Why Did Jesus Have to Die on the Cross?

There is a prickly question at the center of the Christian faith that is impossible to ignore.

It’s not just theological, it’s deeply personal, deeply unsettling, and at times, deeply misunderstood. And every believer, at some point, will have to wrestle with it. Either that or a non-Christian will challenge you with it at some point. Ready for it? It actually comes in multiple forms:

• Why did God the Father allow His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer on the cross?

• Of all the ways Jesus Christ could have made things right with God for our sake, why did it have to be such a violent, bloody cross?

• Why couldn’t God just forgive our sin? And why couldn’t Jesus simply cast out our sin or wave His hands and forgive sin? Why did there have to be so much bloodshed?

In fact, I have encountered people of other religions who have expressed that the reason they cannot follow Christianity is because “they cannot believe in a God who would send His Son to die on a cross. That sounds wicked and unloving… and like cosmic child abuse.”

Uncomfortable yet?

So first, let me acknowledge that those are fair questions that every thoughtful Christian has to wrestle with at some point in their faith. But rather than just tell you why Jesus had to die on the cross, allow me to show you.

It is because of THIS FOLDER. (This folder represents you.)

I want you to imagine that from the day you were born, there was a folder opened in your name. In it is recorded every sinful thought, every sinful word, every sinful deed, every selfish impulse, and every hidden sin, all stored in shocking detail, just page after page. Some of these pages have sins no one else knows about, things you thought no one would ever find out.

Yup, it’s all in here.

Now let me tell you what’s even worse. Satan also has this folder on you and knows every detail. To be clear, Satan is not omniscient; he’s not all-knowing like God. But he has all the dirty details he needs on you.

Wanna know what he does with this folder?

He carries it every day into the courtroom of heaven, slams it down, and points at you before God, the Judge of all heaven and earth, and he accuses you, saying, “Look at this hypocrite you saved. Look what’s in this folder in the last 24 hours alone! He’s a failure. She’s unworthy of eternal life!”

That part is not imaginary.

It is as real as the words you are reading. Satan’s name literally translates to “accuser,” and Revelation 12 labels him as “the accuser of the brethren… who accuses them before our God day and night.”

Here is why this is a big and terrifying problem for you. If even one of Satan’s accusations against you holds true, then that means your folder stands against you as evidence of your sinfulness in the presence of a holy God. And when you someday stand before Him, with this folder hanging over your head, you will be doomed forever and ever, because His holiness demands that sin must be punished.

So, you desperately need an advocate to argue your case.

THIS FOLDER IS WHY WE NEED THE CROSS!

So, in this blog post, I am going to pose three questions and provide three answers that address the necessity of the cross.

1. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? We already started answering that question, but I will dive into it a little more deeply and show you what is truly at stake (and why His death had to be on a cross, as opposed to Jesus just going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning to save us).

2. What did the cross accomplish? (As in, how does it save us, and what does it save us from?)

3. Lastly, what are the spiritual implications of the cross? (How did it impact Satan and his demons, and how exactly did the cross defeat Satan?)

QUESTION 1: WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE ON THE CROSS?

The simplest answer to that question is that, according to Hebrews 9:22: “…without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”

In other words, nobody ever just lets things go scot-free. Someone always has to pay when a sin has been committed. Think of it this way: if you have ever been offended by someone, or let’s say someone offends you by destroying something you own, it’s impossible to just let them go. Someone has to pay the price.

You’re actually faced with a few options.

• You can either make them pay for what they did wrong or punish them for destroying your property (so they pay for it)

• You can both pay for part of what was destroyed (so you both pay)

• Or you can forgive them and release them of their offense, but in doing so, you’ve just taken on the cost of what you lost, and in doing so, you are paying for the offense yourself.

See how that works? Forgiveness ALWAYS costs something!

Now kick that back up to a macro level. In order for God to remain just and holy, He cannot just let sin go (otherwise He wouldn’t be a righteous Judge). Can you imagine all the genocide, the murder, the looting, and the lying that has happened throughout history, and we get to eternity and God just says, “Oh, it’s okay. I love everybody. Let’s just forget the evil”?

