Matthew 27:33-50
Why did Jesus die?
To deliver me. Romans 7 paints a miserably bleak picture of life in this world. We live in bodies that are traitorous, actively working against our best spiritual interests and putting us in captivity to sin. Verse 24 bemoans the human futility of such a hopeless situation: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Did I say hopeless? My friend, that’s why Jesus died! To give us deliverance and hope. Praise God, He sets us free to live in victory. As Galatians 1:4 reminds us, “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” The Great Deliverer experienced death so that He might effectively set us free…indeed!
To reconcile me to God. It didn’t take me long to wander away from God. And the further I walked in the alien path, the farther away I got from Him. Even though I obviously continued to be His creature, I was now His enemy. I no longer belonged to Him; I was not His son. But I have been “reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Jesus came and “made peace through the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20). I am no longer an enemy and an alien. I am a son, an heir, a citizen of His heavenly kingdom!
To purify me and set me aside. I used to be contaminated and filthy, and not at all unique in that condition. Anything I did to improve myself and my position only worsened matters. The best I could do only qualified as bad in God’s record. Then Jesus came on the scene and “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). I am clean and I am His!
(Excerpted from Christ’s Death: Sin Offering or Penalty?)
“And he bearing his cross went forth” (John 19:17). The Father determined that it was not possible for this cup to pass from Jesus, so Jesus took the cup and began to drink from it. Though His will had been to avoid it if possible, Jesus accepted the will of the Father. When His will crossed the will of His Father’s, He chose the Father’s. That inner cross-bearing made possible the actual bearing of a literal cross.
Read the full article: Jesus Lays Down His Life
Additional Reading
- Our Crucified Lord
- If It Looks Like Defeat…
- Christ, Appearing for Me
- His Blood; My Boldness
- Remember Me
