Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

For the last few weeks, I’ve argued that God does away with the good deed vs. bad deed system that many people still hold on to. I have argued that it’s not “good” people who go to heaven, but “forgiven” people who go to heaven. I have also argued that we don’t want what is fair because the Bible demands perfect. What we really want is grace and mercy.

I recently had a discussion with someone regarding their question about why Jesus had to die. They said things like, “I have been hurt in the past by people who I eventually forgave; and I never had to die. And the people I forgave never had to die. So I realize I am not a perfect person and that I have lots of sins, but even by a human court of law I don’t deserve to be in jail. So if all my sins don’t even deserve jail, why would Jesus have to die in order to forgive me? Why kind of system is that?”

This last week, I argued that Jesus had to die because he is pure justice. In a system of pure justice, wrongs cannot go unpunished. I think we all know this which is why we long for justice and why we get upset when guilty people get off scot-free. And since the beginning, God has said that every sin has a consequence, namely death—separation from God and one another. So because God is just, our sins created a debt that demanded a payment. Yet all of us have sinned and we were not struck down by lightening. It’s because God decided to delay the payment on our debt; which is why we call God merciful. In His mercy He decided that He would not demand payment immediately when we sin, but will delay it. God delayed payment until Jesus died on the cross in our place—grace. God decided that He would send payment to pay off the debt. And the payment was his son Jesus. So in the cross we can see these three streams coming together—justice, mercy, and grace.

In summary, I gave us a phrase to answer the question: Why did Jesus have to die? There was a debt that was delayed, but ultimately paid by Jesus on the cross.

Please share your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? Can you relate? Does this make sense?