You’d be peeved, right? Our nature demands that there should be justice… payment.

Also, keep in mind that it’s not just that the payment for a sin has to equal the offense, but the payment has to satisfy the offended person.

Well, consider the fact that God is an infinite God of infinite holiness. Therefore, all sin committed against Him is infinitein its magnitude. So how do you pay back an eternal, infinitely holy, omniscient God for the grievous offenses of all of humanity?

The simple answer is, you cannot. Many of you can barely pay back your parents for damages you’ve done around the house. How then are you supposed to pay back the God of all creation?

The punishment of our sin has to meet the standard of justice of the One whom the sin was committed against.

Incase you’re still not getting it, let me explain it this way: If you sin against me, I may be upset and have a stern conversation with you (but I’m likely not going to hold an eternal grudge against you). But what if you sin against an army officer? Especially a Nigerian army officer? Ah, then the punishment goes up one level and will probably take place at their barracks (where they will mostly likely rearrange the bone structure of your face).

Let’s take it up one more notch. What if you sin against the Nigerian president? The consequences will be even greater, right? Your family may not find you for a few months. Now, what if your sin is against the president of the United States? Like an attempted murder? I think it’s fair to say you might enter the realm of global threat. 

So, if those are the consequences of sin against another flawed human, how much graver might the consequences be when your sin is against the eternal, utterly holy God of heaven and earth, whom the Bible says is a “consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24)?

See where I am going with this? The punishment of our sin has to meet the standard of justice of the One whom the sin was committed against.  We need the cross not just because our sin is worse than we ever imagined, but because of the utter holiness of who our sin is against!

QUESTION 2: WHAT EXACTLY DID THE CROSS ACCOMPLISH?

As in, how does it save us, and what does it save us from? To answer that, we need to return to a very specific moment on the day of Jesus’ execution on the cross in Matthew 27:45.

At this point in the Gospels, Jesus has been betrayed, arrested, dragged through six false trials. He has been flogged, flesh torn, mocked, beaten, spat on, forced to carry His cross through the streets, and He has been hanging on the cross for hours, naked and exposed to shame.

Then something cosmic and earth-shattering happens. Matthew 27:45 says, suddenly, “From the sixth hour [about noon] until the ninth hour [about 3 p.m.], darkness came over all the land.”

Don’t miss what just happened. This is when the sun should have been brightest, but instead, the whole land is plunged into an unnatural, supernatural darkness. Ray Pritchard, in his book In the Shadow of the Cross, writes this about that mysterious moment:

“It was not an eclipse, nor was it a dark cloud cover. It was darkness itself—thick, inky-black darkness that fell like a shroud over the land. It was darkness without any hint of light to come. It was chilling darkness that curdled the blood and froze the skin. No one moved. No one spoke. For even the profane soldiers stopped their swearing. Not a sound broke the dark silence over Golgotha. Something eerie was going on.”

Why was this suddenly happening now?

Well, in the Old Testament, darkness is often a sign of God’s judgment. God prophesied in Amos 8:9–10, “In that day… I will make the sun go down and darken the earth in broad daylight… I will make it like mourning for an only son”… which is exactly what was happening on that dark afternoon at the cross on Calvary.

In those three hours of darkness, the full judgment and wrath of God for human sin (your sin and my sin) was being poured out on the One Person who never sinned, but who was standing in as a substitute in our place. Remember, SOMEONE ALWAYS HAS TO PAY!

If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you need to get this part, because this is what is at the very heart of your salvation.

It’s what’s known as the Substitutionary Atonement.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

If you are more of a visual person, let me paint this picture for you. Imagine that somewhere in the universe is a gigantic septic tank containing all the sins that have ever been committed. This soakaway tank is deep and wide, dark and filthy, and indescribably foul. All the evil, sinful deeds that humanity has ever committed are floating there, and it is being replenished each day with every new sin we commit.

