Why Christ Died
Love covers a multitude of sins...
Jesus said that no greater love has any man than he lay down his life for his
friends.1 Christ loved the people of Israel enough to teach them not to use the Law of Moses to
judge others, even if it cost him his own life at the hands of those who judged by the
law. Jesus gave his life, therefore, to fulfill the Royal Law: Love thy neighbor as
thyself. In other words, he died to fulfill the spirit, not the letter, of the law – for the
spirit gives life while the letter brings death.2 Jesus, in other words, came to free Isreal from death, which reigned over Israel through the letter of the law.
Despite what is commonly taught, Christ did not die because our sins
separated him from a holy God who required that innocent blood be shed for the sake
of his righteousness. By becoming a friend of sinners, Jesus accepted the fact that he
would be marked as a sinner himself and have to pay the price by crucfixion.3 In this
manner, God made him who was without sin to be sin for us and bear it on the cross.4
The law itself teaches that judgment must be set aside for mercy.
Nothing in the law, therefore, required that God separate from his Son for only doing what
the law taught.
People have always practiced religions in which innocent blood in the form of
human and animal sacrifices is shed to appease angry gods. Just as the priests of
Egypt required such sacrifices, Moses instructed his people to bring lambs and other
offerings for their transgressions. In other words, God based the law on the religious traditions held among men since earlies times. As with all of the commandments, however, he
intended that they learn to set these practices aside in favor of mercy and compassion.
References
1 Jn 15:13; 1Pet 4:8
2 2Cor 3:6
3 Mt 11:19
4 2Cor 5:21; 1Pet 2:24
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