Christianity:
Why did Jesus Die?
The Cross
As you walk through the streets, and public places, almost every time you see someone, you see them with the cross symbol on their necklace, bracelet and earrings. What the cross usually means to someone who isn't a Christian is a symbol of, or representing the church in some. There is a slight different angle to the truth of what the cross represents.
The cross is obviously a message from God, but people do not realize this fact. The cross has said it all. I can't deny what God has shown; the cross speaks of Gods sacrificial 'love'. There displayed for the entire world to see, Jesus is our only hope for new life, a life beyond death. It is a message from the Fathers heart, "come my children, come on 'home.'" We are fallen thus to thus, and we turn away from this symbol which means three things, Love, Life and Victory. Sin is a course of this world's downfall, and Jesus Christ went and took it from us, and throwing it away like trash, he forgives our sins so that we may go to heaven through him. The Son of God shed precious blood for us. If there is something I can't comprehend, it is the fact that God did all this for us and we turned away and ignored it. God is probably suffering considerably knowing that we have run away. Wouldn't you if your children ran away from home?
The Problem
Sometimes people say, 'I have no need for Christianity.' They say something along the lines of, 'I am quite happy, my life is full and I try to be nice to other people and lead a good life.' In order to understand why Jesus died we have to go back and look at the greatest problem that confronts every person.
If we were honest, we would all have to admit that we do things that we know are wrong. Paul wrote, 'All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23). In other words, relative to God's standards we fall a long way short. If we compare ourselves to armed robbers or child molesters or even our neighbours, we may think we come off quite well. But when we compare ourselves to Jesus Christ, we see how short we fall. Somerset Maugham once said, 'If I wrote down every thought I have ever thought and every deed I have ever done, men would call me a monster of depravity.'
The essence of sin is a rebellion against God (Genesis 3) and it's result is that we are cut off from him. Like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), we find ourselves far from our Father's home and with our lives in a mess. Sometimes people say, 'If we are all in the same boat, does it really matter?' The answer is that it does matter because of the consequences of sin in our lives, which can be summarised under four chapters which will be explained in later pages.