Every angry, hateful word you have ever spoken is there. Every prideful thought or conceited action is there, Lust, pornography, adultery, homosexuality - all in there. Murder and bitterness, along with gluttony and slothfulness, are all in there Wickedness, cursing, abuse, theft, drunkenness are all mixed into this septic filth. Now imagine that over the course of those three hours of darkness, this gigantic septic tank of filth was being poured all over Jesus Christ as He was experiencing the full weight of mankind’s sin rolled on his shoulders.

By the way, I should point out that Jesus was doing this willingly. It’s not like He was a helpless victim. In John 10:18, He says, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (of my own free will).

Let me ask you this: if you saw Jesus in that filthy condition on the cross, would you go near Him? If we’re honest, most of us would be repulsed by Him and would abandon Him. If that is how we would have responded, how do you expect an infinitely holy God would react to His Son in that moment? He would have to turn away, which is why the very next verse in Matthew 27:46, we hear Jesus cry out: “Eli, Eli, lemasabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

That darkness was not just on the land; it was in His soul. Jesus, on the cross, was entering into the full horror of separation from the Father so that you and I would never have to.

Think about the fact that from eternity past until that moment, God the Father and Jesus, the eternal Son of God, had always been in perfect fellowship with one another, and now, for our sake, that relationship had to be momentarily broken so that the penalty of our sin could be paid.

So, what did the cross accomplish? Well, it was delivering a judgment against everything that stood against us: guilt, shame, judgment, condemnation. Jesus was satisfying the demands of divine justice so that you and I would never need to That is why His next words, according to John 19:30, were, “It is finished.”

Please note that He didn’t say, “I am finished,” but “It is finished.” In other words, the work of paying the penalty for our sin was complete. Our debt is canceled. The folder is empty. Salvation is accomplished!

QUESTION 3: WHAT ARE THE SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE CROSS?

As in, how did it impact Satan and his demons, and how exactly did the cross defeat Satan?

The first spiritual implication is that it strips Satan of his accusations.

Look at Colossians 2:13–15, where Paul writes: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness (record of debt), which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

We already know that one of Satan’s full-time jobs is the accusation of believers before God, right? Satan goes into our “folder” daily and pulls out a new case, each with its own label:

• HYPOCRITE: “She says she loves God, but she barely prays except when she needs something.”

• PERVERT: “He claims to be a pure Christian, but his computer and phone search history is hiding so much he should not be looking at.”

• FAITHLESS: “He tells people God is good, but deep down he doubts His love for him and is angry at Him.”

Those are the constant whispers the devil accuses you with, and that leads many believers into despair, shame, even depression. But here is how the cross defeats Satan and his accusations.

Romans 8:1 says that because of the cross, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Then, in the passage from earlier in Colossians 2:14, it says the “record of debt” (that’s referring to the folder), with all your charges and accusations that stood against you has been, “taken it away, nailing it to the cross”.

What that means is that Jesus has already been charged for your crimes. In the heavenly courtroom, where God presides as Judge, the evidence against you no longer exists!

IT’S LITERALLY BEEN TAKEN AWAY.

In legal terms, they call it double jeopardy, which means you cannot be tried for the same crime twice! The verdict has already been given, and you are already free!

**(Some of you may need to go back and read those last several sentences again).

Now to be clear, Satan still accuses, but those accusations no longer stick in heaven’s court, they’re powerless and useless. So, what Satan does then is that he turns to our minds to whisper what heaven has already dismissed. Yet, our defence is not that we are innocent. Our defence is: “Jesus already paid it all!”

So, what this means for you as a Christian is that you must apply to your heart, daily, what is already true of you in Christ.

When accusations whisper, you speak back:

• I am already forgiven

• I am already secure

• I am already justified

• I am forever loved

• I am eternally chosen

The second spiritual implication of the cross is that it shatters the devil’s strongest weapon (The Fear of Death).

Death still remains one of humanity’s greatest fears. We have found ways to prolong life, but we haven’t figured out how to escape death, and that haunts families every day of their lives. Even inside our churches, especially Nigerian churches, we perpetuate the fear of death when preachers say things like, “You will not see death in Jesus’ name!”

Well, that’s not even a biblical promise, because Scripture itself says plainly, “It is appointed unto man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). FACT: One out of every one person,in their lifetime, will die!  

