Why Did Jesus Die?

Most people want a purpose in life and can usually give several reasons for the interests that they have. We can ask them, ‘Why are you doing what you do?’ and they will give us their reasons. A far more profound question is, ‘Why did Jesus die on the cross?’ Maybe we find the question surprising. But if we do, we should not really, because Jesus answered that question in several ways. We can consider those answers briefly.

1. Loved the Father

First, Jesus died to show that he loved the Father. In John 14:31, Jesus says this: ‘but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father’ (John 14:31). He had come into the world because he loved the Father who had called him to do so in the eternal counsels. There was nothing in the Father’s purpose for him that Jesus omitted to do when he was here in this world. The story of his earthly life was that he must be about his Father’s business.

Jesus loved to speak about the name of the Father, and in doing so he explained to people what the Father is like. Many were the details that he revealed such as telling his disciples that the Father watched them in secret so that he could reward them openly. He informed them that it was the Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom. His life was one of complete dedication to the Father’s will, and that included going to the cross to pay the penalty for their sins. The occasion of him saying the words of John 14:31 was the evening of his arrest as he prepared to leave the upper room. So he went with his opponents when they came to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane because he loved the heavenly Father.

2. Fulfil Old Testament prophecy

Second, Jesus died to fulfil Old Testament predictions. On the day of his resurrection, he went to meet two disconsolate disciples who were making their way home to Emmaus from Jerusalem. What made them sad was the fact that Jesus had died, and they assumed that his death meant the end of all the expectations that they had hoped for. Of what use would a dead Messiah be? How did Jesus respond to their distraught outlook?

Listen to what Luke records: ‘And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself’ (Luke 24:25-27). The Scriptures that he explained were the Old Testament, and he pointed out to them that references to his death could be found in all of the Old Testament.

Perhaps he started with the announcement made in the Garden of Eden about the Champion who would come and crush the head of the serpent. Maybe he took them to Psalm 22 and highlighted for them all the details of that psalm that were fulfilled literally at the cross. We can easily imagine how he could have referred to the incredible prophecy recorded in Isaiah 53 which even said that after he died he would be buried in a rich man’s tomb. It could be the case that he would have reminded them of the prediction of Zechariah which stated that the heavenly Father would raise the sword of divine justice against the man that is his fellow.

3. Pay the ransom price

Third, Jesus died so that he would pay the penalty for sin. In Mark 10:45, Jesus told his disciples that ‘even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ He came to deliver many from a desperate situation that required a ransom payment. They were in such a state because their sins condemned them in the sight of a holy God.

The penalty that they faced was divine punishment which would be passed on them on the Day of Judgement when they would stand before Jesus the judge of all. The terms of the penalty were such that it would be impossible for them to pay it. Moreover, it was not only punishment in terms of its length but also in the intensity of its depth because it would involve having to endure the wrath of God.

The death of Jesus is described as vicarious because it involved him suffering on behalf of others. But as we can see from his words in that verse recorded in Mark, his death was voluntary. He chose to take the place of condemned sinners. His choice to do so flowed out of his love for them. He had been called by the Father to take their place, but in his heart was love for them that was stronger than death, even the death of the cross. In a remarkable manner, he embraced the punishment in order that they would never have to experience it. He would become a curse so that they would be released from the chains which divine justice had wrapped round them. What an amazing sight to consider – the Son of God paying the penalty due to those who had broken the law of God innumerable times. But he did pay the ransom and they can go free.

4. Defeat the devil

In the Garden of Eden, after Adam had fallen, God made an announcement which would ring down the corridors of time. He declared in the midst of tragedy that One would come who would deal with it and change it from being a tragedy to being a triumph. The activity would cause him pain because his heel would be bruised as he crushed the serpent. Many centuries passed before the moment of the conflict arrived. Eventually the time for the battle came.

Paul refers to it in Colossians 2:15: God ‘disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in’ Christ. How did that happen? Paul tells us in the verses prior to verse 15: God ‘having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross’ (Col. 2:13-14).

