It's not fun asking, "why was Jesus crucified?" It's much easier to pretend humanity is basically good. Experience and the Bible teach us otherwise.
A friend on social media posted his thoughts last year. He expressed his belief that there’s nothing wrong with humanity, that no one had to die for us, and we don’t need to be forgiven of anything, especially not by God. This was on Easter, on purpose. This post deeply grieved me. I know this person well, and to hear such lies broke my heart. It breaks God’s heart far more. Even if this person were only an acquaintance, it would still break my heart. Not simply because this view is wrong, but it is wrong in a way that has eternal consequences. We can be wrong about the best burger or greatest rock band. We don’t get to be wrong about the question, “why was Jesus crucified?”
Why Do We Ignore Why Jesus Was Crucified?
My friend isn’t alone in his misguided belief. We have a culture that increasingly argues for humanity’s goodness, that we are pure and good at our core. To explain the idea of evil, if they even admit to such a thing, people usually blame a system, civilization, or even espouse that a religious belief in God is oppressive, much like Marx and his “opiate of the masses.” Those who believe this may be atheists or agnostics.
Sadly, even some modern Christians believe that people are basically good. They steer away from ideas like sin and hell and the corruption of humanity. Turns people off and turns them away. Their messages are more self-help than the radical salvation written in the scriptures.
The death of Jesus carries essential meaning. It is a very violent and disturbing event, so gruesome that a realistically showing the cross gave Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ an R rating. It is not a comfortable thought or story.
Yet when Christian leaders chose which Gospels to include in the canon, a requirement was to include the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul tells the Corinthians that he preaches Jesus crucified up front and center for his message of the Gospel, foolishness to the Greeks, and a stumbling block to the Jews (1 Corinthians 2). The message of the cross is the dividing line between who is saved and who isn’t.
Very uncomfortable, yes. But also absolutely necessary.
So why was Jesus crucified? Why would the Son of God submit himself to such torture and agony?
Why Was Death Necessary to Defeat Sin?
Unfortunately, there is something seriously wrong with us.
When Adam and Eve sinned and were exiled from the Garden, God had to kill an animal to cover their nakedness and shame (Genesis 3:21). Sin – the rebellion against the ways of God and corresponding separation from him – had a clear consequence, which God warns in the opening chapters of Genesis. Death. If God is love and life, then death is choosing to live separate from him.
God deals with Adam and Eve and sacrifices an animal to hide them. They chose to hide from God first, by the way (Genesis 3:8-9). God set up a new legal system through Moses, but the Old Covenant was marked with death and division. Animals were constantly sacrificed, and the Tabernacle/Temple divided men from women, Jew from Gentile, and hid the presence of God behind a thick curtain where only one person could view him once a year at the Ark of the Covenant. Incense covered the sin stink of humanity so God could meet with them.
The Old Covenant wasn’t redemption or restoration; it was sin management.
The Old Covenant wasn’t a solution. It was a temporary babysitter until something could address the real issue (Galatians 3:19). The real issue? Our hearts (Matthew 5:19). The Law was holy, but it was insufficient because it depended upon corrupt humans to maintain it (Romans 8:3). We can’t.
Along with physical death, Adam and Eve passed on the consequence of spiritual death. Once we depart from this world, our eternal beings made in God’s image would be eternally separated from him. We call that hell.
It was our hearts that had to change. But how could that happen? There was only one way; God merged the eternal, immortal Son with the mortal, temporary humanity. Then he sent his Son to die on the cross. The body died, but that which was immortal couldn’t be killed. The eternal and immortal are more powerful than the mortal, and it resulted in the resurrection of Jesus in a new, physical, incorruptible body.
The mortal was undone. The curse canceled. The consequence of death was put to death. The eternal always wins. (1 Corinthians 15:55-56)
This was the only way to fix the internal problem.
Why Was Jesus Willing to Be Crucified?
