time by what happened, they are at pains to point out that He Himself was not only expecting it but regarded it as somehow necessary. As Mark puts it, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31) His death was no accident or mistake, but part of God’s eternal purpose!


The crucifixion has always been central to the Christian faith. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…” (I Corinthians 15:3) Millions of people were crucified under the Roman Empire; but the crucifixion of Jesus has a unique significance. “Christ died for our sins” is, however, a deceptively simple statement. What exactly does it mean?


Fortunately the New Testament supplies us with a number of analogies to help us understand the meaning of Christ’s death:

It is a sacrifice, to remove our sin and guilt and to restore our relationship with God.

It is a ransom, to deliver us from our slavery to sin.

It is victory over the devil (who caused the problem in the first place).


It is important to recognise that these pictures are not mutually exclusive; rather, they interweave with one another. Each one highlights a different aspect of an event that was unique in human history - an event with cosmic implications.

Why did Jesus have to die?

Hi, I have a thought you might find interesting?

Scripture says; “he came to fulfill the law”

Matthew 5:17 (NASB)
"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

What does that mean “to fulfill the law”

I have thought, Jesus, having taken us to death with Him on the cross, thereby Jesus fulfilled the law that says;

“that the soul that sins that soul shall die”

Thereby fulfilling the requirement of death demanded by the law for the law breaker.

I know there are many other benefits from His death as your post brings forth, just thought this thought might interest you.

Blessings,

Much love in Christ, Not me