BASIC BIBLE STUDIES

# 015

 

The Death Of Christ

(Part 2)

 

In our previous Study we looked at the crucifixion of Christ and some of the events surrounding His death.  In this Study we will explore the reasons for His death--of why, in the unfathomable wisdom of God, the death of Christ was necessary. 

 

Earlier in our Studies we surveyed humanity's history of persistent disobedience to God (Studies #008 - #011).  It is precisely because of the reality of sin and  mankind's inability to atone for his sins that Christ had to die.  Perhaps the apostle Paul put it most succinctly when he wrote: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).  Everything else that the Bible says about the reasons for the death of Christ ties in

--either directly or indirectly--with this one central truth, that Christ died for our sins.

 

The first eight chapters of Paul's Epistle to the Romans constitute a theological masterpiece of the reasons for--indeed, the necessity of--the death of Christ.  After showing that all--both the Gentile world (Romans 1) and the Jewish world (Romans 2 - 3:20)--stand condemned before God so "that every mouth [that might profess innocence of sin] may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God" (Romans 3:19), the inspired apostle then declares of Christ: "...whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in His blood..." (Romans 3:25).  The word propitiation (properly pronounced pro-pish-e-a-shun) means "a conciliatory offering, an atonement."  By means of the death of Christ God "has so dealt with sin that He can show mercy to the believing sinner in the removal of his guilt and the remission of his sins" (W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words).  What all of this means is that mankind could never atone for his sins by his own efforts, by his own works of righteousness (Titus 3:3-7).  Only by the death of Christ could propitiation/atonement be made for sin, so that henceforth God can be both "just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).

 

Other Biblical statements setting forth this same sublime truth include the following:

 

(1) When He instituted the Lord's Supper, Christ said of the cup, the fruit of the vine: "For this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28).  Earlier, Christ had declared that He had come "to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).  Paul explains in I Timothy 2:6 that "many" means "all."

 

(2) The writer of Hebrews says that Christ "by the grace of God, might taste death for every man" (Hebrews 2:9).

 

(3) The apostle Peter declares: "For Christ also has suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit" (I Peter 3:18).

 

(4) The apostle Paul affirms: "For He (God) has made Him (Christ) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (Christ)" (II Corinthians 5:21). 

 

(5) Peter echoes this same truth when he says of Christ: "...who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed" (I Peter 2:24).

 

(6) Paul plainly states: "...Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures..."  (I Corinthians 15:3).

 

In this last passage we see one of several complementary reasons that is  attached to the death of Christ and the overarching purpose of His death.  Paul says that Christ died "according to the Scriptures," i.e. to fulfill the Old Testament Scriptures which had pointed to the atoning death of Christ.  The fact is that there had never been a time when in His infinite wisdom God had not planned for the death of His Son as the atonement for the sins of mankind.  In Revelation 13:8 Jesus is described as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."  This,  obviously, does not mean that Christ actually was crucified before the creation of the world; it only means that in the eternal wisdom of God this was the way He had chosen "before time began" (II Timothy 1:9) to deal with the reality of humanity's sin.  To use a contemporary phrase, in the mind of God the death of Christ for the sins of mankind was "a done deal" from before the foundation of the world.  Indeed, as Jesus said to Peter when he attempted to protect Christ from the mob who came to arrest Him in the garden of Gethsemane and take Him to His trial and crucifixion: "How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be thus?" (Matthew 26:54). 

 

Throughout the ages of the Old Testament God's "eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11) was gradually being unfolded.  The sacrifices, rites, rituals, feasts, festivals, and Levitical priesthood, along with all the other institutions of the Old Testament were never ends of themselves, nor were they intended to last indefinitely.  They  served only as "a figure for that time then present" (the Old Testament period, hf) (Hebrews 9:9), and were but "a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things..."  (Hebrews 10:1).  The Old Testament, with its rituals and rites and feasts and festivals, was only "a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ" (Colossians 2:14-17).  The animal sacrifices offered and the other ordinances engaged in during the Old Testament ages could never achieve actual remission of sins "for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4).  Only the death of Christ and the shedding of His blood could procure actual forgiveness!

 

In summary, the reasons for the death of Christ were as follows:

 

1. To be a propitiation for the sins of the world, as well as for the sins Christians commit in their imperfect walk with God (Romans 3:21-26; I John 1:7; I John 2:1-2).

 

2. To reconcile mankind to God (Romans 5:10).

 

3. To fulfill the Old Testament Scriptures and bring to fruition God's eternal purpose to redeem mankind through Christ (Luke 24:44-47; I Corinthians 15:1-4).

 

4. To break down the middle wall of division between Jews and Gentiles--"that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances" so that Jews and Gentiles might not only be reconciled to each other, but, more importantly, so that both  might be reconciled to God "in the one body (the church) by the cross, by it (the cross) having put to death the enmity (the enmity that existed between Jews and Gentiles, and, more importantly, the enmity that existed between all humanity and God because of sin)" (Ephesians 2:14-18).    

 

5. To enable Christ to become the mediator of the new testament, thereby  terminating the inadequate rites and rituals of the old testament (Hebrews 9:15-17; Hebrews 10:9-10; Romans 7:4).  

   

How thankful we should be for "the manifold (the many splendorous aspects, hf) wisdom of God" (Ephesians 3:10) and His great love  for us, demonstrated so completely in the death of Christ for our sins!  "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (I John 4:10).  In future Studies we shall see from the New Testament Scriptures how we are to respond to that love in faith and obedience.

 

If this essay has blessed your life, feel free to forward it to others who may benefit from it.

 

Hugh Fulford