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Published by It Is Written P.O. Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401

Additional copies of this book and a host of other spiritual resources are available from It Is Written. For more information call toll free 1-888-664-5573 or visit itiswritten.shop

All Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version®. Public domain.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-63569-409-3

CHAPTER 1 The Big Question

The church was located in the heart of London, just off Regent Street, two blocks from Piccadilly Circus. It would be my first time attending. I had spoken with the pastor by phone earlier in the week.

As we chatted after the service, he asked me if I had any questions. I had many. But one question pressed on my mind. I had grown up attending a church that had a crucifix—an almost life-sized representation of Jesus on the cross—prominently displayed. I saw it hundreds and hundreds of times, and there was something I desperately wanted to know. “Pastor,” I inquired, almost embarrassed by my ignorance, “why did Jesus have to die on the cross?”

I’ve since learned it’s a question many people have. Even Christians are often perplexed as they try to understand why Jesus had to die. And why He had to die on a cross, a Roman instrument of torture and execution. I don’t recall what the pastor said to me that night, but I’m sure it was an

Power

appropriate and thorough answer. He was patient as he answered my Bible questions. His kindness and that of his wife were a huge encouragement in my forward progress as a Christian.

So why did Jesus have to die on the cross? And what was accomplished by that horrifying death? Jesus was the divine Son of God (Matt. 3:17), the Creator (John 1:3), the long-awaited Messiah (Dan. 9:25–27; Mic. 5:2; Ps. 22:1, 16, 18). Crucifixion was a cruel and brutal method of execution. If Jesus had to die, why did He have to die on a cross?

The cross has become one of the best-known, most widely recognized symbols in the modern world. High on a peak in a national park overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro is a statue of Jesus almost 100 feet tall. Completed in 1931, Christ the Redeemer is now a Brazilian icon, the most popular attraction in Rio de Janeiro, visited annually by almost two million people. In 2013, a church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, spent $700,000 to erect three steel crosses, the tallest

of which is as tall as a 12-story building. Located near a freeway, more than 75,000 vehicles pass the crosses each day.

What are people to think when they see a cross? Today, the cross is ubiquitous, seen not only beside freeways and atop mountains but on grave markers, churches, and worn as jewelry and tattoos. Even in this secular age, the cross can only mean one thing: the death of Jesus, an event of such profound importance that people all over the world dedicate a season each year in its honor.

It is thought crucifixion originated with the Assyrians and Babylonians. Six hundred years or so before Christ, crucifixion was used by the Persians, then by the Greeks, before it was perfected as a means of torture and execution by the Romans.1

As appalling a fate as crucifixion was, its horror extended far beyond the pain experienced by its victims. The cross was where the lowest criminals met their fate. It was a symbol of shame, defeat, and condemnation. And given that crucifixion victims were executed naked, the cross was utter

1 Martin Hengel, Crucifixion in the ancient world and the folly of the message of the cross, trans. John Bowden (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1977), chap. 4. Kindle.

humiliation. Those who were crucified were considered the offscouring of the Earth.

While many crucifixion victims were tied to a cross, Jesus was not. He was held to the cross by nails. Archaeological findings indicate the feet 2 of crucifixion victims were typically nailed to the cross, although scholars note that the method of crucifixion was not always uniform.3 A piece of wood was attached to the vertical beam to act as a small seat, preventing a victim’s weight from tearing huge holes in his hands or wrists. A crucifixion victim could live for three or four days on the cross, death typically resulting from asphyxiation.

Death ultimately occurred through a combination of constrained blood circulation, organ failure, and asphyxiation as the body strained under its own weight. It could be hastened by shattering the legs [which was called ‘crurifragium’] with an iron club, which prevented them from supporting the body’s weight and made inhalation more

2 Matti Friedman, “In a stone box, the only trace of crucifixion,” The Times of Israel, published March 26, 2012, https://www. timesofisrael.com/in-a-stone-box-a-rare-trace-of-crucifixion/.

3 Martin Hengel, Crucifixion, chap. 4.

difficult, accelerating both asphyxiation and shock.4

Although there wasn’t a lot of blood lost during crucifixion, the open wounds of a victim could easily become infected. Nailed to a cross, a condemned criminal, exposed to the wind and hot sun, would experience intense thirst. With blood unable to reach the extremities, significant circulatory issues would arise. Veins and arteries would swell. Any movement on the part of the crucifixion victim caused intense pain, and the individual would have to constantly shift his weight back and forth from his hands to his feet. In Jesus’ case, scourging had severely lacerated His back (Mark 15:15), meaning that leaning back on the cross would have been unbearably painful.

While He hung on the cross, Jesus endured unspeakable mental anguish. The soldiers present divided His clothing among them. Largely abandoned by His closest friends, the Savior was ridiculed by the crowd that had gathered.

