Why Did Jesus Die for Sins? A Demonstration Of Righteousness
Why Did Jesus Die For Sins?
If anyone spends any time around Christianity, or spends time with Christians in virtually any context, the death of Christ will likely be mentioned. Christianity cannot be separated from Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as a payment for sin. For those unfamiliar with the biblical teaching, they may know in general terms that Christ died, but may have questions about why.
So, why did Jesus die for sins? God is holy, perfect, righteous, and just. Therefore, He cannot allow the guilty to go unpunished. The Scriptures say that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Bible teaches plainly that our sin has made us enemies of God. The punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23a) but because God is also love, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God satisfied His justice in the death of Jesus the Christ, making a way for sinners to be made right with God in Christ (Romans 5:10). The dilemma of how God can be both just and the justifier of the ungodly is resolved in Christ.
Jesus’s death for sin shows us God’s character. For a similar related question, see our article: Why Did Jesus Die For Our Sins? Although virtually the same, these are in fact different questions and require different answers.
The Character of God & The Divine Dilemma
The question of why Jesus died for sins cannot be answered apart from the character of God. The Scriptures declare the holiness of God. In brief, God being holy means that God is NOT like us. He is different. He is other. Separate.
This truth is declared in the Old Testament.
Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of His glory! (Isaiah 6:3)
This truth is likewise affirmed in the New Testament.
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come! (Revelation 4:8)
God is perfect. There is no flaw in Him (Psalm 18:30; Matthew 5:48). God’s perfection means that He will always act perfectly according to His character. Unlike human beings, God is perfectly consistent and united in His character. God does not change from moment to moment but is eternally unchanging in His being. He never acts inconsistently with Himself or elevates one attribute higher than the other. All His attributes work together in perfect harmony at all times.
The Scriptures declare that God is righteous and just (Psalm 11:7; 7:11; Isaiah 5:16). God’s righteous justice means that He will always do what is right. Since God is perfect and righteous and just, He cannot allow the guilty to go unpunished (Exodus 34:5-7; Proverbs 17:15; Genesis 18:25; Exodus 23:7).
But the Scriptures also declare that God delights in mercy and that He is gracious and compassionate. That He is a God who forgives iniquity, unrighteousness, and sin (Exodus 34:6-7). How can God declare that He will not clear the guilty but also maintain a way for sinners to be forgiven? The answer is found in Christ alone.
For more on this, see our articles:
The Nature of Man
No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:13)
Man cannot hide their deeds from the Lord. We may be able to fool ourselves into thinking that somehow, we are right before God by our works. But it remains deceit. Humans are very well practiced at justifying our own ways, yet the testimony of Scripture teaches that we are deceived by our own hearts.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit.
So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:17-18)
Hanging bananas on an orange tree doesn’t make the orange tree a banana tree. Our works are evidence against us. They show us the real condition of our heart.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
Every man, woman, and child has sinned against God (Romans 3:23). The evidence against us is overwhelming. God would be perfectly just to punish us all for our sin against Him. Or sin has made us enemies of God. We rebelled against God and could never rescue ourselves from the judgment we deserve for this rebellion. This is why, if we are to have any hope, we would need a perfectly righteous Savior.
The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD is avenging and wrathful;
the LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries
and keeps wrath for His enemies. (Nahum 1:2)
God’s Eternal Plan to Redeem
The good news is that from the very beginning, God has been working in Christ to redeem a people for Himself! God’s righteous character means that He could not simply take overlook the sin we committed against Him, or just ball it up and throw it in the sea. To do this would mean that God is unjust. God is not unjust but always is perfectly just. Therefore, the solution required something much more glorious.
Consider these Scriptures. It would be best to read each of them in their surrounding context.
The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5-7)
“He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” (Proverbs 17:15)
“Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be it from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25)
“Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.” (Exodus 23:7)
How is it possible that God could be just and also justify the wicked? For God to justify the wicked by overlooking sin, or forgiving it unjustly would be an abomination. The Judge of all the earth will do what is right. Sin must be punished. And, it was punished!
Jesus is the answer! When Jesus began His earthly ministry John the Baptist declared,
Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
In Romans, the Apostle Paul explains how God’s justice for sin was satisfied in Christ,
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:23-26, emphasis added).
Jesus died as a satisfaction of God’s justice for sinners. He died to reconcile us who were once His enemies because of our sins to Himself.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. (Romans 5:10)
For more on this, see our article: Why Did Jesus Come When He Did?
Reception by Faith
The Scriptures declare that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a), but it goes on to declare,
But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23b)
Man is only justified or declared righteous before God in Christ. Jesus paid the penalty due to sinners but sinners must come and believe. Apart from Christ, we will bear the burden for our own sin and face God’s judgment. The love of God urges us to flee from that and find life in Christ to the praise and glory of God.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
Believe upon the Son. Jesus is both Lord and Savior (Acts 2:36). In Christ, you can be declared right before God because of the death of Christ for sin on behalf of sinners.
Related Questions
How did Jesus die? Jesus, the eternal Son of God, became a man. He was handed over by His people (the Jews) to the Romans to be beaten, mocked, and then crucified on a Roman cross. On the cross, Jesus died in His human flesh. This was all according to the predetermined plan of God.
Why did Jesus die on the Cross? In the fullness of time, God sent His Son into the world, born of a woman, under the law (Galatians 4:4). Jesus came to redeem people from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3:13).
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