If the death of Jesus bothers you, I hope you will consider why it is so and if the reason or reasons are close to what the Bible says on the subject. The death of Jesus is central to the Christian message of God’s saving and reconciling love. Here are some reasons why her death may still bother you. But why bother thinking about such things? Your reasons will tell you a lot about yourself. Something you may not even know.
- MUTTON
Many religious people have been taught that Jesus was a prophet, who was saved from a cruel death by crucifixion by being taken down from the cross and exchanged for someone, who then died in Jesus’ place. The main driver of this idea was that God would not allow such an important person to suffer such public humiliation and arranged the change just in time to save Jesus’ life. The reality is that this exchange never took place. It is based on religious illusions that they cannot bear to see Jesus suffer and die in such a degraded way.
If that’s your belief, hearing about Jesus’ death may upset you, in fact, it may even make you angry. However, it is always good to face the facts. Jesus prophesied his own death, and he did so repeatedly, for example when he said of himself, “They will mock him, spit on him, scourge him, and kill him” (Mark 10:34). John the Baptist, whose role for God was to announce the coming of Jesus, saw him and shouted: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
- LIVING
All the sacrifices of the old lamb find their fulfillment in the final sacrifice, never to be repeated, of Jesus, when he voluntarily offered himself assuming the divine judgment that sinners deserve. Sin is never a trivial matter that prayer, rituals, and pilgrimages eliminate. God’s perfect holiness and his broken law – ‘because all have sinned’ (Romans 3:23) require that sin be judged by death. So that nothing but the precious blood of Christ, shed in death on the cross, will pay the full price of sin so that all who put their trust in Jesus Christ will be freely forgiven.
Because Jesus’ complete sacrifice for sin made by his death on the cross fully satisfied God’s perfect justice, but that glorious and precious truth still bothers people. However, his bodily resurrection on the third day was God’s confirmation that he accepted the sacrifice of Jesus and that Jesus was indeed the Messiah of God and the eternal Son, without beginning, in the only true and living God.
- LIGHT
By nature, we believe that we can be right with God by doing good things. We believe that if we try hard enough, God will be obligated to accept us. We want the honor of being able to save ourselves. We want our sorrows, pains and difficulties of this life, and all our good works and prayers to be enough for God to forgive us. What terrible religious pride!
The apostle Paul, called by Jesus to share his good news, was persecuted by religious people who were earnestly trying to get right with God through their own religious good works. These people were offended by the message of the cross of Christ because it told them that if they were ever going to be right with God, it would be on his terms that he would forgive and welcome the people who came to him empty-handed and stripped. . , and definitely ‘not by works done for us in righteousness’ (Titus 3: 5).
This message of Jesus’ death awakens a deep-seated pride, which upsets people, especially those with a strong religious upbringing. This is because the message of the cross of Christ calls us to humble ourselves before God and accept that we are lost, hopeless, and helpless rebels without God’s great mercy and favor that we could never deserve.
- LOVE
Yes, there is still ‘the offense of the cross’ (Galatians 5:11), or ‘offense’ if you prefer the American spelling, which arouses antagonism and pride, but if that same message humbles you and makes you call on God for mercy of you and forgive your many sins, you can be given eyes to see that the death of Jesus is the most wonderful revelation of God’s love. With it he has shown that the great Creator was willing, even to become the despised outcast, but also the great Savior, powerful to save all who trusted in him.
Well, will you be upset or eternally grateful for the death of Jesus?