Why Did Jesus Have to Die? Exploring the Divine Plan of Redemption
Why did Jesus have to die—and what does His resurrection really mean for us? This Easter, take a deeper look at the seriousness of sin, the necessity of the cross, and the launch of new life that’s greater than we’ve dared to imagine.
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3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
Why Did Jesus Have to Die?
As a pastor, I’ve been with people as they transition from this life to the next on multiple occasions. When I’ve been with devoted Christ followers, I see them pass with peace.
But what puzzles me is lukewarm Christians. These are people who have a vague notion of God. These are persons who check the Christian box when they enter the hospital, but when you look under the hood of their faith, they’re more of a vague deist, living with a vague optimism that everything will work out in the end.
This is sobering, but apart from Christ, Scriptures declare that our condition is worse than we thought, but our opportunity is greater than we can imagine. Consider the horror and injustice of God’s perfect Son nailed to a cross, flung into the air, and left to hang and suffer for hours. The most famous verse points us in this direction:
“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
When reviewing that verse, what’s one word or phrase that’s the most meaningful? Is it “loved”? What about “gave”? Perhaps it’s “everlasting life”? In light of Jesus’ saving worth, the foundation in that verse is a reference to eternal death, therefore, the most meaningful word is “perish.”
The word “perish” denotes something that is, in reality, inescapable. That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote, “…remember that you were at that time separated from Christ…” (Ephesians 2:12), because none of us has eternal hope except to perish. When John 3:16 uses “perish,” it says something about eternity that we rarely take in, which is the reason we fall short of seeing the possibility of perishing is at its best, failing to see eternity as God sees it in relation to our sin.
How Serious is Our Sin?
Sin causes everything to break down. Pick any sin, and when it’s in operation, trust will break down, as will families, good relationships, businesses, and so forth. That’s why Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death (perishing). Thus, our sin is serious enough that God ordained a death for His Son that was much more profound than physical death.
Scripture tells us that God’s Son was holy, innocent, and separated from sinners (Hebrews 7:26), that He was a lamb without blemish (1 Peter 1:19), and in Him was the light of humanity (John 8:12).
Due to the horribleness of the cross, it reveals more about the magnitude of sin than all the wars, atrocities, and human cruelties recorded throughout history. The effects of sin are so serious and deep that before we turn to Jesus for forgiveness of sins, God tenderly declared that we were His enemy (James 4:4).
There aren’t many people who seriously consider themselves enemies of God. Despite this reality being outlined throughout Scripture, many believers resist it. You will commonly hear people share, “I wasn’t going against God, I just wasn’t going with Him.” Yet, look at what Scripture shares:
“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” Colossians 1:21 (NIV)
“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Romans 5:10
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:1-3
Our sin has radically, deeply, and negatively affected us. It has alienated us from God, therefore, He chose to radically deal with sin through the person of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. He took our sins to the cross and buried them in a tomb for three days, then resurrected new life. Jesus knew the divine necessity of this work.
“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Matthew 16:21 (emphasis added)
Note that Jesus didn’t say these things might happen, nor did He even predict they would happen. Instead, He declared they must happen.
In Luke 24:25-26, Jesus said, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” Jesus even opened the Old Testament to His disciples so they would comprehend that this wasn’t some happenstance that was unfolding.
“‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.’” Luke 24:44-49
Jesus didn’t die because it was written; He died because it was necessary. The cross was inevitable and planned by the Father from the beginning. It was plainly revealed to His people through His Word.
Why Does the Resurrection Matter?
As Christians, while we believe that the resurrection was a historical event, it is woefully inadequate to say that it was merely a historical event. To say that Jesus rose from the dead is to have said far too little about the implications of what that means for us, because it means much more that Jesus is alive.
The resurrection of Jesus has everything to do with the transformation of your mode of existence through a doorway called death that awaits every man and woman. Christ’s resurrection is a signpost for something that has everything to do with us and is the first resurrection of many to come.
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20
Firstfruits is terminology for tithing, and Jesus is the firstfruits of those fallen asleep. When we read about tithing in the Bible, God shares that as you honor me first, I will redeem the rest. The imagery here is that Christ honored God in obedience to the cross and death, with the implication that through His resurrection, He is the firstfruits of many resurrections to come.
It’s because of that reality that in Ephesians 2:5, the Apostle Paul wrote: “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” Additionally, in Colossians 3:1, we see, “If then you have been raised with Christ.”