4 “Crucifixion,” Britannica, last updated March 3, 2023, https:// www.britannica.com/topic/crucifixion-capital-punishment.

“And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.’ The soldiers also mocked Him … saying, ‘If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself’” (Luke 23:35–37). Even one of the thieves crucified on a nearby cross “blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us’” (Luke 23:39). The suffering experienced by Jesus was relentless. It was an extreme and brutal end to a life that was so pure the Bible writer could say that He “did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22, KJV). But Jesus crossed the wrong people during His life and ministry. As He said in John 7:7, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” He exposed not only the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders but also the emptiness of their forms of religion. As He swept away the rubbish under which the truth had been buried, the religious leaders in Israel thought He was sweeping away the truth itself. Because they had no authority to legally execute anyone, they appealed to the Roman authorities, who gave Jesus up to their wishes. As the cross was the common method of

execution for criminals in the Roman Empire at that time, Jesus was executed on a cross.

But why, from a biblical perspective, did Jesus have to die at all?

Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God addressed the serpent that tempted them, saying, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15). This declaration of enmity between the devil and God’s people down through time was a promise that there was a way out of sin for sinners. Turning their backs on God and surrendering to temptation left Adam and Eve fundamentally broken. Sin had taken hold of them, and they no longer retained the righteousness and purity in which they were created. Out of harmony with God, they were lost. As Paul would later write to the Romans, the wages of their sin was death (Rom. 6:23). Surrendered to God, living in connection with God, they were safe and saved. In disobedience to God, they were not. Having surrendered to sin, they were no longer governed by love for God. Created to live forever, they

forfeited the gift of eternal life when they turned away from God and sinned. And there was no possible way for them to remedy their situation.

But although sin would cost God infinitely more than it would cost anyone else, He offered Adam and Eve a way out of their hopeless situation. God Himself would provide a path to salvation. He would put enmity between His people and Satan. God said to Lucifer, “He [the seed of the woman] shall bruise your head” (Gen. 3:15). A descendant of Eve would ultimately crush Satan. Good news for Adam and Eve, and good news for the world. Satan would ultimately be defeated. But while Satan would be defeated, Jesus Christ would be bruised. He would die for the sins of human beings.

God illustrated this point moments later. After stitching together garments of fig leaves to cover their nakedness, Adam and Eve received from God clothing made from animal skins. Until that time, death was unknown, but now, as a consequence of sin, death came into the world. Genesis 3:21 says, “For Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” It was evident that something had died to provide a covering

for Adam and Eve, indicative that SomeONE would die to provide them with a covering of another kind. The death of the animals prefigured the death of Jesus. God was showing Adam and Eve—and us—that in order to provide a robe of righteousness for sinners, Jesus would give His life. Approximately 2,000 years later, God again demonstrated to the human family that Jesus would die for the world. After being kept by God from offering his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, “Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son” (Gen. 22:13, KJV). A lamb was offered in place of Isaac, prefiguring the death of Jesus, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).

According to the prophet Isaiah, sin separates a person from God (Isa. 59:2). Guilty of transgressing the law of God, sinners have no possible way back to harmony with God, except through the death of Jesus on the cross. Faced with losing the human family, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes

in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

When Adam and Eve sinned, they forfeited their righteousness, and they bequeathed their unrighteousness to their descendants. Human beings are unrighteous. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Cor. 6:9). He said, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23, KJV). Jesus died so that we could receive the righteousness of Jesus. With no righteousness of our own, Isaiah wrote that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6, KJV). Jeremiah reiterated the seriousness of our situation when he wrote, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil” (Jer. 13:23, KJV).

Having broken the law of God, having experienced the separation from God that sin brings, Adam and Eve were condemned. Unable to atone for their own sin, Jesus gave His life in place of the lives of Adam and Eve. The penalty for transgression was satisfied, while God offered the human family the one thing it desperately needed: the righteousness of Christ.

CHAPTER 2 The PoWer of the Cross

The power of the cross is illustrated in Scripture in various ways. When Nicodemus—a wealthy, influential man—spoke with Jesus one night, Jesus explained the importance of being born again. After telling His visitor about the need to be born of both water and the Spirit, Jesus directed the mind of Nicodemus to a curious episode in the experience of Israel.

Several months after God miraculously freed them from the bitterness of Egyptian servitude, His people found themselves deeply discouraged, critical not only of Moses but also of God Himself. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread” (Num. 21:5).

So His people might recognize their total dependence on Him, “the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died” (verse 6). A desperate delegation of the people hurried to Moses.

“We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us” (verse 7). God gave Moses some unusual instructions. “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live” (verse 8).

