You know often it comes to about the person of Jesus Christ and God His Father. When we think about Him, so often our thoughts are not Biblical. We don’t think in a way that God revealed truth about His Son. And I have learned one thing: if we don’t have right thinking, we normally don’t have right behavior. So in several segments I want to deal with this: Why did Jesus have to die?

Why did Jesus have to die?

Now If I were sitting around the living room with you and some other people, like I do often with this question, or in a big audience I’ll say, “You tell me; why did Jesus have to die?”  In every single audience in every single country I do it, the response is almost always, not almost, it’s always like this.

“Well he died for me.”

“Yes, but who else?”

“Well for everyone.”

“Yes, He died for everyone, but for who else?”

“He died for the sinner.”

“Yes, He died for the sinner, but who else?”

“Well, uh, He died for the elect.”

“Yes, he died for the elect.”

“Well, He died for everyone in the world!”

“Yes, He died for everyone in the world, but for who else?”

And then normally after about two or three minutes someone will yell out, “The Father!” and I will say “You’re right.” You see most people think that Jesus died for us. As much as He died for us, He died for God the Father. And unless you realize that, your concept of who God is, what He did through His Son on the cross and everything will truly be distorted.

You might say, “God had a problem.” Yes. Here God created us to have a relationship with us. He said, “You should worship no other god but the Lord, for I am a God who is passionate about my relationship with you.” But here is the problem: God will approach with His love to save us. But God is not only a God of love; He is a Holy, Just, Righteous God and His very nature had to destroy us.

You might say man had a problem. God created within us a desire to know Him; to be complete in Him. So we approach God for salvation, but His very nature, because God is Just, God is Righteous, God is Holy, had to destroy us.  So God had a problem, and man had a problem. And the answer is so critical.

How did God resolve that problem?

Over all the years, close to 50 years traveling to high school, university students, lay audiences all over the world, one of the top three questions I am ever asked, and if you are a Christian, probably one of the biggest questions you are ever asked is this: “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” I mean, I would say probably 3,000 times I have had people put that question to me.

“Come on Josh, if God is so loving; how can He send a sinful individual to hell? How can you send someone to hell? I do not want to serve a God like that.”

But you know what is interesting? In about 50 years, I do not think I have ever had anyone ask me this question. I wonder if you ever have. Instead of saying, “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” No one has ever asked me this question:  “How can a Holy, Righteous God ever allow a sinful individual into His presence?”

That is just as justified a question as the other; and yet I do not think anyone has ever asked me that question. Do you know why? And this might be true of your life: I have learned that most people in the world and even Christians are thinking about God is more Anthropocentric in nature. You say, “Well what do you mean by that?”

Anthro – man. Centric – centered. We are man-centered. Do you realize most of the theology of everyone is centered around man, man, me, I?

When in reality we should first be Theocentric. Now what does that mean? Theo – God. Centric – centered. We should be God-centered.

We almost always look at God’s work on the cross man-ward. We almost never ever look at it God-ward. And if you think theology anthropocentric, then I will guarantee you, you are going to have so many wrong, un-Biblical concepts; and it will affect even your relationship and how you walk with Him.

Then how should we think about God?

Why did Jesus have to die?

You know, if you do not know why Jesus had to die and for who He had to die, usually you will have a wrong concept about who God is, who you are, and what Christ did on the cross. It is that critical.

Now the question is: who is God? You know, you could go out in a plaza anywhere, or a shopping center; and you could talk to 20 people, and you could get 20 different opinions about who God is. Even if 18 of them are Christians, you would still get different opinions about who God is. Who is God?

My greatest fear is that the majority of believers in the world are not worshipping the one, real, true God; but they are worshipping a figment of their own imagination. I call it cafeteria theology. You say, “What do you mean?” You know in a cafeteria you pick this or that thinking: I like this. I like this. That is what people are doing when they are describing God. “I like this, I like that. That will become a part of my theology.”

You know one reason I say that? Now, I do not want you to misunderstand me here. I love praise and worship. I love to be involved in praise and worship. But I am convinced that most people in praise and worship are not praising the One True God but the figment of their own imagination. You say, “How can you say that?”

