Why did Jesus have to die?
Why did Jesus have to die? Why did he die on Good Friday? The truth is, you already know. If you let your conscience loose long enough, you already know your anger hurts people you care about. You already recognize you put images in front of your eyes that God, out of love, would have you avoid. You already know how slow you’ve been to step up and contribute to your family, the way you know God would have you to.
You already know you lack humility before God.
You already know.
And so does God.
Why?
God is perfect. And God’s justice is perfect. And God’s love is perfect. So what is He to do then? How can God reconcile His perfect justice with His perfect love? Here we have a seemingly impossible dilemma because one thing is certain: you sin against God, and so do I, and so does every living human being on the planet. Even a glance at Matthew chapter five confirms it. (Matthew 5:21-48) Yet when you look at the life of God in flesh and blood, when you look at the life of Jesus Christ, it’s impossible not to see how He loves us, in spite of our sin.
So what is God to do then, with His perfect justice and His perfect love? God reconciles His perfect justice with His perfect love by reconciling you to Himself. And the way He did that was to provide His own Son as a sacrifice, to pay the price for your sins against God, to pay the price for my sins against God.
And the only way that could happen was if Jesus died, on Good Friday–on your behalf.
God loves you so much, God’s desire to reconcile with you runs so deep, He said: Yes, you can reject Me, die in your sins, and go to hell–but you’ll have to do it over My dead body.
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid… John 19:1-8 (To read the conclusion click on the link to John Chapter 19)
Contact me at kurt@kurtbennettbooks.com.
[Image via Christopher Brown – Creative Commons]
And the only way that could happen was if Jesus died, on Good Friday–on your behalf:
Greetings my brother, and forgive me, but I can’t help but chime in here as your readers might like to know the rest of the story. There is a crucial detail amongst Believers which has been left out of our Savior’s death and resurrection. I’m not trying to be “picky”; I think truth is more important today than ever before for truth is being trampled in the streets with just a little twist of faith.
Our Savior’s death was on the 14th day of the 1st month of the year, according to God’s calendar, known as the month of the aviv barley. For us that would mean April 28, 28 CE. If the barley is Aviv at this time, then the following New Moon is called the “New Moon of the Aviv”. If the barley is still immature, we must wait another month and then check the barley again at the end of the 13th month. Yes, I know our calendar was set up by Gregory, and before him, we had the Julian calendar. However, the Creator’s calendar goes by the heavens where He put signs up there for us, the sun and the moon, etc. And again, another change from His calendar occurred by the Sanhedrin who replaced the Creator’s calendar in 359 CE at their last meeting so they could be like the other nations and have their own.
Each of the Feasts begin and end with a High Sabbath, regardless of the day of the week. In John 19:31, John specifies that this day of preparation precedes the High Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began at sundown on Wednesday that year.
John stated that the Pharisees refused to go into Pilate’s judgement hall that morning because they didn’t want to be defiled so they could eat the Passover (John 18:28). This was not a regular weekly (Saturday, 7th day) Sabbath, as every Feast of Yehovah begins with and concludes with a High Sabbath, which can occur on any day of the week. This particular High Sabbath fell at sundown nearing the end of Wednesday. The Passover lambs were sacrificed on a Wednesday that year, as was our sacrificial Lamb, Yeshua.
The Passover sacrifice was originally offered “between the evenings” (Ex 12:6), before sunset in the late afternoon of the 14th of the first month, the month of “the aviv”. Josephus states that more than 250,000 lambs were sacrificed on the Temple mount, which all had to be accomplished in time for the priests to put their lambs in the ovens in the priests chambers, then go over to the Kidron valley bridge to bind ten shocks of aviv barley for the upcoming firstfruits harvest and offering. It would all have to be finished before sunset of the fourteenth of the aviv. As sunset commenced the High Sabbath beginning the Feast of Unleavened bread, Joseph of Aramathea had to get the body of Yeshua into the grave before the sun set that Wednesday evening.
We know the two thieves had to have their legs broken so they would die before sundown. Psalm 34:20 prophesied not one of Yeshua’s bones would be broken. Joseph covered Yeshua’s body with the linen cloth and departed to help Nicodemus secure the burial spices, etc. The two (Miriams) women didn’t witness the embalming process so they made plans to purchase and prepare the spices on the Friday after the High Sabbath, and then return after the weekly Sabbath to embalm the body early on the first day of the week while it was still dark. Saturday night at sundown starts the 1st day of the week, so one could see how it could be “still dark”. However, Messiah had already risen on Saturday, May 1, 28 CE. In the grave on Wednesday before sundown, and He arose on Saturday on the weekly Sabbath before sundown which makes sense since He is the LORD of the Sabbath. He had to be in the grave 3 days and 3 nights or scripture is slanted.
These notes came from a Bible called “The Chronological Gospels”, yet my former Calvary Chapel pastor taught us this several years ago. The church is stilling trying to catch up….but many are!
If He died on Friday, then He’d have to raise on Monday according to the prophecy:
Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
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I love this blog post Kurt because it’s so true the way you started off your article. We already know that our sin hurts other people. Our conscience tells us that. How about those people that have had their conscience seared? I wonder if their conscience still speaks to them.
It’s been such a long time since I got saved and I can’t remember what it was like when I was in the world sinning left and right.
I grieve for the people I know with callous consciences. God tells us the Holy Spirit won’t struggle with a man forever. But when I see God intervene in a life and humble that person, it gives me hope. That’s what happened to me and a few of my friends. As Lewis said, pride is the anti-God state of mind. Thanks for stopping by Peter.
That’s a good point Kurt. I’d love to hear or read your testimony sometime 🙂