Born to die

The Christian faith proclaims the message that in due time the Son of God became flesh in a predetermined place and lived among us humans. Jesus was of such remarkable personality that some even questioned his being human. However, the Bible repeatedly emphasizes that God in the flesh - born of a woman - was actually a human being, that is, apart from our sinfulness, he was like us in every respect (John 1,14; Galatians 4,4; Philippians 2,7; Hebrews 2,17). He was actually human. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is usually celebrated at Christmas, even if it actually began with Mary's pregnancy, according to the traditional calendar on the 2nd of December5. March, the feast of the Annunciation (formerly also called the feast of the Incarnation or the Incarnation of God).

Christ the crucified

As important as the conception and birth of Jesus may be to our faith, they are not at the very first place in the message of faith that we carry into the world. When Paul preached in Corinth, he delivered a far more provocative message: that of Christ crucified (1. Corinthians 1,23).

The Greco-Roman world knew many stories of deities born, but no one ever heard of a crucified one. It was grotesque - something akin to granting people salvation if they believed only in an executed criminal. But how should it be possible to be saved by a criminal?

But that was the crucial point—the Son of God suffered a criminal ignominious death on the cross and only then regained glory through the resurrection. Peter declared to the Sanhedrin: "The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead... God exalted him by his right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel" (Acts 5,30-31). Jesus was raised from the dead and exalted so that our sins would be redeemed.

However, Peter did not fail to address the embarrassing part of the story as well: "...whom you hanged on the tree and killed." The term "wood" undoubtedly reminded the Jewish religious leaders of the words in Deuteronomy 51,23 remembers: "... a hanged man is cursed by God."

Geez! Why did Peter have to bring this up? He did not try to circumvent the socio-political cliff, but rather consciously included this aspect. His message was not only that Jesus died, but also in this dishonorable way. Not only was this part of the message, it was its central message. When Paul preached in Corinth, he wanted to understand the central concern of his preaching not only the death of Christ as such, but also his death on the cross (1. Corinthians 1,23).

In Galatia he obviously used a particularly graphic way of expression: "... in their eyes Jesus Christ was painted crucified" (Galatians 3,1). Why did Paul need so much emphasis to emphasize such a horrific death that the Scriptures saw as a sure sign of God's curse?

Was that necessary?

Why did Jesus suffer such a terrible death in the first place? Probably Paul had dealt with this question long and hard. He had seen the risen Christ and knew that God had sent the Messiah in this very person. But why should God let that anointed one die to a death whom the Scriptures hold as a curse? (So ​​even Muslims do not believe that Jesus was crucified. In their eyes he was a prophet, and God would hardly ever have allowed such a thing to happen to him in that capacity. They argue that someone else was crucified instead of Jesus been.)

And indeed Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that there might be another way for him, but there was not. Herod and Pilate merely did what God “ordained should happen”—that he should be put to death in this cursed manner (Acts 4,28; Zurich Bible).

Why? Because Jesus died for us—for our sins—and we are cursed because of our sinfulness. Even our small transgressions are tantamount to crucifixion in their reprehensibility before God. All of humanity is cursed for being guilty of sin. But the good news, the gospel, promises: “But Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, since he became a curse for us” (Galatians 3,13). Jesus was crucified for each of us. He took the pain and shame we really deserved to endure.

Other analogies

However, this is not the only analogy the Bible gives us, and Paul only addresses this particular view in one of his letters. More often he simply says that Jesus "died for us". At first glance, the phrase chosen here looks like a simple exchange: we deserved death, Jesus volunteered to die for us, and so we are spared this.

However, it is not that simple. For one thing, we humans are still dying. And from a different point of view, we die with Christ (Romans 6,3-5). According to this analogy, Jesus' death was both vicarious for us (he died in our place) and participatory (that is, we partake of his death by dying with him); Which makes it pretty clear what matters: We are redeemed through the crucifixion of Jesus, so we can only be saved through the cross of Christ.

Another analogy chosen by Jesus himself uses ransom as a comparison: "...the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10,45). As if we were held captive by an enemy and Jesus' death secured our freedom.

Paul makes a similar comparison by saying that we have been ransomed. This term may remind some readers of the slave market, others perhaps also of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Slaves could be ransomed from slavery, and so God also freely purchased the people of Israel from Egypt. By sending his son, our Heavenly Father bought us dearly. He took the punishment for our sins.

In Colossians 2,15 another image is used for comparison: “... he completely disarmed the authorities and the powers and put them on public display. In him [in the cross] he triumphed over them” (Elberfeld Bible). The picture drawn here represents a victory parade: the victorious military leader brings the disarmed, humiliated prisoners in chains into the city. This passage in Colossians makes it clear that Jesus Christ, through his crucifixion, broke the power of all his enemies and was victorious for us.