Well you try it on your own. I will be at conferences. Young people, others, older people, will be up front with their hands raised, some on their knees, in praise and worshipping God, and very respectfully I will approach a number of them (as I have done for ten years), and I will say, “Who is God? Do you know?” And in almost ten years not one single person has even come close to telling me who is God. And yet they are there praising and worshipping God.

How in the world can you praise and worship God when you do not know who He is?

This is why I am so convinced that those who lead praise and worship ought to context their songs. What does that mean? Most people feed their own meaning into the words, not the meaning out of the Scriptures into those words. If we do not know who God is, it is very difficult to know why Christ died; to know why we need salvation or how to praise and worship.

Who is God? I’m going to answer that for you [in the next video].

To understand why Jesus had to die, we need to answer the question, who is God?

Now I can only do this very briefly in several minutes.

We basically know God through His attributes. Our minds cannot discover who God is. God is so great, and our minds are so finite, so God must reveal Himself to us – Who He is. And He has done that in the Christian scriptures, the Word of God, the Bible. Now he has revealed Himself through his attributes. Now you have heard of the attributes of God. Probably your pastor, or someone on radio or TV has spoken about the attributes of God.

For example, we would say, God is love. That is an attribute of God.

God is truth. God is holy.

God is righteous.

God is all powerful.

God is omnipotent.

Omniscient.

God is pure.

God is holy.

These are all attributes of who God is.

But here is the problem.

I have noticed this when I was in seminary and since then. When I went to seminary, I was a brand new Christian so I was questioning everything. Do you know what I found out about most people in the world? They believe you take all the different attributes of God, add them together, and the sum total equals God. That is not true.

You see, most people think an attribute is a part of God. It is not.

We say “God is love”. We do not mean a part of God is love. We say, “God is Holy”. We do not mean a part of God is holy; a part of God is truth. No. And you do not add all the attributes together and the sum total equal God. Then who is God? What is an attribute?

This is what helped me. An attribute is a different glance of who God is in His basic nature. You say, “What?” Yes, when we say love we do not mean this part of God is love but we mean that is what is true of God in His very nature. Therefore each attribute is that which is true of God.

So you cannot add all the attributes up and say that equals God because each one is true of who God is in His very nature.

And this brings up another issue. I remember in seminary, students used to sit around arguing, “Is there anything too big that God cannot do?” Have you ever had someone ask that? I remember one, “Is there anything so big or something that God cannot do? Can He build a stone so big that He cannot move it?”

Aha…I bet you never thought about that, did you? Can God build a stone so big that He cannot move it? But He is all powerful.

With the attributes it is a different glance at who God is. And I will say there are many things God cannot do. “What? How can you limit God?”

When I debated the head of the Islamic propagation center in Africa, Dr. Ahmed Deedat, I made this statement and the crowd just kind of exploded with it and then immediately they calmed down when I gave them the answer. I said, “There are many things God cannot do.” And they said, “No, no, no.” and I said, “Yes.”

God cannot perform, now listen carefully, God cannot perform any reality inconsistent with His basic nature.

In other words, God cannot act unlovingly. Why, because God is love. He cannot set aside one of His attributes and exercise the others. He cannot exercise His holiness without exercising His love. He cannot exercise His all-powerfulness without exercising His righteousness.

And so God, you might say, in the way He has revealed Himself in the Word of God, He is limited by His very nature.   He cannot perform any reality inconsistent with His basic nature.  

That is why there are many things that God cannot do in reality inconsistent with His basic nature.

Who is God?

Why did Jesus have to die?

To answer that question, I need to give you some background out the Scriptures, the Word of God, from the book of Romans.  It might take me several sessions to read through this Scripture and explain it as we walk along.

So follow with me if you have a Bible or I will put it up on the screen.  It is Romans 3:21-26 (NIV).

To me, this is one of the most significant passages in the entire Word of God — from Genesis to Revelation.

Let me start reading for you, and I will make some comments as we go along.

“But now, apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested.”

