The longer we are a Christian the more we can forget just how foreign some of the tenets of our faith sound to those who are not believers or who have just come to Christ. At the top of the list is the necessity that Jesus had to die on the cross for God to save sinners. It is common especially for the uninitiated to ask, “Why?”
That is the question that The New City Catechism takes up and answers in #24, which reads: “Why was it necessary for Christ, the Redeemer, to die? Answer: Since death is the punishment for sin, Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to God. By his substitutionary atoning death, he alone redeems us from hell and gains for us forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and everlasting life.”
Here we find a fourfold answer.
To start, we are reminded that God, whose very nature is to live and exist and give life (Gen. 2:7; Jn. 10:10; 1 Jn. 5:1) and whose very nature is to be both just and merciful (Rom. 3:26), ordained that with the entrance of sin into the world the punishment would be physical and spiritual death (Gen. 2:17; Prov. 14:12), that is, a brokenness and separation from God’s blessed presence that would become permanent if a person does not turn to his remedy (Jn. 3:16; Rev. 20:14-15).
Next, the Son of God joyfully decided in eternity past to accomplish salvation for those whom God chose to save and gave to him to save (Jn. 6:37; 39; Heb. 12:2). It is true that the Father joyfully ordained salvation in eternity past (Is. 53:10), made a covenant with the Son to give the elect to him to save (Jn. 6:37), and sent his Son into the world to save sinners (Jn. 3:16). Yet, the Son was not coerced. He gladly humbled himself, took on flesh, and suffering on the cross (Phil. 2:5-8) for his sheep (Jn. 10:15).
What is more, we are reminded that since Jesus took the full punishment for sin, he satisfied God’s wrathful judgment against sin and so there is no more penalty to be paid by those who have trusted him (Jn. 3:36; Rom. 8:1). What is also true is that through this salvation Jesus both won the right to pour out the Holy Spirit permanently upon the saved (Acts 2:33) and to reconcile sinners to a holy God—having removed the sin separation between them (1 Pt. 3:18). The result of these realities is that the power of God working through the Spirit in the person delivers them from sin’s power and enslavement to it (Rm. 6:17-18).
Finally, the discovery is also made that through salvation in Jesus Christians are saved from the eternal judgment of hell (Rev. 20:14-15). Conversely, they are given true life that someday will be full restored life that lasts forever in his presence (Rev. 21-22). All of this is the case since through his perfectly righteous life and death they are forgiven of their sins and declared righteous by God (Rom. 5:1-5; Eph. 1:7; Phil. 3:9).
Though it was not necessary for God to save sinners whom he had decreed in eternity past to permit to sin, the fact that he also decreed he would save sinners made the death of the Son necessary. There was no other way to save wherein God would remain both just and merciful (Rom. 3:26).
Praise God both for his severity toward the unrepentant and his kindness toward the repentant (Rom. 11:22)!
Delighting In Our Savior With You,
Tom
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