I got up this morning preparing to go for a walk, and planned to put on my running shoes, which I haven’t used in almost one year, because I preferred using a pair of slippers that was well cushioned. However, that pair of slippers got bad due to excessive use, and I had to go back to my sneakers. The sneakers had been sitting there the entire time, and once I picked it up to insert my feet in them, I noticed there were cobwebs in it.
This is how I feel, picking up my computer to write to you once again, after months of being away. So, here I am, clearing the cobwebs. There were times when I told myself that I’d come back to it but got carried away with something else. There were times when I toyed with the idea of quitting the blog completely, but here I am again, not wanting to stand the risk of being the person with the one talent who buried it and got the master exceedingly angry. So, I am here to do his bidding again, and by his grace (for the 1000th time) I will try and be consistent, even if I post just once a week.
So how have you guys been? What have I missed? You know I have been pondering for a few years now, why Jesus had to die for our sins. Thoughts like, couldn’t God just wave a wand and free us from all guilt, without Jesus going to the cross. What was the big deal in Christ dying?
In essence I minimized the miracle of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and elevated others instead. Because I somehow believed that Christ died so I could have access to mostly material things or to live my best life. I was wrong.
Why did Christ have to die?
Every scripture written in the Old Testament points to Jesus, the Messiah, who would come and take away the sins of the world. While some were prophecies, some foreshadowed what God planned to do, to save his children.
For instance, under the law, animals were sacrificed by the high priest to atone for the sins of the people of Israel. While they had many ceremonies they kept throughout year according to God’s commands, once a year, on the day of atonement, the high priest killed an animal and used the blood of that animal to atone for the sins of everyone in the nation of Israel (Leviticus 16).
In the story of Esther, Esther was placed in that high position, where she could influence the king, who was her husband, to save the Jews. God used her to preserve his people, in a time when all of them would have been killed. If that happened, the lineage through which Jesus was meant to come, would have been eradicated. But God preserved the lives of the Jews, through Esther’s intervention.
Joseph, Jacob’s beloved son, also played a similar role, when God caused him to rise to a prominent position of political power, just so he could preserve the lives of his family, who could have died as a result of the famine that ravished the entire earth. It is in a similar manner that God sent Christ ahead of the final judgement to become a sacrifice, shedding his blood for all people, so that through his death, burial, and resurrection, he would preserve the lives of many who could have died (eternally) as a result of their sin.
Hebrews 9:22-26 says, ““Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
God’s Holiness
Sometimes we forget this aspect of God, that he is holy and as such, he hates sin. Isaiah 6:1-4 says, “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.”
Imagine this remarkable scene for a second. God sitting on his throne, his robe filling the temple, the two wings covering his face, and then the seraphim declaring his holiness. Isaiah had the proper response to this when he said, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5). After this, one of the seraphim’s took a burning coal and touched Isaiah’s lips, saying, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Peter, in Luke 5:8, had a similar reaction to Jesus after he caused them to catch innumerable fish after toiling all night without result, he said, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.
God’s holiness is one of his attributes that differentiates humans from him. And because of this attribute, not only is it impossible for God to sin ( for you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, no evil dwells with you – Psalm 5:4) it is also impossible for him to love sin, or be indifferent towards it. Thus, he despises it. And because of his disdain for it, he has placed a premium on the punishment for sin, which is death (Romans 6:23).
In the Old Testament, there are instances where people faced immediate death as a consequence of their sins. For example, Uzzah, who likely thought he was acting nobly by steadying the ark of the covenant, died because he disobeyed God’s command not to touch it (2 Samuel 6:1-7). Similarly, Judah's two sons and Aaron’s sons were struck down for engaging in evil deeds that displeased God (Genesis 38; Leviticus 10). Another example is the prophet who was killed by a lion after disregarding God's command and believing a false prophet, straying from the path he was instructed to follow (1 Kings 13).
In the New Testament, we see a similar example with Ananias and his wife, who died instantly for lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5). These examples reveal that, whether in the Old or New Testament, sin is a serious offense against a holy God, and it shows that the punishment for sin remains death.
So, what’s the significance of Jesus’s death? Jesus became the penal substitute for us, so that the death that we were supposed to die, as the result of our sin, he died in our place, and when this happened, we took on his righteousness.
Isaiah 53 explains this, and verse 6 says: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Verse 11-12 says, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
If Christ did not die for us, we would have to bear the consequences for our own sin. We would have to make ourselves righteous and have to offer our own intercessions, which is impossible to do, because we are not without guilt (Romans 3:23).
So, when Christ died, he suffered in our place, and this satisfied the wrath of God, that the sinless Savior was given up as a sacrifice in our place. Now, when we as Christ followers sin, God remembers the sacrifice of his son, and rather than kindling his anger against us, the son, like a defense lawyer, intercedes on our behalf, so God, the just judge, can forgive us.
Now, Jesus’ death isn’t the only significant thing which happened for us. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15: 12-19, that if the resurrection did not happen, then we are of all men the most pitiable. Therefore, there is no point to Christ’s death if God did not raise him from the dead.
Another significance of his resurrection outside of the role he now fulfills for us as high priest, mediator, and intercessor, is that we too, one day, will also be raised from the dead, to be with God for eternity. This is where we anchor our hope as believers. If a Christian dies, we don’t weep because of their death like those who don’t have hope. We are comforted because we are promised that on the basis of Jesus’ resurrection, when he returns, he will raise them and us from the dead, and we will be reunited.
Jesus’ resurrection not only allows for him to be our mediator; it also signals that this life isn’t all that there is. There is life after this, and because of his resurrection we can now look forward to that life. So, we ought to thank God that he saved us from death and granted us access to eternal life through his son.
Imagine yourself to be an immigrant, living in a country like the United States then after many years you became a citizen. Your citizenship status now grants you are access to many things which you could not do as a noncitizen. You can now vote, you can now run for office, you can have access to many countries without having to prove your legitimacy as an upstanding individual.
It is kind of like the same thing but way better. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection grants us access to the father and eternal life with him. In the past, only the high priest could enter the most holy place in the temple to bring the blood of the sacrifice to atone for the people’s sins (Leviticus 16).
But because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Hebrews tells us that we can come boldly to the throne of grace and receive help in the time of need. Due to that miracle of Jesus’ resurrection, he became a high priest for us according to the order of Melchizedek, and this high priest can never lose his life. His years are without end (Hebrews 1:12).
While God blesses us with things to enjoy and share with others, these blessings pale in comparison to what He did for us through Christ. When it feels like nothing is happening in your life, and you’re tempted to feel down because you haven’t achieved certain material goals or reached a position you’ve always dreamed of, remember that Jesus has granted you citizenship in heaven.
This is the greatest miracle anyone could receive, and it’s something we should always be grateful for. I would close with what he said to the 72 in Luke 10, after he sent them out on a mission – “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
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