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 WHY IS THE DEATH OF JESUS SIGNIFICANT? Christians believe that the death of Jesus changes everything – the whole state of humanity and our relationship with God. But if you ask exactly how it does this, there are many different ideas. Here are just some of them... Sacrifice – the Jews up until the time of Jesus sacrificed animals, believing that the shedding of blood somehow dealt with their sins and put them right with God. The New Testament says that in the same way, Jesus' death is the sacrifice for our sins that restores our relationship with God... Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews 9:26 Substitute – the Bible portrays God as a perfect judge, who has to punish us for our sin. The only alternative was to allow Jesus to be punished in our place. Jesus never sinned and deserved no punishment. Because he took on himself the suffering he didn't deserve, God no longer has give us what we do deserve... God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 Act of love – Jesus wanted to show us an example of the kind of self-giving love we need to live by if we are to be his followers. The greatest act of love is to lay down your life, so he did this as the perfect example of love. Now we know what true love is, and gratitude to him fills our hearts with the same love. In the words of Jesus, just before his death... My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:12-14 Act of power – Jesus was truly God, so when he let his immortal life be killed and his holy blood spilled, though it looked like weakness, there was a great mystical power in it. When Jesus died, and rose from the dead, he somehow overcame the power of death and broke it. This brings everlasting life to those who follow him. He too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 More questions about Jesus' death |
Picture: the Isenheim Altarpiece, by Matthias Grünewald, painted in the 16th century. |
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