God did send his Son to die on the cross for us. It is also true that Jesus chose it, as well. The Kingdom of God isn’t about coercion or force. Christ told people that no one could take his life willingly; he gave it freely (John 10:18). Why?
First, he trusted and loved his Father. In the scene at the Garden, Jesus begs to get out of the agony ahead of him. Since there wasn’t another way, he chose to obey his Father (Luke 22:42-44).
Second, Jesus endured the cross because he saw the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2). He knew the cross was temporary, as much as it would hurt, and he would be resurrected. The event of death and resurrection meant that people could be reconciled to him and the Father through the Spirit. Now, to be saved, we’ve been invited to repent (to turn from our way to God’s way) and live in Christ. Our hearts are born again through the indwelling Spirit.
In other words, the reward was you and me. People. He loved us and wanted to redeem us back to himself and the Father.
What Does the Bible Say about Jesus’ Love for Us?
To repeat, there’s something wrong with humanity. And God loves us. Those truths aren’t mutually exclusive. They are both true at once.
In our culture, or rather in humanity as a historical whole, we don’t like being told we’re wrong. It is common these days that if we disagree with someone or say they are wrong about their lifestyle or identity, that constitutes “hate” according to the popular and prominent worldview.
If I see my son about to go over a cliff to his death, even if he’s happy about it, I will beg him to stop if I love him. Even if he hates me for correcting him and he calls me names, I will beg him to stop. Because I love him.
The cross says there was something very wrong with us (with physical, spiritual, and eternal consequences). It challenges our prideful notions about ourselves. Foolishness and a stumbling block, indeed.
Yet the cross also says, unequivocally, that God loves us.
The most famous scripture we can all say by heart is – for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in him wouldn’t perish but have everlasting life. God saw us in our desperate need, even though it was of our own making and deserved it, that we had earned death, and he took the punishment for us and provided a way to be redeemed back to the intimacy and purpose we so long for.
That’s love.
Jesus loves us as the Father loves us (John 15:9). We were rebels in our sin and selfishness, thumbing our nose up against God, and he still loved us anyway (Ephesians 2:4-5). Of course, he loved us because God is love (1 John 4:8). Love is his nature, his character. There’s nothing we can do to get him to not love us.
But we needed help, we were going to die, and he loved us so much that he gave his life for us to have an opportunity to change, be transformed to eternal life (Galatians 2:20). Jesus explained that it’s the greatest love to give a life for another (John 15:13). His sacrifice is how we know what love is (1 John 3:16). We wouldn’t have a clue about what love is without his death on the cross.
Furthermore, his death on the cross guides how we love one another. Marriage is a relational expression of God’s love. Husbands are to give their lives for their wives as Christ did for the Church, for her good and redemption (Ephesians 5:25). Why was Jesus crucified? Not just to save us from hell, but to save us for Heaven. He saved us for an eternal, intimate relationship with him, filled with purpose and joy in the Kingdom of God.
This is why my friend’s statement breaks my heart. Because without the cross, he’ll never know love. I know the joy of living with Christ, the contentment and peace of walking in the Spirit, and the fulfillment of participating in God’s purposes to redeem others through love. It’s worth everything.
Prayers to Thank Jesus for Saving Us
Jesus, you are the name above all names, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There is no one like you in all Heaven and earth. I praise you for who you are, the God who loves, speaks, helps, corrects, and saves. You alone are powerful and good.
Thank you for entering the brokenness of our lives and the mess of this world. You brought light into our darkness with your love, showing us first the death that awaits us, then our need for you and the salvation you offer through Christ. Thank you for an eternal love that we can’t earn or ruin, a love that is secure and always seeks our best. You lead us into your path for our good and your glory.
Thank you for saving us for a relationship with you, to walk in the amazing story of redemption you’ve been telling throughout all history.
Thank you that our home is now in the Kingdom, that our lives are secure in Heaven at the right hand of God in Christ. Thank you that we have a hope and a future that can never be stolen, a treasure that can’t rust or fade.
Help us love others as you have loved us and live in the moment with eternity in mind.
Amen.
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