Here’s six reasons. Some of them overlap. You may think of others…
Jesus died to satisfy the justice of God
God is just, and justice requires that evil be punished. But we are unable to pay the price of that justice. So, in extraordinary mercy, God in Christ paid that price himself.
Jesus died to take our own guilt upon himself
‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree’ (1 Pet 2:24)
Jesus died to give us His righteousness
‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Cor. 5:21)
‘all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith’ (Rom 3:24-25)
Jesus died to reconcile us to God
‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s sins against them’ (2 Cor 5: 19)
Jesus died to demonstrate the love of God
With all the relentless suffering in this world, both experienced and observed, many people question whether there is a God who truly loves or cares. But the death of God incarnate, in agony on a brutal Roman cross, is powerful evidence that God does indeed love and care.
‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:8)
Jesus died so that we might live for him
‘that we might die to sins and live to righteousness’ (1 Pet 2:24)
‘that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him’ (2 Cor 5:15)
‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price’ (1 Cor 6:19-20)
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