Why Did a Good Man Have to Die?

We love Easter with its message of hope and new life. It’s one of my favorite holidays! But before we get to the empty tomb, we have to go through the cross.

Why did Jesus die? Why was He brutally beaten and whipped and then cruelly nailed to a cross to die?

Because He was our substitute. He died in our place.

Why would I need a substitute?

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

“The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23

But I’m a good person. I go to church, I’ve never killed anyone, I don’t hurt people.

Our society has a standard for what a good person is, but God’s standard is different. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were the religious elite. They followed all the rules plus added more rules just in case the initial rules weren’t enough. They followed all of them.

Yet over and over, Jesus told them they had missed the point.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” Matthew 23:25

The Pharisees, like us, were experts at looking good on the outside but being far from God on in the inside. God is very clear that all of us have sinned and fallen short of His standard. I have, you have, even the best person you can think of has sinned.

That’s why we need Jesus - why we need a substitute. We deserve to be separated from God here in this life and forever after death. No amount of trying to fix that can make any difference.

But God…

That’s one of the best phrases in the Bible! We are in a terrible mess, but God… We have messed up our lives by trying to figure it out on our own, but God…

Because of God’s love for us, He created a solution to the problem. He came to earth as Jesus, lived a perfect life and died on the cross in our place.

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

He was our substitute. We deserved death, but Jesus died in our place.

We have a choice. Will we agree with God that we aren’t good enough to earn our way to heaven? Will we accept that Jesus’ death on the cross counts as payment in full for our sin? Will we accept that gift and ask Him to be our Savior? When we do that, He comes to live within us and shows us how to live the way He created us to live.

“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not as a result of works so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9