The promise of Christ is not that you will not die, but that death will not have the final say in your life.

Satan knows how much power the fear of death holds over us, and he has used it as his strongest chain to enslave humanity. Hebrews 2:15 says the devil held us in bondage “…through the fear of death (and we were) subject to lifelong slavery.” Essentially, Satan acts like a prison warden who throws you into a cell, taunts you with the keys, and whispers: “You cannot escape me, you will die, your children will die, your parents and friends will die, and when they die, it will all be over! You will face judgment, and you are not ready!”

All lies!

So, here’s the good news. At the cross, Jesus stripped Satan of that very weapon by taking away the sting of death. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:56: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” What that means is that the requirement of the law has already been satisfied.

Jesus Christ already paid for the penalty of our sin and satisfied the demands of God’s law. In doing so, He has taken away the sting of death… as in, death no longer carries venom.

So yes, you will someday die, but for followers of Jesus Christ, death is not your end. It is a welcome home to eternity, where you will finally hear your Father in heaven say, “Welcome home, my child. Your journey is complete.” For you (as a follower of Jesus Christ), the valley of the shadow of death will not be a valley of darkness. No, instead, it will blaze with the light of the glory of Christ! Holy angels will line the path, escorting you like royal guests into the everlasting presence of Jesus Christ, where every sorrow ends and every tear is wiped away.

Can I get an amen?!?

So, when Satan taunts you with whispers and fears of death, you can answer,

“No, I’m not afraid. Jesus has already gone ahead of me to prepare a place for me, and now my life is hidden in Him. Death cannot destroy me; it can only deliver me into His presence.”

Listen, as a follower of Jesus Christ, when you take your final breath in this life, it will not be a tragedy, it will be your TRIUMPH! That is the destiny-changing power of the cross. In one moment,

• All the labor and wahala you were facing… you will finally rest in glory. 

• All the crying of tears from pain… you will sing songs of joy

• All the battle with temptation… you will walk in perfect holiness

• All your loved ones you have had to say goodbye to… you will reunite with them forever

In heaven, you won’t have to walk by faith… you will see God face to face because…the power of accusation is GONE! The sting of death REMOVED. The fear of death, DESTROYED. That, my friends is the destiny-changing power of the cross!

This should bring to mind the lyrics from a popular hymn titled, In Christ Alone…

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry (the day I was born)

to final breath (the day I breathe last)
Jesus (Not Satan, and not death) Jesus commands my destiny

Jesus commanding my destiny means for a Christian, there is no such thing as premature death. The day you die, the day I die, is the day Jesus says it’s time to come home!

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand

(your enemies attacking you do not control your destiny, God does!)

Till He returns or calls me home (whichever comes first)
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

What a future we have in store!

So let us wrap our time up in prayer:

If you have been experiencing accusations in your mind and your life has been filled with guilt (place your hand on your head, representing your mind where the battle has been taking place). If the fear of death has been hanging over your head or over your family (place your hand on your heart, because it represents life, your heartbeat).

PRAY:

“Lord Jesus, I have long lived with whispers of lies and accusations in my head. The enemy keeps playing back my past failures and assaulting me mentally. But I thank you for the cross today, Jesus. I thank you that all my sin has not only been nailed to the cross, but the folder of sin that stood against me has been “taken away” and nailed to the cross through your payment. I thank you indeed that because of the cross and my faith in Jesus, truly the accusations of Satan are useless and have no basis on heaven or earth.

Father in heaven, I also lift up to you the fear of death that has been haunting me. I thank you Jesus that, first off, you have removed “the sting of death.” I thank you that death DOES NOT have the final say in my life, and that even if my life comes to an end, it is because you have declared it is time for me to come home. I thank you for the reassurance in your Word that at the moment of my last breath in this life, my next breath will be in your presence and in your overwhelming peace. Thank you, Jesus for victory. I ask, O God, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you would remove from my life the spirit of the fear of death. Help me walk into any and every situation that lays ahead of me with full confidence and faith because whether in life or death, Jesus, You control my destiny!

I thank you for hearing me today, Father! I bless you and rejoice in you.

In Jesus name I pray. “

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