Why did Jesus have to die?

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farouk

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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.
Isaiah 53 indeed promises the coming of the suffering Redeemer.
 

Helen

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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.

Thumb.gif
 

Helen

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(Crucified) The Lamb slain from before creation of the world.

God is love...always was, always will be...therefore the whole Plan from before the beginning was a LOVE story...

He came for His bride...and paid the highest price for her. ✟ ♥︎
 

Miss Hepburn

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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 offense demands recompense.
My input or 2 cents: RE the bolded... Actually it doesn't demand recompense..sure, an initial feeling sweeps over you, we are human, I know, I know.
BUT, hahaha, we actually aren't...when we do have, by Grace, a renewed mind, we dwell in the Spirit, not the ego's thought system of revenge, anger and confusion.
When we have gained wisdom, (that in our early years we could never have imagined having!)... we 'see'.
Or another way to put it ...we are shown. (Talking from exp...abuse, incest, and yes, murder of friends).
By Grace, and only Grace...we can be shown, sure, after prayer, and we see a whole picture,
....the unfolding of the event, who all the participants were/are...
and a dawning clarity of insight comes...and thus, total peace with the sever abuse, the murders
that appear unjustified (esp to a child!). But if we are using our ego's, limited, human logic...we will never 'see' what was really being played out.

So what I'm saying is - it can 'just happen', but asking to forgive is usually the reason it 'just happens'. Ha!
And be ready how the Holy Spirit opens your mind to huge, mind-blowing understandings!
And then being surrounded be people that want you to stay mad; to fall back into the lower ways of the confused mind...
But, no, it has been renewed and was able to be shown deep insights.

Just another perspective....we can never limited ourselves thinking we can not rise above this human situation..we can soar.
:)
 

aspen

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I have had a hard time forgiving in recent years. I can tell because the past still hooks me. I don’t want revenge or Gods wrath, I just want to move on. It is a slow process and demands a sober mind
 
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DoveSpirit05

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he was slained before the foundation of the world, it was already written, gen 3:15 the son of man will bruase the serpent.
 

farouk

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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.
The fact that God's Perfect Servant would have to suffer at the Cross was already clear to those who understood the Old Testament Scriptures; e.g., Isaiah 53.
 

farouk

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By Jesus coming in human form, did he not abolish that Satan was ruler of Earth?
Indeed; and we already have the victory (1 Corinthians 15.57), although we have yet to see its full manifestation: "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him." (Hebrews 2.8)
 

Nancy

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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



"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?



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?



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



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.

Good word Amadeus,
I choose the simplicity of the Gospel. Many things are still hidden in that living Word. We all need to study to show ourselves approved, Amen!
 
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Nancy

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By Jesus coming in human form, did he not abolish that Satan was ruler of Earth?

My take is that Satan is still the god of this world but, when Jesus returns for the second time, He will take the keys from Satan and will rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!! :)
 
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JohnPaul

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Indeed; and we already have the victory (1 Corinthians 15.57), although we have yet to see its full manifestation: "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him." (Hebrews 2.8)
My take is that Satan is still the god of this world but, when Jesus returns for the second time, He will take the keys from Satan and will rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!! :)

To me Satan is not God of this world, only to those who allow him to be, Jesus Christ is Lord Of this world, my world.
 

Nancy

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To me Satan is not God of this world, only to those who allow him to be, Jesus Christ is Lord Of this world, my world.

2 Corinthians 4:4 "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

Since Christians are in the world but not of it...our citizenship is in heavenly places and satan has no place in us. But, satan still holds power given him by God, but only until Jesus rips them out of his hands and sends him to the fiery pit.
 

VictoryinJesus

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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!

^ It is offensive. To stare at what sin does, the brutality and bloodshed and violence... Barbaric. A testimony of what this world has become. To hate the message put forth of the cross and the Son of God in mans place. He told the Pharisees they were not Abraham’s children, they were the children of their father and seek to kill Him. The world sees the evil and recognizes it as the stem of every evil action ... blaming God and His word, but it is man without Him that does the things they despise. Rightfully so they despise violence bloodshed and hatred ...BUT(IMO) they are hating the wrong one.

Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

In my opinion He had to die to lift a sign of what is acceptable unto God. It wasn’t the murder and killing and stealing ...but the Love and mercy and grace which is acceptable. Every thing He openly displayed and taught and spoke showed forth what is acceptable unto God: the likeness of His Son: mercy, love, patience, truth, forgiveness, humility, meekness...long suffering. His open display that those things overcome evil. The fruit of the Spirit of God which heals all things. Why, if man truly despises the things of evil...does man reject good and would instead rather curse until the day man dies. They hate the crucifixion and His word based off it breeds evil...but reject its message of Love overcomes evil. It is men the breeds evil. man even steals God’s word to spread more evil thinking he profits from it. The Spirit of God regenerates and heals and edifies and builds up what has been wasted. To me...that is why He had to die, to lift up WHAT is acceptable: Love and Mercy.
 
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Nancy

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IMHO, simply put, To "remove" sins is different than "covering" sins for a year as the animal sacrifices did. There had to be a "perfect" sacrifice without spot or wrinkle and, the only "perfect" being would be God Himself - perfect in ALL His ways. Animals could never atone for human sin forever, only the Perfect. And, the "perfect" (God) had to be present on this earth, as a human, with all the human attributes as how could He say that there is nothing we go through that He Himself did not suffer? Sorry, I do not recall the scripture that speaks to this.
JMHO :)