The new life we’ve been brought into through faith in Christ is also a reflection of what’s to come.
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he had already been in the tomb for four days. Upon Jesus’ arrival, Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:24-26).
There’s a contrast in that interaction that’s easy to miss: Jesus isn’t talking about Lazarus at that point, instead, He’s talking about Himself. He’s declaring that He is the resurrection and precursor of all resurrections to come.
It’s also important to note that Lazarus’ resurrection wasn’t a resurrection, instead, it was a resuscitation. The resurrection of Jesus is not a resuscitation; Jesus did not come back to life. In His resurrection, Jesus went forward into a new life. It wasn’t a return to the same existence that He had before He was crucified. The resuscitation of Lazarus meant he would later die a normal death at the end of his lifetime. That’s why he is a resuscitation. Jesus introduced something completely new.
What Does the Resurrection Mean For Us?
If your life is in Christ, there’s a new reality waiting for you that you will one day inhabit on a new heaven and a new earth. Jesus was the first person to be incorporated into the new creation.
The resurrection of Christ isn’t simply proof that there is life beyond death, nor is it proof only that our sins are forgiven. While we want to make much of those realities, the resurrected Christ is a signpost that Jesus is the firstfruits of those who have already gone and that we will be like Him. He is the firstfruit of all who will be gathered into the new creation. The resurrection is proof that something better is coming and modeling a foretaste of what’s coming for the believer.
“Reality behaves differently for the resurrected Christ than it did before His resurrection.” Christopher Watkins, Christian apologist.
Following the resurrection, Jesus had a different relationship to space, able to walk through locked doors in a way that was never recorded as having been done before His death. He can appear and disappear. He can rise to the heavens in a way that is foreign, not only to our experience of embodied existence, but also to His previous life.
The resurrection ushers in a new relationship with death. In an essay, C.S. Lewis wrote, “We know that we were not made for death. We know how it crept into our destiny as an intruder, and we know who has defeated it.” (C.S. Lewis, “Some Thoughts” in God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 147.)
To quote Watkins again, “Death is the final limit, the limit which all other limits flex their constraining power. Therefore, if death itself has been overcome, then the very idea of limitation has suffered a mortal blow.” When Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead into a new life, it prepares you for the inevitable, impending, and fixed time of death that lies before you.
“In the New Testament, outside the Gospels and beginning of Acts, again and again, the fact of Jesus’ resurrection is closely linked to our own ultimate resurrection, which isn’t life after death. It’s life after life after death.” N.T. Wright
That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:54: “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’” That’s why N.T. Wright also wrote, “Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project, not to snatch people away from earth to heaven, but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.” As J.D. Waltz said, “Easter is not the finish line; It is the launchpad.”
Invitation to New Life
Every year, we see multiple teams win championships in their competitive field. From the NCAA March Madness tournament, the Masters, Super Bowl, World Series, and so many more. In each competition, while the athletes dress to compete, they would be nothing without a ball. In football, you can’t score a touchdown without a football. In basketball, you can’t make a basket without the basketball. All of these gifts that have been outlined aren’t true for you unless you have the ball of Jesus.
“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
In the original language, that word, “believe,” doesn’t mean to cognitively believe something. It means to trust yourself. It means to trust Jesus that the things He said were true. We’re called to entrust ourselves to Him, confess and surrender to Him as Lord, and repent and trust that Jesus bore our sins to the cross. Scripture shares that Jesus knew no sin, but He took our sins, so when we trust that, we’re exercising faith.
It’s through our faith that whoever trusts themselves to Jesus will not perish, but have new life that goes on forever. That’s why Easter isn’t the finish line, it’s the launchpad. Jesus invites you to launch into a new life with Him.
TL;DR
We all face eternity: Apart from Christ, we perish. But the Gospel reveals a hope greater than we imagined.
Sin is serious: It breaks down everything and makes us enemies of God. Jesus didn’t just die—He had to die to deal with sin’s eternal consequences.
The cross was necessary: Jesus repeatedly declared His death was not accidental but divinely ordained from the beginning.
The resurrection is more than history: Jesus wasn’t merely resuscitated—He entered a new existence as the firstfruits of God’s new creation.
It means something for us: Resurrection ushers in a new way to live now, and promises a coming reality of a new heaven and new earth.
Invitation to faith: Believing isn’t intellectual agreement—it’s entrusting your life to Jesus. Easter isn’t the finish line; it’s the launchpad into new life.