The Bible conveys to us the message of salvation in pictures and not in the form of firmly established, immutable beliefs. For example, Jesus' sacrificial death is ours instead of just one of many images of which the Holy Scriptures make use of to make the crucial point clear. Just as sin is described in many ways, Jesus' work to redeem our sins can be presented differently. If we regard sin as breaking the law, we can recognize in the crucifixion an act of punishment performed in our place. If we regard them as violations of God's holiness, we see in Jesus the atoning sacrifice. When it pollutes us, the blood of Jesus washes us clean. If we subjugate ourselves, Jesus is our Savior, our victorious liberator. Wherever she sows enmity, Jesus brings reconciliation. If we see in it a sign of ignorance or stupidity, it is Jesus who gives us enlightenment and wisdom. All these pictures are a help to us.

Does God's anger appease?

Godlessness will provoke God's wrath, and it will be a "day of wrath" in which he will judge the world (Romans 1,18; 2,5). Those who "do not obey the truth" will be punished (verse 8). God loves people and would rather see them change, but He punishes them when they stubbornly resist Him. Anyone who closes himself off to the truth of God's love and grace will receive his punishment.

Unlike an angry person who needs to be appeased before he can calm himself, He loves us and made sure our sins could be forgiven. So they were not simply wiped out, but given to Jesus with real consequences. "He made him to be sin for us who knew no sin" (2. Corinthians 5,21; Zurich Bible). Jesus became a curse for us, he became a sin for us. As our sins were passed on to him, his righteousness passed to us "that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (same verse). Righteousness has been given to us by God.

The revelation of God's righteousness

The gospel reveals the righteousness of God - that he makes righteousness rule to forgive us instead of condemn us (Romans 1,17). He does not ignore our sins, but takes care of them with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The cross is a sign of both God's righteousness (Romans 3,25-26) as well as his love (5,8). It stands for righteousness because it adequately reflects the punishment of sin by death, but at the same time also for love because the forgiver willingly accepts the pain.

Jesus paid the price for our sins - the personal price in the form of pain and shame. He obtained reconciliation (the restoration of personal fellowship) through the cross (Colossians 1,20). Even when we were enemies, he died for us (Romans 5,8).
Justice is more than law-abiding. The Good Samaritan obeyed no law requiring him to help the wounded, but he acted right by helping.

If it is within our power to save a drowning man, we should not hesitate to do it. And so it was in God's power to save a sinful world, and he did it by sending Jesus Christ. "... he is the atonement for our sins, not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world" (1. John 2,2). He died for all of us, and He did it "even while we were yet sinners."

By faith

God's grace towards us is a sign of his righteousness. He acts righteously by giving us righteousness even though we are sinners. Why? Because he made Christ our righteousness (1. Corinthians 1,30). Since we are united with Christ, our sins pass on to him and we obtain his righteousness. So we do not have our righteousness out of ourselves, but it comes from God and is bestowed upon us through our faith (Philippians 3,9).

“But I speak of the righteousness before God, which comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. For there is no difference here: they are all sinners, and lacking in the glory which they ought to have with God, and are justified without merit by his grace through the redemption that is through Christ Jesus. God set him up for faith as atonement in his blood, to prove his righteousness by forgiving the sins that were committed earlier in the days of his patience, in order now to prove his righteousness at this time, that he himself is righteous and righteous make him that is by faith in Jesus” (Romans 3,22-26).

Jesus' atonement was for all, but only those who believe in him will receive the blessings that come with it. Only those who accept the truth can experience grace. With this we recognize his death as ours (as the death suffered by him instead of us, in which we participate); and like his punishment, so we also recognize his victory and resurrection as ours. So God is true to himself - is merciful and just. Sin is as little overlooked as the sinners themselves. God's mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2,13).

Through the cross Christ reconciled the whole world (2. Corinthians 5,19). Yes, through the cross the whole universe is reconciled to God (Colossians 1,20). All creation has salvation because of what Jesus did! That really goes beyond anything we associate with the term salvation, doesn't it?

Born to die

The bottom line is that we are redeemed through the death of Jesus Christ. Yes, for that very reason he became flesh. In order to lead us to glory, God pleased that Jesus suffer and die (Hebrews 2,10). Because he wanted to redeem us, he became like us; for only by dying for us could he save us.

"Because children are of flesh and blood, he also accepted it in like manner, that by his death he might take away the power of him who had power over death, which is the devil, and redeem those who feared death altogether life had to be servants" (2,14-15). By God's grace, Jesus suffered death for each of us (2,9). "...Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring you to God..." (1. Petrus 3,18).

The Bible gives us many opportunities to reflect on what Jesus did for us on the cross. We certainly do not understand in great detail how everything is "related", but we accept that it is so. Because he died, we can share eternal life with God in joy.

Finally, I would like to take up another aspect of the cross - that of the model:
“In this the love of God appeared among us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that through him we might live. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us so much, we should also love one another" (1. John 4,9-11).

by Joseph Tkach

Born to die