Jesus explained to Nicodemus the true meaning of the mysterious symbol. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” Jesus said, “even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). The bronze snake represented Jesus on the cross, the symbol of a snake representative of Jesus as the Sin-Bearer. What Israel witnessed in the wilderness was an illustration of the death of Jesus on the cross.

In the wilderness, the children of Israel, guilty of murmuring against Moses and God, guilty of faithlessness, guilty of harboring disdain for the very means God had provided for their survival—“our soul loathes this worthless bread”—were offered a way back to oneness with God. In mercy, the bronze snake was constructed for their salvation. “So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten

anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived” (Num. 21:9). Looking at the bronze snake represented faith on the part of the people who were so terribly affected. Faith in God’s provision resulted in healing for all who looked.

In the same way, any sinner who exercises faith in the death of Jesus passes from death to life. He or she is credited with possessing the righteousness of Jesus. Two thousand years after Jesus died on the cross, any person who imitates the example of the children of Israel and looks in faith to Jesus, receives new life. Looking in faith at the cross upon which Jesus died brings with it a radical transformation from death to life. There is power in the cross. Faith in Christ lays hold on that power.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Note the language employed by the Bible writer. Jesus became “sin for us.” As the animal sacrifice in the Hebrew sanctuary service had the sins of the repentant one placed upon it, the sins of humanity were placed upon Jesus when He went to the cross. The spotless, holy Lamb of God, “who knew no sin,” became “sin for us.”

It is easy for sinful people living in a sinful world to fail to recognize the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Sin is so vile it brought war to the sacred precincts of heaven itself. Sin is so destructive that it led one-third of the angels in heaven to rebel against God. Sin is so damaging that Adam and Eve fell from their exalted state and experienced death. Sin is so problematic that it has caused every illness, every accident, every pain, and every bereavement to have come to our world. Yet Jesus volunteered to assume our sin, and be treated as we deserve, so that we might be treated as only He deserves.

Jesus’ appointment with the cross was thousands of years in the making. Moses assured Israel that “the LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren” (Deut. 18:15). Jesus’ death on the cross was predicted millennia before it occurred. David wrote, “They divide my garments among them,” and “they pierced My hands and My feet” (Ps. 22:18, 16). Pointing to the agony of Christ’s death, the psalmist wrote, “I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it has melted within Me” (verse 14). Isaiah

wrote, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). He described Jesus as being like a lamb led to the slaughter, saying He was “cut off from the land of the living” (verse 8). He stated that “it pleased the LORD to bruise Him” (verse 10) and that “He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (verse 12).

Jesus, the prophet said, would be “an offering for sin” (verse 10).

“Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3). However, the question is often asked, “Couldn’t God have worked it out another way?”

In the Garden of Eden, God told our original grandparents that eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—disobedience— would cause death. As John wrote in 1 John 5:12, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” God gave life. That we may retain the gift of life, He urges us to remain connected to Him. Adam and Eve severed that connection and became subject to death.

The Earth, created in perfection, was tainted by sin. Even the ground itself was cursed. Sin was the act of breaking the law of God, a law described as holy, just, and good by the apostle Paul (Rom. 7:12). While God is merciful (Ps. 103:8; Ps. 116:5), justice could not be set aside. The law of God could not be changed to suit humanity in its sinful condition. If it had been possible for the law to have been set aside, then Jesus need not have died on the cross. The law demanded justice. God, in His infinite goodness, saw to it that the law might stand, justice could be served, and humanity still be permitted to enter through the gates of heaven. Instead of changing the law, God sacrificed Himself as Jesus died for the redemption of the race. As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19).

The Bible makes a remarkable comment regarding the death of Jesus in Hebrews 12:2 (KJV): “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus went to the cross “for the joy that was set before him.” In the same verse in which Isaiah said Jesus would bear the iniquities of a sinful world, the Bible says, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isa. 53:11, KJV). Satisfied! For the joy that was set before Him!

The cross enables people to gain some insight into the immense value the God of heaven places on every human life. Jesus crossed the universe, took up residence inside the womb of a woman, came into the world, was raised as a boy, grew into a man, and then went to the cross so that every person alive would have the opportunity to be saved.

Not a single person need doubt their value in the sight of God. If you weren’t so incredibly valuable to God, He would never have paid so exorbitant a price for you. Jesus died on the cross to convince you that you are of immense value to Him. How do you not give your heart to Someone who went through so much to win it?

CHAPTER 3 The UltimAte ReVelAtion

A severe drought in Europe during the summer of 2022 revealed secrets that had been hidden for decades. When the Danube River fell to half its usual level, more than 20 German warships, scuttled while retreating from Russian forces in 1944, became clearly visible. As waterways narrowed during the drought, the ships presented significant risks to shipping on the Danube: many of them were still loaded with ammunition and explosives.5

The love of God has been on full display since the dawn of time. But there are times that it is revealed in stark terms, when heaven gives humanity the opportunity to more fully comprehend the depths of the love resident in the heart of God.