Now notice, it did not say “contrary to the Law.”  There is no conflict between the Law and the righteousness of God or the grace of God.

“But now, apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”

Now this is important:  the Law is not contrary, but the Law witnesses to the righteousness of God.

And then it says, “even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ.”

Now what we need is that righteousness of God to have a relationship with God.  God said He created us; and He has a passion about having a relationship with us.

Then, to have that relationship, we must have the righteousness of God Himself.  Now how do we get that righteousness?

It says, “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.”

Now this righteousness of God – salvation – is not by faith.

Now if you do not listen to me carefully, you will think I am a heretic.

You cannot be saved by faith. That is heresy.  If you could be saved by faith, you would not need Christ.  All you would have to do is build up your faith and you would be saved.

How are we saved? We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. We are saved by the grace of God, by grace through faith in Christ.

What Christ did on the cross – His grace: His death on the cross, His burial, resurrection, ascension into heaven, descending of the Holy Spirit.  Faith is simply the arm that receives what Jesus did.

If Jesus Chris is not the righteous Son of God, then our faith is in vain.  You could have all the faith in the world; and it would not do you any good, because the value of faith is not so much in the one who is believing, but in the one who is believed

This is why the validity of faith depends on the validity of its object.  Therefore, it is very important to understand that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Righteous, Holy Son of God who died on the cross for our sins.

And it says “We gain this righteousness of God through faith,” not by faith, “through faith in Jesus.”  And if you remove that “in Jesus,” then you would have no salvation or the righteousness of God.

And it says, “for all those who believe.”

In other words, it is a believing faith.

There is no distinction – it does not matter what your racial background, religious background, whatever – we gain the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus.

Why did Jesus have to die?

We are reading through Romans 3 verses 21 through 26.

It says now, “For all have sinned,” everyone has sinned, “and we fall short of the glory of God.”  And then it says, “…being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

The word “justified.”  What does that mean?

The word justified is a legal term.  It relates to the law, and it means this: to be justified means to be declared in the light of the law in this situation.

To be declared righteous!  So when somebody is justified, they are declared as righteous as Christ Himself.  Not made righteous.

Now what is a Biblical terminology for being made righteous?  You are right – “sanctification.”

Justification means declared righteous; sanctification means to be made righteous.

In other words, when He declares us as righteous as Christ Himself in the light of the law, He wants to make us live that righteousness out in our lives on a relationship with Him.

Then the Word of God says, “…through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”  Highlight that word.  I am going to come back and deal with it. “…who God displayed publicly as a propitiation…” That is the second word.

Redemption and Propitiation, I am going to explain those two concepts and how it explains why Jesus had to die.

 “…as a propitiation in His blood through faith.  This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say of His righteousness at the present time.”

Now here is the predicament that God had “so that He would be just and justified of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Here is the predicament.

How can God remain just and yet forgive a sinful individual who is far less righteousness than God Himself?

That is the question:  How can God remain just and justify the ungodly?

The answer to that is why Jesus had to die.

Why did Jesus have to die?

We read the Scriptures from Romans 3:21-26 (NIV).  In there were two key words.  Remember I said, “Underline those.”  Redemption and Propitiation, in this segment and the next, I want to explain those two concepts.

First is the word Redemption.  The word redemption is a commercial term. It was a term used in the marketplace and often in the slave market.  And there are several connotations to the word redemption in God’s New Testament.

The first simply “to buy out of the slave market.” When you redeem someone, you buy them out of the slave market.

The second one is an emphasis on the price you pay.  In other words, not so much buying them out; it is the price that you pay.

But the third connotation of this word as it is used in the New Testament is that the price you pay to buy a slave out of the market is so great a price that the slave can never ever again be sold into being a slave.

Well that is the way it is used here.  In other words, the price is so great that when God purchased us out of the slave market of sin; we never, ever again need to be sold back into it – the price is so great.

Now picture with me: redemption is Christ’s work on the cross man-ward.  It is Christ’s work on the cross towards us.  He is paying a price so great through His death to buy us out of the slave market of sin that never again do we need to be sold into sin.

But the question is: What does propitiation mean?

