{"id":2181,"date":"2024-02-09T22:38:19","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T04:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/11\/why-did-jesus-have-to-die\/"},"modified":"2024-02-11T22:39:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T04:39:20","slug":"why-did-jesus-have-to-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/09\/why-did-jesus-have-to-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Did Jesus Have to Die?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Good ponderance as we head into Lent starting this coming Wednesday, 2\/14<\/p>\n

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\"WhyThe Bible connects two drastically different scenes to explain why God became man. One scene is set in a beautiful garden where we see a perfect specimen of a man eating the delicious fruit of a living tree. The other scene is set on a hill so ugly that it was called \u201cthe place of a skull.\u201d A wreck of a man, battered and disfigured from torture, hangs there on a dead tree\u2014a cross\u2014gasping for his last agonizing breath. The first man is Adam. The second is the last Adam. The Word of God reveals that God became man to become this second man\u2014the last Adam. It is absolutely vital to understand that the Bible speaks of both as historic figures, real men who lived, walked, and breathed, who acted in time and space as flesh and blood representatives of the human race. It is unthinkable to regard the first Adam as a kind of mythological symbol. Many have attempted to do this and thereby ended up compromising the person and work of the last Adam, Jesus Christ. The two are inseparable.<\/p>\n

Genesis 3 records how the first Adam sinned against God, and Romans 5 reminds us that the punishment he brought upon the entire human race was death, since we are all descendants of Adam (Romans 5:12). The Scriptures also reveal that Jesus Christ (the God-man) was the last Adam. Romans 5:12\u201319 (NIV) says that Adam \u201cwas a pattern of the one to come.\u201d A parallel between Adam and Christ is seen in 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NASB): \u201cFor as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.\u201d Christ\u2019s identity as the last Adam is explicit in 1 Corinthians 15:45\u201347 (NASB): \u201cSo also it is written, \u2018The first man, Adam, became a living soul.\u2019 The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven\u201d. Jesus is the last Adam, which also explains why he is the \u201csecond man.\u201d As the man from heaven, Jesus alone was suitable to replace the first.<\/p>\n

The final outcome for all other men is determined by the representative deeds of these two men. Paul\u2019s very theme in Romans 5:12\u201321 is that there are only two men from the perspective of God\u2019s justice. God demands perfection, but with our sin natures, we humans are unable to meet this requirement. In other words, we could never save ourselves. In the garden, Adam was forbidden to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he was disobedient. And because he disobeyed, he was to die (Genesis 2:16\u201317). Death was not the natural destiny of Adam; it was the punishment for his disobedience against his Creator. Christ\u2019s being the last Adam clarifies the nature of his saving work on the cross, which consisted of total obedience to his Father (Romans 5:12\u201319). The saving work of Christ consists of obedience like that required of the first Adam, but Christ\u2019s obedience was not simply to refrain from eating of a tree in a garden. Instead, Christ\u2019s obedience meant suffering and dying on a cross. Christ had to take on the form of a man and physically die. Philippians 2:8 (NIV) says, \u201cAnd being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death\u2014even death on a cross!\u201d<\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s work\u2014as the representative obedience of a second Adam\u2014was both active and passive. To be the last Adam, Jesus had to do what Adam failed to do\u2014fulfill the required obedience in the garden and the required sinless life of perfection, both of which Christ fulfilled. This is his active obedience. He took the death we deserved, and now, death should have no sting for us. He also had to undo what Adam did. This is his passive obedience. Passive obedience refers to Jesus\u2019 passion or suffering. He had to suffer the wages of sin. Our eternal destinies depend on whether we are united to the first or last Adam. \u201cFor as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive\u201d (1 Corinthians 15:22, NASB).<\/p>\n

Have you by faith renounced the disobedience of the old Adam and embraced the forgiveness of sin made possible by the new Adam, Jesus Christ? Whether you are rafting through the Grand Canyon via the rapids of the Colorado River, hiking through an unknown forest, or exploring a deep cavern, perilous danger could lurk around any turn. That\u2019s why river guides, forest rangers, and cave experts guide visitors and point out the dangers. Over the years, hundreds of people have died trying to run the Colorado River, which has some of North America\u2019s most difficult rapids. In fact, it would be almost impossible to run the river without a skilled guide who knows the twists and turns and safest routes through which to steer the boat. The problem with life, however, is that it is far more perilous than rafting down a river or walking through the forest. Life ends in death, and no human expert can guide you through that danger. However, there is one guide who has conquered every peril\u2014his name is Jesus, and he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). And by his life, death, and resurrection, he became the path to God and eternal life. To do this, he had to become a man. He had to live as one of us. He faced the same struggles; he faced the same trials; and yet he lived a sinless life only to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. He became one of us to show us the way\u2014he was the only One who could; he\u2019s the only One who did.<\/p>\n

Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry , dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

This content was originally published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good ponderance as we head into Lent starting this coming Wednesday, 2\/14 The Bible connects two drastically different scenes to explain why God became man. One scene is set in a beautiful garden where we see a perfect specimen of a man eating the delicious fruit of a living tree. The other scene is set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kHU7-zb","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Why-Did-Jesus-Have-to-Die.jpg?fit=1200%2C628","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2184,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions\/2184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}