Why did Jesus die on the cross?

Jesus died on the cross because He loves us and He wanted to rescue us from the situation that we, as Humans had got ourselves into. To forgive our sins and also to restore and enable us to become the people He had intended us to be.

But why was the cross necessary in order to achieve that?

Why couldn’t God have simply forgiven us? Like a royal or a presidential pardon? Why did He have to endure such suffering in order to do so?

Even the atoning sacrifices of the Old Testament were killed humanely. Jesus was not.

Jesus’ death and resurrection is multi-faceted. Many things were accomplished which are all interwoven with each other.

It is about much more than atonement and forgiveness, which would have left us in the same position as before and we would have ended up back in the same mess. Something more radical was needed.

The Cross brought about:

• Redemption and ransoming of Humanity from the situation we had got ourselves into. Paying the price of our rescue by sacrificing His own life.
• Facing evil and overcoming it, not with more evil but by taking all it could throw at Him and emerging victorious.
• Demonstration of the extent of His love for the Humanity which He had made.
• Demonstration of just how serious our sin is. The taking upon Himself of the consequences of our sins so that we didn’t have to.
• God’s Identification with Human suffering.
• Reconciliation of the whole of Creation to Himself.
• The offering of transformation, not just forgiveness.

Although the way in which the death and resurrection of Jesus accomplished all these things is a mystery, we are given pictures and metaphors to help us appreciate the magnitude and extent of it.

Redemption and Ransom

We are “slaves to sin” and captives who are in need of redemption.

Redemption can be defined as an act to recover or restore something that has been lost or placed under another’s control. It could refer to a slave who is in captivity for whatever reason, or to land or property which has been sold or pledged in return for money, such as redeeming a mortgage or to redeeming an item from a pawnbroker.

It can also apply to something taken unlawfully by another such as in a kidnapping, a robbery or being taken captive for forced labour. Even computer data can be held to ransom and would need to be redeemed by one means or another.

Jesus is described as our “Redeemer” (go’el) who “gave His life as a Ransom (kōpher) for many”.

The idea of Redemption is a central theme in the Old Testament and sheds much light on God’s nature. Examples of redemption in the Old Testament, including in the story of Ruth at the family level to the Exodus from Egypt on the national level are described here.

A Ransom (kōpher), is the redemption price by which it is accomplished. Unlike in modern English, a ransom is not just a price paid to someone like a kidnapper who has taken a captive illegally but can also refer to the “pawnbroker” scenario where all is done under legal agreement. For example Exodus 21:30 and Exodus 30:12.

In this video, David Mitchell explains this in the context of our salvation.

Importantly, in the case of something or someone being taken unlawfully, it can also refer to the cost incurred by the redeemer in the process of restoring the object or person by force. In this case, although the cost of redemption can be high, the ransomer receives no payment.

For example, a modern army rescuing prisoners from an enemy who refuses to release them. The rescuing army may have to expend enormous resources and perhaps suffer casualties. But we wouldn’t normally say: “They paid the enemy a ransom.” The cost is incurred by the rescuer, while the enemy loses something. It is not a zero-sum game.

In the New Testament, we are described as “slaves to sin”. The problem for Humanity is not just that we have sinned and need forgiveness but that we have a propensity to sin, just as an addict’s problem is not just that he has taken an addictive substance but that in so doing, he has rendered himself unable to free himself from his addiction.

Another example is of someone who, during time of war, colluded with the enemy for some reason, such as having been radicalised, and ends up unable to break free.

Humanity is enslaved to sin and, in order to free us, a price had to be paid and resources needed to be expended. Christ gave his life as the high price/cost of that freedom. However the enemy did not receive the benefit of that cost. The enemy was defeated. The resurrection tells us that the work succeeds.

Victory over Sin and Death

In the New Testament, the cross and resurrection belong together: Christ gives his life, defeats death, and emerges as the one through whom humanity’s lost inheritance is restored.

The Resurrection of Jesus is of Cosmic significance. Jesus took upon Himself everything that Evil could throw at Him and, although it at first appeared to be a defeat, His resurrection proved that He had overcome it. Jesus demonstrated that He was the Victor. Nothing would be the same again.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Collossians 2:15

Jesus demonstrates His love for us and how He feels about our situation

When I was praying about this question, I felt that the Lord was giving me this answer: “Yes, I could have issued a Divine pardon but you needed to see that forgiveness is not trivial, it is not without cost. If I had simply said “you are forgiven” then nothing would have changed. The nature which led you to sin would still be there and the propensity to sin would have remained. You would still be in captivity to the Enemy. The sacrificial animals were there to show you the seriousness of sin but, because they too, did not have the power to change your nature, or to redeem you, they had to be repeated again and again. When you see Me on the cross, you see what the sins of the world mean to me. This is the pain the sin of the world inflicts on me. This is the way that my Spirit is grieved.”

Someone else noted: If He hadn’t have done something spectacular like that, nobody would have taken any notice, nothing would have changed!

Identification with Humanity and our Suffering

When Jesus came to Earth, He identified with us as humans. He experienced what it is like to be human and He experienced suffering as a Human.

Because of that He can stand by us knowing what we are going through, not just in theory, but because He has felt it.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16

A video outlining the reasons that Jesus had to die on the cross can be found here.

More details of the ways in which what happened on the cross are depicted are described here.

In the story of the “widow’s mite”, Jesus contrasts those who give out of their poverty with those who give from their excess. What about God? His resources are infinite so the gifts He gives have to be out of His excess. Except the gift of Jesus’ death on the cross. The gift of Himself. That was a sacrifice in every sense of the wor.