Light Service Sermons for the Month
Tough-Minded Questions
DATE: February 15, 1998
TEXT: Romans 5:6-8
Light Service Sermons for the Month
Why Did Jesus Have to Die?
Tough-Minded Questions
DATE: February 15, 1998
TEXT: Romans 5:6-8
This morning we're beginning a new series in which we're going to ask some questions, the answers to which can change our lives. These questions have to do with faith, and more specifically with faith as understood by Christianity. Over the next few weeks, we'll look at such questions as Can the Bible be trusted? And Can God really change my life?
For those of you investigating Christianity, I think you'll find that this series will give you some insights into what Christians believe and why. For those of you already committed to the faith, my hope is that this series will strengthen your beliefs and renew your enthusiasm for what you believe.
Today, as we begin, and with Lent just a few weeks away, I want to look at the foundation of the Christian faith, the death of Jesus—and what difference his death can make in our lives. But before we do that, let's pray together.
It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon on that Friday in Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the carpenter Joseph and his wife Mary, hung on a cross. And with his last breath, he said, "It is finished. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."
For several hours prior to his crucifixion, Jesus had been beaten, tortured, questioned, and ridiculed. He was denied sleep and food and was falsely accused during a joke of a trial. This man who preached love and forgiveness, hung condemned and suffered the most torturous death known to humanity.
And the question is, "Why?" The Bible tells us that for some reason he did it for us. But again, "Why?" Couldn't there have been an easier way to make his point? Wasn't it enough that he taught us to love others as God loves us? Wasn't his own life's example enough for us to follow? Why did he have to suffer and die? What was the point?
The answer to that question is found in the nature of God. And as we understand what God is like, we'll be able to make sense of the death of Jesus and in the process, catch a glimpse of the impact it can have on our lives.
1) The first reason why Jesus had to die is because God is just.
The Bible tells us that God is holy, meaning he is morally pure. He always does what is right. He's always consistent. He always maintains his integrity.
There's a lot of security in knowing that God is just, that he's consistent. Because he's holy, we always know where he stands. He doesn't change his mind on a whim. He doesn't toy with us. We need a God like that, a God who can be counted on. A God who can be trusted. It is comforting to know that God will always stand for what is right. When everything around us seems wrong, when many of our leaders seemingly lack character and integrity, God can be counted on to be consistent and to always act fairly and justly.
However, because God is just, he must punish anything that violates his moral standard. Because he is morally pure, because he is holy, he can not allow moral shortcomings in his presence. When justice is the standard, deviant behavior must be dealt with. The crime can not go unpunished.
And that's the bad news for us. For, as the Bible tells us, all of us fall short of God's holiness. None of us are immune. In other words, we have all sinned.
The Bible uses many different kinds of pictures to describe sin in order to give us a sense of how pervasive it is and how it affects all of us.
For instance, the Bible says that sin means to miss the mark. Like an arrow that falls short of the bullseye so we fall short of God's holiness. We can never measure up. We can never be good enough.
Another picture of sin is that of falling behind in a race. The harder we try to live a perfect life, the more we seem to fall behind.
A third picture of sin is that of losing one's way.
There's a true story about two elderly sisters who had been on a shopping trip about 20 miles from their home. On their way back, however, they took a wrong turn. In an attempt to get home they drove around for 60 hours, not stopping to eat, not stopping to ask for directions. The police, in retracing their journey, estimated that the women had traveled over 200 miles trying to reach their home 20 miles away.
The sisters were finally discovered stuck in a muddy orange grove. One of the sisters had died from exposure and the other was found in critical condition. When asked why she didn't ask for help, she said, "Oh, we didn't want to do that. We've always been so independent, we wouldn't dream of admitting we needed help."
The Bible tells us that we've lost our way. That our sin makes it impossible to ever reach God on our own. And for many of us, our sin even robs us of the realization that we need help.
We see the painful results of that sin all around us from violence on the streets to abuse to chemical addictions. In our own lives we see it in a guilty conscience, brokenness, alienation, hopelessness, and meaninglessness.
In essence, our sin, our imperfections, separate us from the source of life, God himself. And to make matters worse, because God is just, because by nature he must punish sinful behavior, we stand condemned before him. And the penalty for our sin is death. A penalty that must be paid.
But to say that Jesus died because God is just doesn't give us the whole picture.
2) The second reason why Jesus had to die is because God is merciful.
Though God is just and must punish sin, he is also compassionate. He deeply loves us. His deepest desire is to live in an intimate relationship with us.
Thus God found himself in a dilemma. His justice demands that our sin be punished. His love desires to save us. So to stay true to himself, realizing that we can never reach his level of holiness, realizing that we can never be good enough, God decided to intervene on our behalf. He decided to pay the debt of our sin himself, so that his holiness could be maintained and so that, at the same time, he could make a relationship between him and us possible. In other words, the death of Jesus demonstrates in the most visible way possible the justice and mercy of God—a God who comes to us to do whatever he can to rescue us.
There's a story about a Russian tribal leader who had two laws. The first was that all people were to love their parents and second was that they were not to steal. His justice and compassion made his tribe one of the greatest in Russia.
One day it was discovered that someone in the tribe was stealing. The Leader immediately called the tribe together and in anger said, "Let the thief come forward and receive 10 lashes for the crime." No one moved. So he upped the ante to 20 lashes. Then to 30. And finally to 40. He stopped there know it would take a strong man to survive 40 lashes. Since no one owned up to the crime, the leader dismissed the tribe and sent men out to find the criminal.
They returned a week later and in shock the leader watched as the men dragged his mother before him. The leader found himself confronting a seemingly no win situation. Would he obey the second law and whip his mother or would he obey the first and let her go? The problem was, if he let her go, he would disgrace himself and devalue the law against stealing.
He called the tribe together. As the whip master raised his arm to administer the 40 lashes on the thief, the leader walked over to his mother, tore the shirt off his back, draped himself over her body, and took the 40 lashes himself. That leader was at one and the same time both just and merciful.
That's why Jesus died for us. The penalty for our sins had to be paid. So he paid them for us. A respect for justice and a love for us led him to the cross.
Ninety-two thousand women and children died in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. One day, Good Friday, ironically enough, the prisoners were separated into two lines—those to be gassed, and those who would live at least one more day. One of the women in the group to be condemned went hysterical. From the other group, those spared the gas chambers, stepped Mother Maria, a nun imprisoned for hiding Jews. She walked up to the hysterical woman and said, "Don't be frightened. It's all right. I'll take your place."
Though, because of our sin, we have been condemned, Jesus took our place. He died on our behalf that the penalty against us because of our sin might be dropped.
Because he died, forgiveness has replaced guilt. Life has replaced death. Hope has replaced despair. Friendship with God has replaced alienation from God.
Why did Jesus have to die? The answer is really quite simple. Because he loves you. And because he died and rose again you can be friends with the living God. You can have your sins washed away. You can be freed from guilt that often robs you of joy.
Jesus died for you to prove God's overwhelming desire to win you over as a friend. And by simply inviting him into your life, you can experience that friendship, and the joy, peace, and forgiveness that comes with it.
AMEN