Easter Outreach — Tell People Why Jesus Died

Why Jesus died

The Reason for the Cross

Jesus was executed by being crucified on the Friday before the Jewish feast called Passover in about the year 33AD. This may not be surprising. Many people were crucified in those days, it was the Roman method of execution and the country where Jesus lived was under Roman occupation. What may be surprising is that the Bible tells us that there was a purpose in Jesus death and that purpose was to enable our relationship with God to be restored and put right.
Why had our relationship with God gone wrong? What was the problem?
Several of the following paragraphs include a word and numbers in brackets. This is a cross reference to a section of the Bible. Click on the reference to open a new window in which the words of the Bible will be displayed. Close the window when you are ready to return here.

The Problem - Sin

The Bible says that we have all sinned (Romans 3 v 23). Sin is not a popular word these days. Certainly it is not a word we hear used very often. What does it mean?
God gave us laws he expects us to keep (Exodus 20 v 1-17). We call them the ten commandments (actually the Bible includes many other laws that God gave, but these will do for the moment). For example, God expects us to be truthful, to be content with what we have and not be jealous of what other people have, to be faithful to our partners, to love him and worship only him, not to murder or steal, and so on. Yet we have all broken one or more of these at one time or another. Ask yourself "Have I ever said or done anything of which I felt ashamed or guilty?". If you are honest you probably said 'yes', because we all have.
Of course we can all think of someone who is worse than ourselves. We may admit to having told the odd harmless lie, but we would probably never commit murder! We may have fiddled our expenses once or twice but we would never really steal! Think of it like this.
The winners of various sports get to stand on a podium. The top step is for the winner and the next steps down are for those who come second and third. Now imagine a podium with many steps. Standing on the top of this flight of steps are the people everyone recognises as being really good people. Who would you expect to be there? Mother Theresa perhaps? While on the bottom step are all the really bad people? Who can we see? Hitler, perhaps, or Crippen?
But where on this podium would you and I be standing? Near the top, or nearer the bottom? I expect you would be a little higher up than me. You could look down on me and say "I'm better than you" (and you may be right). While I could look down on someone else and say "I'm better than him or her" (and I may be right). But suddenly God comes and seems to say "Yes, on your scale some are better than others, but you are judging each other by your own standards. I (God) judge by my standards". When we begin to realise that God is holy and perfect (how could he be anything else?) we also realise that comparing ourselves to each other means nothing at all. It's like saying "I'm higher than you" because I am standing on a ladder, or even a mountain, when the aim is to reach the stars. Suddenly it is obvious that we are all a very long way short of the target.
The Bible says that as far as God is concerned even our best actions and thoughts are like "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64 v 6). The verse mentioned earlier says that we all "fall short" of God's standard (Romans 3 v 23).

What is the result of this sin?

Sin makes us 'dirty' before God. Sin pollutes us. God is pure and holy, and we are not. It is the things that come out of us that corrupt and destroy us. (Mark 7 v 21-23)
Sin enslaves us. We like to think we could give it up and be entirely good without any difficulty. But just try it. Try to live for 24 hours, or a week, without telling any lies, or breaking any law, either God's or the government's. We soon discover how hard it is. We are addicted to it, we cannot be completely good even if we want to. (John 8 v 34)
Sin has consequences. We know if we break the speed limit we risk a fine. For something more serious prison awaits, or in some countries for some crimes there is the death penalty. The Bible tells us that death is the "wages" of sin. Sin is so serious that God says that the sinner must die to pay the penalty for his sin. There is no chance of plea-bargaining, no opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser sentence and get off lightly, no chance to balance your good qualities against your bad points and trade them off against each other. Sin, any sin, is a capital offence. (Romans 6 v 23)
Sin separates us from God. Our sin cuts us off from his help and makes it impossible for him to hear us when we call to Him. It breaks our relationship with God. (Isaiah 59 v 2)
Is there nothing that can be done? Is there no solution?
Fortunately, there is!

The Solution - Sacrifice

A Temporary measure
Whole sections of the Bible are taken up with the idea of sacrifices. God told his people in the Old Testament (the early part of the Bible) that they had to bring animal sacrifices, sheep and cows, and kill them in a ritual way in order to be forgiven their sins. The sacrifice reminded the people of the seriousness of their sins. It had consequences for the sinner, who had to pay for the animal he brought - there was cost involved. It cost the animal its life. The animal had to be perfect, without any defect - you could not satisfy God with just any old deformed creature taken from your herd or bought cheaply in the market. It had to be the best.
And yet, these sacrifices did not solve the problem. When the sinner sinned again another sacrifice was needed, another animal died, and another, and another... What was required was
A Permanent Solution
It needed a perfect sacrifice that would deal with sin once and for all. There have been plenty of examples of sacrifice. In war time soldiers may sacrifice their own lives in order to save their comrades, or to save their nation from an enemy. But the problem of sin is not about good people who deserve to be saved. We are all sinners, we have all broken God's laws, we have all broken his heart. Where could we ever find a sacrifice that was good enough to satisfy God's holiness and yet be willing to be sacrificed for sinners who don't even deserve it?
The Good News...
...is that God decided to do the job himself!
Jesus came, God himself became a man, so that he could die to save us from our sins. My sin carried the death penalty - but he chose to die in my place so that I might live, and he died for you too. (1 Peter 2 v 24)
The cross, and Jesus' death on it, are God's own solution to the problem of sin. We all make mistakes - that's why pencils have erasers and computer keyboards have Delete keys. The cross is God's eraser to rub out our sin.
The cross is God's delete key.

The Result - Saved!

The result is that you and I can be saved from our sin because Jesus has died in our place. God's justice and holiness condemned us - but God's love paid the price. We have been 'bought back' for God by Jesus, we can now belong to God again because the sin that separated us from God has been swept away.
God has done it all - He loved us (even when we didn't deserve it) - He died in our place (when we could not save ourselves) - He satisfied his own justice (which we could never have done). Now he asks us to accept what he has done. He offers us a new life with all our sin completely dealt with and a chance to start a new relationship ith Him. (Galatians 2 v 20)