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The Bible presents multiple ways of understanding Jesus’ death, each revealing a different aspect of God’s love, justice, and redemptive plan. Like light refracted through a prism, each perspective helps us see the cross more clearly.
From a purely historical and literal perspective, the answer to the question of why Jesus died is fairly straightforward:
- Judas, one of Jesus’ followers, handed him over to the priests out of greed.
- The priests handed him over to Pilate out of envy.
- Then Pilate handed him over to the soldiers out of cowardice.
- The soldiers crucified him based on charges of blasphemy and insurrection.1
Historically speaking, Jesus died because he did and said things that made people want to kill him. He made religious leaders uncomfortable. He broke cultural norms. He referred to himself using language that was normally only reserved for divinity and royalty.
He was killed because of these things. Yet, we are told throughout Scripture that he went to the cross voluntarily, even deliberately. From the beginning of his public ministry he devoted himself to the plan of the cross.
In Acts 2:22–23 Peter said, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”
1 Peter 1:18–20 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”
Jesus was not merely killed because people didn’t like him. He died willingly as a sacrifice by the will of God. What we will explore today is why God sent Jesus to die and why Jesus willingly came as a human to live a perfect life only to be crucified.
Scripture uses multiple metaphors and explanations to describe its meaning. We will look at five different perspectives on Jesus’ death—each biblical, each true, each telling us something unique about why Jesus died.
1. Jesus Died to Take Our Place
Key Passage: Romans 3:25 “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.”
Atonement communicates the idea of reconciliation. When God gave instructions for the Tabernacle and sacrifices to Israel, the purpose of the sacrifice of atonement was so that God could continue to live among them.
Humanity is sinful and separated from God. If the Israelites would have failed to purify the Tabernacle with the sacrifices, they would not be able to have fellowship with God because their sin and impurity would prevent God from being near them.
God wants to be near to us, so he made a way for that to happen. First, through the sacrificial system. But, the sacrificial system did not eliminate the consequences of sin. It was only a temporary measure so that God and Israel could be in fellowship.
Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
By disobeying God, we have committed a crime in his justice system. Those crimes need to be accounted for. As we see in Romans 6:23, the price for our sin is death.
Jesus took our punishment so that we could be set free from the consequences of our sin. If we would not have a sacrifice to bring reconciliation between us and God, our death would be final. We would not be able to enter into eternal fellowship with God.
Imagine a judge sentencing a guilty person to death, then stepping down from his bench to take the punishment himself. In human terms, the judge could only do this once. He dies, and only one person is saved because of his death. But, because Jesus is God and because he did not stay dead, his substitution is available to anyone who asks for it.
The understanding that Jesus died to take our place emphasizes God’s justice and our forgiveness. It brings assurance that we are fully pardoned from the consequences of our sin.
2. Jesus Died to Conquer Sin and Evil
Key Passage: Colossians 2:15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
The ‘rulers and authorities’ of Rome and of Israel conspired to place Jesus on the cross. These powers, angry at his challenge to their sovereignty, stripped him naked, held him up to public contempt, and celebrated a triumph over him.
In Colossians 2:15, Paul declares that, on the cross God was actually stripping them naked, was holding them up to public contempt, and leading them in his own triumphal procession—in Christ, the crucified Messiah… They exposed themselves as usurpers of the the authority which actually belonged to Christ.2
The cross then becomes a source of hope for everyone who was held captive under the rule of the counterfeit powers and authorities. The resurrection is proof that Jesus won the battle. The powers and authorities of this world can do nothing to contain the power of God in Jesus Christ.
It is important to note that the powers and authorities of this world are not evil in themselves. The political and economical powers are represented by people. People are not the enemy. Rather, the enemy is the oppresive use of these powers.
When political or economic power causes oppression rather than liberation, it represents not the kingdom of God but the kingdom of Satan.
Through the cross, those powers are disarmed. Power does not need to cause oppression. It can bring freedom if expressed with humility and service. This is the mission of the church, to proclaim and enact the liberating power of God.
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, Narnia is under the rule of the White Witch, who has enslaved the land in a never-ending winter. The Witch operates under a deep magic that states any traitor belongs to her and must be put to death. When the boy Edmund betrays his siblings, the Witch demands his life as the rightful punishment.
But Aslan, the great lion, steps in and offers himself in Edmund’s place. He willingly submits to the Witch’s cruel execution on the Stone Table. The creatures of darkness mock and abuse him before killing him. His death seems final—evil appears to have won.
Yet, at sunrise, the Stone Table cracks, and Aslan rises from the dead, stronger than ever. He explains that there is a deeper magic from before the dawn of time—if an innocent one lays down his life for a traitor, death itself is reversed. Aslan returns, leads an army to defeat the Witch, and restores peace to Narnia.
This mirrors how Jesus conquers sin, death, and the powers of darkness:
- Like Edmund, we are guilty and deserve judgment.
- Like Aslan, Jesus takes our place willingly, allowing evil to do its worst.
- But just when all seems lost, Jesus rises from the dead, breaking the power of sin, death, and the devil.
- His resurrection is the cracking of the Stone Table—the moment victory is won.
- Just as Aslan’s victory leads to freedom and restoration, so too Christ’s victory on the cross brings us into new life, setting us free from the dominion of sin and darkness.