We saw that Christ’s death on the cross man-ward is called redemption. It is paying a price to buy us out of the slave market of sin and that price is so great we never have to be sold again.

But also Romans 3 talked about propitiation. Now that is a word a little harder word to understand. You do not use the word propitiate, or propitiation, so years ago I learned this. Whenever I come across a word or phrase that I just cannot grasp, I try to find another word or simple phrase that means the same thing. But it has to mean the same thing without losing any of the significance.

For example somebody says, “God is omnipotent.” Now what does that mean Omni – all; potent – powerful. It means God is all powerful. Omnipotent just does not speak to me, so I use a term “He can do it.”

Every time someone says, well God is omnipotent; I think “He can do it.” What does omniscient mean? Omni – all; scient – knowing. God is all knowing. So then I say “well He knows it.” He can do it; and He knows it.

And then there is a concept of God, He is omnipresent. Oh boy, I do not use that word. Omni – all; presence – here. And so I use the term “He is here”. So when I talk about omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence… “He is here, He can do it, and He knows it. And that communicates to me.

With the word propitiation, I believe the word that speaks to me and most people that does not lose any meaning, it is a substitute for propitiation is the word satisfaction.

In other words when it says He was a propitiation for our sins, you can say He, Jesus, was a satisfaction for our sins. Now what does that mean? The work of Christ on the cross man-ward is redemption. The work of Christ on the cross God-ward is propitiation or satisfaction.

You say, “well what do you mean?”

When Jesus said, “It is finished” His death on the cross paid the price to completely propitiate or satisfy the holy, just, righteous nature of God. God could exercise His love without setting aside His holiness. God could exercise His righteousness because it was satisfied.

So you might say, in human terms, when Christ died on the cross He paid the price for our sins and satisfied the holy, just, righteous nature of God.

In human terms you could say, God was set free to deal with us in love. We could approach Him and His love to save us. His very nature did not have to destroy us.

Why? Christ died for that. It was paid for. God solved this problem. He could approach us with His love to save us, why, because His very nature of being holy, just, and righteous was completely satisfied in Christ’s death on the cross.

So why did Jesus have to die?

He had to die to propitiate, or satisfy the holy, just, righteous nature of God. Then He needed to die to pay the price to buy us out of the slave market of sin.

You say, “Josh, I do not really get that.”

Well then the next two segments I am going to give an illustration for each one of these concepts that I believe will drive it home to you what it means.

We saw that Christ’s death on the cross man-ward is called redemption. It is paying a price to buy us out of the slave market of sin and that price is so great we never have to be sold again.

But also Romans 3 talked about propitiation. Now that is a word a little harder word to understand. You do not use the word propitiate, or propitiation, so years ago I learned this. Whenever I come across a word or phrase that I just cannot grasp, I try to find another word or simple phrase that means the same thing. But it has to mean the same thing without losing any of the significance.

For example somebody says, “God is omnipotent.” Now what does that mean Omni – all; potent – powerful. It means God is all powerful. Omnipotent just does not speak to me, so I use a term “He can do it.”

Every time someone says, well God is omnipotent; I think “He can do it.” What does omniscient mean? Omni – all; scient – knowing. God is all knowing. So then I say “well He knows it.” He can do it; and He knows it.

And then there is a concept of God, He is omnipresent. Oh boy, I do not use that word. Omni – all; presence – here. And so I use the term “He is here”. So when I talk about omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence… “He is here, He can do it, and He knows it. And that communicates to me.

With the word propitiation, I believe the word that speaks to me and most people that does not lose any meaning, it is a substitute for propitiation is the word satisfaction.

In other words when it says He was a propitiation for our sins, you can say He, Jesus, was a satisfaction for our sins. Now what does that mean? The work of Christ on the cross man-ward is redemption. The work of Christ on the cross God-ward is propitiation or satisfaction.

You say, “well what do you mean?”

When Jesus said, “It is finished” His death on the cross paid the price to completely propitiate or satisfy the holy, just, righteous nature of God. God could exercise His love without setting aside His holiness. God could exercise His righteousness because it was satisfied.

