Why Was Jesus' Cruel Death Required To Save Man?
 

The reason Jesus had to die in order to save man is explained in Hebrews 9:15-17.  In verse 15 we read that Christ is…

“…the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

Through Christ’s death we are redeemed (redeem means to purchase back something that has been lost by the payment of a ransom), our sins are forgiven, we receive the eternal inheritance of life with God (John 3:16; Revelation 22:4-5), and we’re marked by the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of this inheritance (Ephesians 1:13).

But in order to receive an inheritance a death must occur.  And that is what verses 16 and 17 tell us…

“For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.”

Christ had to die in order for us to receive the inheritance of eternal life. “As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.” (Hebrews 9:27-28)

But still we wonder why God would choose such a violent method to save us.

I think that we are so blinded by our sin that we fail to realize how serious it is.  We were so lost in our sin that nothing but the sacrifice of God’s only Son could save us.  And with Christ as our only hope for salvation He chose to sacrifice Himself because He loves us so much.

His heart, as Spurgeon said, “became like a reservoir in the midst of the mountains. All the tributary streams of iniquity, and every drop of the sins of his people, ran down and gathered into one vast lake, deep as hell and shoreless as eternity. All these met, as it were, in Christ’s heart, and he endured them all.

Was He not on earth always stripping off first one robe of honor and then another, till, naked, He was fastened to the cross, and there did He not empty out His inmost self, pouring out His life-blood, giving up for all of us, till they laid Him penniless in a borrowed grave? How low was our dear Redeemer brought!

Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by which you have been cleansed; see the thorn-crown; mark His scourged shoulders, see hands and feet given up to the rough iron, and His whole self to mockery and scorn; see the bitterness, and the pangs, and the throes of inward grief, showing themselves in His outward frame; hear the thrilling shriek, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"

The act of Christ’s sacrifice shows the dept of His love for us.