Why did Jesus have to die for our sins? Part 1 of 2

Why Jesus Had to Die for Our Sins: God in Flesh and the Need for a Perfect Savior

So, why did Jesus have to die for our sins? Basically, the reason that He had to die for our sins was so that we could be forgiven and go to be with the Lord. The Bible tells us that Jesus is God in flesh.

You can find that in John 1 .1 .14 where it says,. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Also, Colossians 2 .9 says,.

For in Him, speaking of Jesus, dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form. Furthermore, only God who is perfect is capable of satisfying the law or the legal requirements of being perfect. We are sinners and we are not able to do that.

So, only God is able to do what we cannot be doing. All people have sinned against God. But God is infinitely holy and righteous. We have sinned against an infinitely holy and righteous God. That means the result is an infinite consequence because we have insulted an infinite God.

We have broken His holy infinite law. This is why God must punish the sinner, the lawbreaker, because God is holy. If He didn't punish the sinner, He would be approving of the sin. But He can't do that.

The punishment for breaking the law of God is death. It's separation from God. That's what Isaiah 59 .2 says. Therefore, we sinners need a way out from this problem, this judgment that comes upon us because of our breaking the law of God.

We need to escape the righteous judgment of God. Since we are stained by sin and cannot keep the law of God, then the only one who is left to do what we can't do is God Himself. Think about it. All of our works and all of our deeds are touched by sin in our hearts, in our minds, in our bodies.

Nothing that we do is pure and perfect. We cannot keep that law perfectly and we have a perfect standard that we have to uphold or stand up to. We can't do that because God is perfect and holy, but we are not.

This is why the one who is forgiving us is also the one who has to fulfill the law requirement. God forgives us and God is becoming one of us to do what we could not do. This is why Jesus is called God in flesh.

He is both divine and human. He was made for a little while Lord of the angels, Hebrews 2 .9, and made under the law, Galatians 4 .4. And He fulfilled the law perfectly. He never sinned. That's 1 Peter 2 .22.

Therefore, His perfect life is a sufficient and acceptable sacrifice to God the Father on our behalf because of His infinitely pure, infinitely valuable life that was offered on the cross, which is sufficient to cleanse us from our sins and deliver us from the offense to God.

God’s Holiness, Justice, and the Reality of Sin

I would like to break this down a little bit, step by step. I would like to use scripture and some logic. I hope that it helps you understand why God is our Savior and why not some created thing is what would be our Savior.

Also, I hope that it helps you to understand that you must trust in Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins and that you can do nothing on your own to merit salvation from God. First of all, God exists.

The Bible says in Genesis 1 .1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Psalm 90 .2 says that God is infinite. Before the mountains were born or you did give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

Revelation 4 .8 says that God is holy. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.

God is also called righteous and just. 2 Thessalonians 1 .6 says,. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you. Therefore, God is infinitely holy and infinitely just.

Furthermore, here is something to think about. God speaks out of the abundance of His heart, out of His own character. Jesus said in Matthew 12 .34,. For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

In other words, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So when God spoke, He said, Let there be light, and there was light. He said, Let the earth be divided, and it was. And He gave us the law.

He said, Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, don't covet, don't commit adultery. Therefore, the law is the result of the heart of God speaking, and it is a reflection of His character, of His goodness and His holiness.

Furthermore, to break the law of God is to offend God, since it is His law that we break. Breaking the law of God is called sin. This sin results in an infinite offense because it is against an infinite God.

God will punish the lawbreaker. Again, to not punish the lawbreaker, to not punish the sinner, is basically to approve of sin, to not deal with it. It is to allow the offense against holiness to be ignored.

Amos 2 .4 says,. Thus says the Lord,. For three transgressions of Judah, and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because they rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept His statutes. Romans 4 .15 says,.

For the law brings about wrath. God says that the person who sins must die. That is, he must be punished. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Romans 6 .23 says,. In Ezekiel 18 .4,. Behold, all souls are mine, the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine, the soul who sins will die.

The sinner needs to escape that righteous judgment of God, or he will face damnation. This is why the Bible says in Romans 1 .18,. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness.

In Matthew 25 .46, Jesus says,. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. But no sinner can undo an infinite offense against an infinitely holy God. Since to please God and to make things right, he must obey the law perfectly, which is the standard of God's righteous character.

But how many of us can keep the law perfectly? None of us can. God is perfect and He is holy, and holiness requires nothing less than itself. So, we have a problem. We cannot, by the law, be made right.

That's what the Bible says in Galatians 2 .16,. By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. To be justified before God means that we are declared righteous in His sight. To be righteous in His sight, according to the law.

Again, Galatians 2 .16,. By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Galatians 2 .21 says,. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly.

So you see, the sinner cannot fulfill the law because he is sinful. Look at Romans 8 .3,. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son. Since the sinner cannot fulfill the law and satisfy God, it follows that only God can live His own law perfectly.

It's simple logic. If we are unable to fulfill that law, then we will be punished by it. But since God desires us to be saved, the law has to be satisfied. God can't ignore the lawbreaker. He can't ignore those who break His law, who sin against Him.

Since we cannot keep that law, and yet the law must be satisfied, then the only one left who is able to do that is God Himself. The Bible says that Jesus is God in flesh. John 1 .1 .14,. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1 .1 .14,. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. That's what the Bible tells us. It also says in 1 Timothy 2 .5 where there is one God and one Mediator also between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus.

Here is an important verse to consider in Galatians 4 .4,. In Galatians 4 .5,. When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

So get this, Jesus, God in flesh, born in flesh, born as a man, was born under the law, therefore He had to live under the law, and He fulfilled it perfectly. This is why He lived a perfect life, and eventually, on the cross, He became sin for us.

He bore our sins in His body on the cross. That's what 1 Peter 2 .24 says. It also says in 2 Corinthians 5 .21,. That He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.