So you might say, in human terms, when Christ died on the cross He paid the price for our sins and satisfied the holy, just, righteous nature of God.

In human terms you could say, God was set free to deal with us in love. We could approach Him and His love to save us. His very nature did not have to destroy us.

Why? Christ died for that. It was paid for. God solved this problem. He could approach us with His love to save us, why, because His very nature of being holy, just, and righteous was completely satisfied in Christ’s death on the cross.

So why did Jesus have to die?

He had to die to propitiate, or satisfy the holy, just, righteous nature of God. Then He needed to die to pay the price to buy us out of the slave market of sin.

You say, “Josh, I do not really get that.”

Well then the next two segments I am going to give an illustration for each one of these concepts that I believe will drive it home to you what it means.

Why did Jesus have to die?

We saw that He not only died for us for redemption but he also died for God the Father to satisfy – propitiate His holy, just, righteous nature.

The work on the cross man-ward is redemption.

The work on the cross God-ward is propitiation, or I like to call it satisfaction.

But what does that really mean?  Let me try to illustrate it for you.

This story happened a number of years ago.   I read a newspaper account in Los Angeles, California.

Just north of L.A. there is a stretch of highway that goes through a county where they are very strict on speeding, and the little village there makes a lot of money on it.  And this young lady, and I would estimate she was probably about maybe 18-19 years old, was picked up for speeding.

Well in that segment of that highway when you are picked up for speeding, you are ticketed and taken right to the court 24/7.  24 hours a day, 7 days a week the court is in session.  And so she was taken to the court.

She sat in the court for a while and when it was her turn and her name was called she went forward and stood before the judge.

The judge read off the citation and said, “Guilty or not guilty?”

Well she was caught, as we say in English, red-handed.

And so she said, “Guilty.”

And the judge brought down the gavel and said, “I find you guilty.”

(And I am not sure accurately here of what took place; but it was either pay $100 fine, or spend one day in jail, or so many hours in jail.)

The judge brought the gavel down, “guilty.”

But then an amazing thing happened, probably never happened before or maybe one or two other times in the history of American courts; but the judge stood up, took off his judicial robe, laid it over the back of the chair, walked down around the front, stood next to the young lady, took out his billfold and paid the fine.

The whole court was stunned.  What was the explanation?  The explanation was this.

The judge was her father.

And now here is the situation.

The father loved his daughter probably more than anyone else in the world; but he was a just judge.  But he was a just judge. (Think of that, a just judge.)  And therefore he could not say “I love you so much, I know you did not mean to do it.  You are forgiven this time.”  What would everybody in the court yell out?  I would have yelled out.  “I want justice.”

So matter how much he loved her, because he was a just judge he had to fine her $100 or put her in jail for a day.  But he loved her so much he was willing to set aside his judicial robes, and come down and stand next to her as her father instead of seated before her as her judge; and he took the penalty upon himself.  So no one could say “I want justice.”  The law, the requirements of the law, was met.

You might say that you and I were brought before God and He brought down gavel and asked “Are you guilty or not guilty?” and I said “Guilty, I am a sinner”.

And God brought down the gavel and said, “I fine you — the wages of sin is death.”

But God loved us so much, you might say, He stood up, took off His royal robes, and set them across the back of His chair, and He came down in the form of His Son Christ Jesus and instead of standing before us as our judge, He stood next to us as our Savior.  And He took the penalty upon Himself. He took the holy, just, righteous wrath of God upon Himself.  And when Jesus said “It is finished” all the requirements of the law and the nature of God were satisfied.  He was set free to deal with us in love.

That is probably one of the best illustrations I have seen of what it means to be propitiated, i.e., Christ paying the price to satisfy the holy, just, righteous nature of God.

Why did Jesus have to die? Because God is a holy, just righteous loving God.

For whom did He die?  Yes, He died for you, for me, for everyone, for the elect, and He also died for God the Father.

If you do not understand this, you will almost always do what you would call “water down” sin.  You will never look at sin as truly being sinful and that will effect almost every decision you ever make in your life.

God loves you so much He did something about it.