- After Aslan’s resurrection, the children in the story see with their own eyes the power of his sacrifice and triumph. They now know firsthand that Aslan’s authority is greater than the Witch’s.
Similarly, after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples became witnesses, proclaiming that Christ had broken the power of sin and death.
The children don’t just receive the benefits of Aslan’s victory—they actively join in his mission. They help lead the final battle against the Witch’s forces, bringing freedom to others still under her dominion.
The understanding of Jesus’ death as victory and freedom highlights that Jesus’ death and resurrection means we are no longer under the power of sin, fear, and death. We can live in freedom.
3. Jesus Died to Show God’s Love
Key Passage: Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The death of Jesus on the cross is not just a transaction or the satisfaction of justice, but it is a revelation of God’s love. It is proof that God loves us and wants us to experience what we were created for, which is eternal fellowship with our Creator.
By giving his Son to die for sinners, God was giving everything, his very self, to those who deserved nothing from him except judgment. In this way, his love is absolutely unique from any other demonstration of love.
We tend to be most generous in our love for those we consider to be most deserving of it. This is the message of our culture, to hold back from those who don’t deserve what you have to give.
God is not like that. He gives unconditionally to those who least deserve it. And he gives his best, his whole self, his complete forgiveness and acceptance. None of us deserve this.
Seeing Jesus’ sacrifice should move our hearts to love God and love others. Jesus said that these are the greatest commandments, that all the law and the prophets are summed up in love for God and others.
These are not commandments in order that we might then be loved and accepted by God. They are commandments for those who have received and want to respond appropriately to God’s love.
The only way this is possible is to have the same Spirit of love within us as Christ. This sort of unconditional and self-giving love only comes from God.
The Holy Spirit is given to those who want to receive and pass along God’s love to others. When our life is transformed by the Spirit, we will increasingly love how God loves us.
Imagine for a moment having experienced a devastating house fire as a child. You were trapped in your bedroom, surrounded by smoke and flames. A firefighter rushes in and scoops you up. He carries you out to safety but in the process suffers lethal burns. Imagine the gratitude you would have for the rest of your life for that firefighter’s sacrifice.
The understanding of Jesus’ death as a demonstration of God’s love calls us to respond to God’s love by loving Him, living for Him, and passing on his love to others.
4. Jesus Died to Restore Relationships
Key Passage: 2 Corinthians 5:17–19 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”
The problem with sin is not just that we are breaking God’s rules—it’s that we are breaking our relationships with God and others. Jesus’ death, therefore is meant to restore those relationships.
This is going back to that word, atonement, which points to reconciliation. Jesus’ death heals the broken relationship between God and humanity.
Jesus’ death is also meant to heal our relationships with others. Being forgiven and transformed by the death of Christ allows us to not only experience inner peace and hope for eternal life. It also transforms how we behave.
This is more than an individual personal experience. Jesus died so that our lives could be made new right here and now, not just so that we can go to heaven. We are meant to bring heaven into our lives and relationships through our behaviour.
The understanding of Jesus’ death as restoration and reconciliation encourages us to seek reconciliation in our own relationships and participate in God’s mission of peace.
5. Jesus Died to Fulfill God’s Story
Key Passage: Luke 24:25–27 “He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
I talked about this last week and it’s been a repeated theme over the last year as we made our way through the Pentateuch and Hebrews. So, I will not spend much time here.
The Bible is one grand story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. The plan all along was for there to be a Saviour, called the Messiah, which means God’s anointed, who would bring deliverance to God’s people.
Jesus’ death is the climax—the moment when God’s plan to save the world reaches fulfillment. Jesus is the Messiah and the way he brought deliverance was to suffer and die.
The Exodus, the Temple, the sacrificial system—all foreshadowed Jesus. As we learn about the life and teaching of Jesus, we get clarity on what all those Old Testament laws mean.
Have any of you ever watched movie where everything finally makes sense at the end? You can make guesses about what is going on all throughout the story, and there comes a moment when it all comes together.
The death of Jesus and his resurrection is that moment. Everything becomes clear when we look at the cross. Perhaps not all at once, but the more time you consider all that has happened and what the death of Jesus means, you will see with increasing clarity what it was all for.
The view that Jesus died to fulfill God’s story helps us see that Jesus’ death is not random, but part of God’s grand plan to renew the world.
Conclusion
These are the five perspectives of why Jesus died. At different points in our lives and for different people, God will draw our attention to one of them. Some churches and traditions may emphasize one over the other, but they are all in the Bible and they are all helpful in understanding the meaning of Jesus’ death.
So, what is our response? It is one thing to know why Jesus died, but it is another thing to know what his death means for us.
Galatians 2:20 provides an appropriate response: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
It is impossible to be completely obedient to God because of our sinful nature. That nature must be put to death so that we can experience the new life with Christ.
This new life is a gift from God through Jesus because of his death and resurrection. Our response is to live according to the life of Christ. We can do this with the strength of God who lives in us.
We will get into this passage more on Tuesday at Alpha and in the message next Sunday. Perhaps take some time in the coming days to reflect on Galatians 2:20 and the surrounding verses.
Consider what areas of your life have yet to be transformed by the death and resurrection of Jesus.