Feedback archive → Feedback 2014
Why did Jesus have to die?
Published: 14 June 2014 (GMT+10)
CMI often receives hostile messages from non-Christians who do not understand key points of Christian theology. Even though this particular individual disregarded our rule that those who write in provide us with a real name and contact information, we thought the answer to this question was too critical not to answer.

‘Yohan Z.’ wrote:
Why did Jesus die?
Eze 18:20 “The being who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the crookedness of the father, nor the father bear the crookedness of the son. The righteousness of the righteous is upon himself, and the wrongness of the wrong is upon himself.”
Lita Cosner, CMI-US responds:
Yohan’s implication is that since we claim Jesus was sinless, He should not have died. Of course, this goes back to one of the foundational truths of the gospel.
Ezekiel 18:20 is actually talking about temporal reward and punishment, not Heaven and Hell. It is a reference back to Deuteronomy 24:16: “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.” Deuteronomy says that judicially, everyone is to be punished for his own transgression of the Law. Ezekiel reaffirms that principle, and says that even God operates like that.
But on an eternal level, the principle of these passages actually condemns everyone to death, because every one of us has sinned. The point is that no one is condemned for his father’s sin, each of us has quite enough of our own sin to do that.
The problem is that even in the Old Testament, God saved sinners. Even when He wiped out all the people and land animals on earth, He didn’t ‘finish the job’—He preserved Noah, his family, and the animals on the Ark. He forgave David’s adultery and murder. Again and again, we see that God is a God who forgives sin. But the Old Testament also proclaims God’s righteousness and holiness. How can a righteous, holy God overlook sin that must be punished? If God justifies the guilty, He is doing precisely what he condemns in human judges.
That is where Jesus comes in. Jesus, in the Incarnation, became human. He lived a perfectly sinless human life—He obeyed God perfectly, both doing everything the Law commanded, and not breaking one prohibition. This is why the first 30 years of Jesus’ life are just as crucial as His death and resurrection. When Jesus died, He was a perfect sacrifice. He was a sinless human willingly standing in for the sinners. But He also had to be God, because He had to bear an infinite weight of God’s wrath, which no mere created being could do.
When a sinner trusts in Jesus, the Bible says that two related things happen. First, Jesus’ sacrifice pays for our sin, so that we are no longer subject to eternal punishment for our rebellion against God. That is, our sins are imputed (credited to the account of) Jesus (Isaiah 53:6, 10). But if that were all, we would only have a ‘neutral’ standing in God’s eyes, so salvation doesn’t stop there. We’re also credited with Jesus’ righteous acts, so when God looks at us, it’s as if we were the ones who obeyed God. Jesus also is at work today in Heaven interceding for us—our advocate (defense lawyer) with the Father (1 John 2).
So Jesus died because we deserved to, but God in His mercy wanted to give us a way out. Jesus’ death was the only way that God could save sinners.
Readers’ comments
While your answer to Jon P. is technically correct, it addresses more how the world became cursed rather than why we have to continue to live under cursed conditions. The question has another facet addressing the question of God's purpose for setting up these conditions. Some people have the answer that humans have a responsibility to respond appropriately to these conditions but that is unsatisfying. What do you say?
Galatians 4:4-5
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
As the Last Adam, Jesus had to be born under the Law to redeem us, since we were condemned because of our inability to keep the Law. The Law is perfect and if we could keep it perfectly we could be declared righteous apart from faith in Jesus' sacrifice, but, of course, we can't because of the weakness of our sinful flesh.
Romans 8:3-4
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin:He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Although salvation is received by grace through faith (and in this sense salvation came from outside the Law), Jesus earned our salvation and made it available to us through perfectly keeping the Law Himself. If He had failed to keep the Law He would not have been a perfect and spotless lamb and could not have taken away the sins of the world. If Jesus had failed to keep the requirements of the Law He would not have been righteous and so He could not have made us the righteousness of God through faith in His death and resurrection. Our salvation is only possible because Jesus kept the Law. The gift of righteousness and salvation can only be received by grace through faith. Therefore, we could say salvation comes both through the Law (through Jesus' obedience to it) and apart from the Law (by grace through faith).
Surely this points a clear message that there is a spiritual battle of real proportions going on!
Now, as is quite certain, it's not the serpent qua serpent that saved the people but their faith that God would save them.
The question is, Why did Jesus compare (not contrast) his death and the salvation obtained through belief in his death on the cross with this Old Testament incident?
This made me assess my debating with other people and taught me 3 lessons. Firstly, in debating anyone the question has to be asked of them publicly whether the individual wants to debate or to try and show how 'clever' they are, or (fail) to humiliate the Christian debating. If they have no intention of listening, just clearly state Bible truth and stick to it, or don't even debate. Secondly it showed me how people (intentionally and accidentally) abuse the Bible by throwing around especially Old testament verses totally out of context. Funnily enough they do an excellent job at disproving their own arguments! Finally it showed how the name of Jesus causes such hostility, arrogance and even abuse. As I've said many times, the very fact that people become so heated, aggressive and even obnoxious shows the very truth about Jesus, the Bible (and the 6 actual days of creation).
I'm a Christian and understand why Jesus died for us and agree with you. However, you say, "Ezekiel 18:20 is actually talking about temporal reward and punishment, not Heaven and Hell." I can't see that because the next verse says, "But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die." By your understanding of what "die" means, this verse means that a man who keeps the Lord's decrees will never die ... he will live eternally in the flesh.
To me, Ezek. 18 only makes sense when live and die mean heaven and hell. As we all know, the righteous don't live forever but eventually die and go to heaven while the wicked live alongside the righteous (like the wheat and tares) but eventually die and end up in hell.
God bless,
Mick
Adam, as our federal head, rebelled against God. And all of us individually have rebelled against God--so we in a sense have agreed with Adam's rebellion and carried it on it our own lives.
The Curse is due to the rebellion of mankind, starting with Adam. But God does not intend for the world to always be cursed. He will make an end to this present reality, and will inaugurate a restored creation with no Curse, death, or suffering. See The New Earth.
Comments are automatically closed 14 days after publication.