The Creation of the world was itself a manifestation of the love of God. Then love promised Adam and Eve a way out of the mess created by sin. Divine love saw to it that an ark was built,

5 Kyla Guilfoil, “Severe European drought reveals sunken World War II warships on Danube River,” ABC News, published August 19, 2022, https://abcnews.go.com/US/severe-european-drought-reveals-sunken-world-war-ii/story?id=88591918.

that all who wished to do so could be saved from the flood in Noah’s day. Love provided food and water for Israel as they traversed the wilderness for 40 long years.

Since Creation, the love of God has been revealed in nature. The almost endless variety we witness in birds and plants and animals speaks of the love of a God who chose to brighten our world and dazzle our senses. But the greatest manifestation of the love of God occurred 2,000 years ago on a small hill just outside the city of Jerusalem. As John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Just as receding river levels revealed the secrets they had long hidden, the cross was the ultimate revelation of the love of God for the world.

As John wrote in the epistle that bears his name, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). A sunrise, the laughter of a child, the beauty of a flower, a rainbow in the sky, and the starry skies all reveal to the human family the love of God. But nothing reveals the love of God as does Calvary.

The Maker of the universe came to a planet in rebellion for the specific purpose of being

condemned to die for crimes He did not commit. And He did so for people who cared little for Him or the purpose of His mission to Earth! “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11, KJV).

Writing to the church in Rome, the apostle Paul makes a series of staggering statements, each of which speaks to a key purpose in the death of Jesus on the cross.

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10, KJV). “Enemies.” Jesus died for the world while we were “enemies.” Why would anyone do that?

Sentenced to death by the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation for his belief in baptism by immersion, Dirk Willems escaped imprisonment and fled for his life. As his captors pursued this Anabaptist across frozen ponds, the ice gave way and a prison guard fell into frigid waters. Willems turned back and rescued the man from certain death. In the act of saving the life of his captor, Willems was arrested, taken

back to prison, and executed a short time later on May 16, 1569.6

It could be said that Dirk Willems gave his life for his captor (who, incidentally, believed Willems should have been set at liberty for his heroic act). But comparisons between Willems’ act and Jesus’ death on the cross only stretch so far. It was not the Dutchman’s intent to die. In fact, his deed of bravery was committed as he was endeavoring to save his own life. While gracious towards his enemy, he had no desire that his kindness result in his death. The guard he saved was not accused of any crime. Jesus, on the other hand, died for a condemned world. And He did so voluntarily.

Paul preceded his astonishing comment in Romans 5:10 with two similar statements. This is Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” “While we were still sinners,” Jesus died for a wicked world.

6 Rex Butler, “Martyrs Mirror: Remembering the Anabaptists,” Geaux Therefore (blog), New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, August 13, 2018, https://www.nobts.edu/geauxtherefore/articles/2018/Martyr.html.

And Romans 5:6 (KJV) states, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Those for whom Jesus died were not only His enemies but were also “without strength” and “ungodly.”

Note that Jesus died for the ungodly “in due time” or, as numerous translations say, “at the right time” (ESV). Jesus’ death was in accordance with time prophecies written more than 500 years before Calvary. While captive in Babylon, Daniel wrote that the Messiah would die according to a divinely ordained timetable.

According to Daniel, 69 weeks—483 years7 — after “the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem,” “Messiah the Prince” would appear (Dan. 9:25, KJV). In the midst of the following week of years, He would be “cut off” (verse 26).

The 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 foretold that 483 years after a decree of the Medo-Persian emperor, Artaxerxes, Jesus would be revealed as the

7 Bible prophecy frequently employs a symbolic day to represent a literal year. The 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 represents a period of 490 years. Starting with the decree of Artaxerxes found in Ezra 7, issued in 457 BC, the 490 years stretch down to the year AD 34.

Messiah. This happened in the fall of the year AD 27. Three and a half years later, halfway through the next seven-year period, Jesus gave His life— He was “cut off”—when He was crucified on the cross. (See Daniel 9:25–27.)

Not only did Jesus give His life, but for millennia, Jesus had been fully aware that He would come to the Earth to do so. As the victim of a heinous miscarriage of justice, He would yield His life in a manner calculated to cause as much emotional and physical distress as was possible to inflict.

Again and again, Jesus clearly explained to His disciples the reason He had come to the world. But Scripture was so poorly understood, that in spite of His plainest utterances and the clearest references in God’s Word, His own closest friends were incapable of discerning the true nature of His mission. Mark wrote that Jesus “began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31, KJV). Peter responded to Jesus’ statement by remonstrating with Him, insisting that Jesus should do no such