The Purpose of the Cross

10 Days to the Cross - Day Two

It's a late post tonight on our second day of Ten Days to the Cross. 

One of the questions I often asked myself as a younger follower of Jesus was "why did Jesus have to die?"  I think it's a question that deserves some thought as we reflect on Christ's crucifixion.

The crucifixion of Jesus was in God's plan from the beginning of time.  Revelation 13:8 tells us that the Lamb, Jesus, was slain from the creation of the world.  In other words, God had destined the crucifixion before Adam and Eve ever fell in the Garden.  God knew that having been created with a free will, we would wander outside of the boundary that he established for our protection.  Adam and Eve were going to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

The result of Adam and Eve's sin and disobedience was death.  Physical and spiritual death.  The spiritual death came immediately in their moment of sin.  Their eyes were open and they felt shame for the first time.  Physical death began in that moment as well, but it took a long time to work it's final end in Adam or Eve.  Actually, the first thing to die after the fall was an animal, whom God killed and used to clothe Adam and Eve.  The death of that animal to cover the shame of the first two humans was a precursor to God's plan to deal with sin and shame for all eternity. 

We see this foreshadowing carried throughout the Old Testament.  When Abraham sacrifices Isaac, a ram is given by God to die in Isaacs place.  At the Passover, the blood of lambs was placed on the doorposts of all the houses of Israel and the angel of death passed over their homes, sparing them while taking the firstborn of all of Egypt.  When the Levitical system was established, a system of animal sacrifice was instituted as a means for people to atone for their sin (Leviticus 17:11).  All of these sacrifices were pointing to God's ultimate plan.

All the blood of countless millions of sheep and bulls could never satisfy the debt of our sin.  The only sacrifice that could satisfy that debt was the life of Jesus.  Jesus, the son of God and the son of man, who had lived a perfect and sinless life for 33 years, was put to death to atone for our sin.  Isaiah 53, written hundreds of years before Christ, prophecies about his sacrifice. 

Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.  After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge (or knowledge of him) my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.  For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.  

It was God's will to crush Jesus and to make him an offering to cover our guilt.  But by knowing Him, we can be made right with God.  That's powerful stuff.