It was the custom when a criminal was crucified to nail information about his crime to the cross. This is what Pilate did in a literal sense when he put above Jesus the reason for his death – he was the King of the Jews. But at another level, there was a different document above the head of Jesus – the record of our debt. We had to pay it, and the devil demanded that we should. But Jesus took our place, paid the debt, and removed from the devil his claim against us. Such was the greatness of his action that he caused those rulers to retreat in shame because their power of demanding condemnation had been removed. Of course, we still sin, but our Champion of Calvary is now our Advocate in the presence of God. He does not minimise our sin. Indeed he does the opposite because he reveals how awful our sins were by revealing constantly how he had to become the sacrifice that paid the penalty.

5. Provide a gospel

One evening, a man called Nicodemus came to see Jesus. They spoke together about spiritual matters, and it was not long before Nicodemus was out of his depth. When he expressed his puzzlement, Jesus referred him to an Old Testament incident that pictured how one enters the kingdom of God: ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life’ (John 3:14-15).

In using that illustration, Jesus used a play on words because ‘lifted up’ was everyday language for being crucified. He informed Nicodemus that he would be crucified, although Nicodemus may not have grasped what Jesus meant at that time. But the day would come when he would see it for himself when he went with Joseph of Arimathea to take the body of Jesus down from the cross.

Jesus said on another occasion that if he was lifted up he would draw all men to himself (John 12:32). He would die with only a handful of people around him, but through his death he would start drawing sinners to himself. He commenced his magnetic attraction at Calvary when he drew the penitent criminal and the Roman soldiers to himself. And he has being doing so ever since through the retelling of him being lifted up on the cross as the gospel is declared. He died so that there would be a gospel to preach.

6. Reconcile the estranged

God and man had been separated because of sin. That was the effect of sin on that relationship. Man has been separated from man because of sin right from the very beginning when Adam fell into sin. That was the effect of sin on that relationship. Instead of harmony, there is estrangement. Instead of peace, there is hostility. Can peace be restored in both of those areas of life? The answer is yes.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 that Jesus died to reconcile sinners to God and to one another. In his death, he made peace between them and God by paying the penalty of their sins. He also made it possible for them to enter in a state of peace with God when they believed in him and were justified in God’s sight. As Paul reminded the Roman Christians, having been justified by faith in Christ, they have peace with God and are no longer under condemnation. They become children of God, members of his family, no longer alienated from him, and this status of peace is permanent. Nothing can change this status, not even the fact that in this life they remain sinful people. Another aspect of peace that they can experience from Jesus is the peace of God, which is an experience that can vary in degree. But he died so that they could have such peace in their lives.

Paul speaks about another area of peace in that chapter of Ephesians when he says that through the message of peace (the gospel) sinners are not only reconciled to God they are also reconciled to one another. There are many ways in which people are estranged from one another and we can see numerous examples of them today. There are national conflicts, ethnic divisions, age tensions, class distinctions and many more. What is needed is a community in which such divisions are gone. Jesus has established such a community, which is his church, and those divisions should not be present in it. It is a denial of grace when a church has such divisions, and it is an indication that those who have that outlook have forgotten one of the purposes of the death of the Saviour.

7. Eternal company

The final reason that can be mentioned regarding why Jesus died on the cross is so that sinners would be with him eternally. He died in order to have his people with him. One example of that is his reference to the Father’s house in John 14 when he says that he is going away (to die) in order to prepare a place for them to dwell with him. Paul also reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 4 that Jesus is coming back so that his people will be with him forever. That will a wonderful reunion, the beginning of glorification for his people when, as the apostle John says, they shall be like him because they shall see him as he is.

Seven wonderful reasons for why he came to die. He completed the task assigned to him, to pay the penalty of our sins. His death was an awful experience for him, but it is an experience for which he will be admired and worshipped throughout eternity by his people. Even now, they say with Paul, ‘But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Gal. 6:14).