Why He Died

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First of all it is necessary to understand why no one else could do it. When Adam sinned it was in fact a sell out to Satan. Adam may not have realized the full consequences of what he did but nevertheless, he was disobedient to God. Prior to this Satan (Lucifer, as he was known then) rebelled in heaven and managed to gain the support of a third of the angels.

Revelation 12:7-AV And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

Revelation 12:3-AV And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Revelation 12:4-AV And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

Luke 10:18-AV And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

After seducing Eve and Adam to sin, Satan became the prince of this world.

John 12:31-AV Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

John was talking about Satan being defeated by Jesus. But what really happened here? Let us go back to the book of Job where Satan is pictured as the prince of this world in a dramatic way.

Job 1:6-AV Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

Job 1:7-AV And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

There are two occasions such as this mentioned in Job. What I believe happens is that God, from time to time calls a conference of planetary leaders. Certainly the language explains that Satan appeared there as the prince of earth. God did not show him the door but permitted him to attend the conference since it was his right, as owner of the earth and mankind, to do so. He had been defeated in Heaven when he mounted what we would call a military coup, and was cast out, but had now gained a planet of his own to call home.

But how could we get it back? Why, by redemption of course. The redemption process given to the Jews so that they would understand the big picture, provided for a purchase agreement to be drawn up when a man sold land or slaves. This agreement would also include an agreed redemption price and other conditions of sale like how long the new owner would be able to remain (to get a crop off for instance) after the redemption price was paid. Either the man who sold the property could redeem it or a direct descendent such as a son. If the 'tenant' refused to vacate the land or return the slave, the redeemer could open the seals on the original purchase agreement, and with the open document as his authority, use whatever force was necessary to take back the possession. There was a 50 year limit on any such sale to safeguard family property put there by God for man's benefit.

However there is no such limit involving the big picture. Now since the wages of sin is death, according to God, the redemption of the earth required the blood sacrifice (death) of a man, Adam or a descendent. This man of course, had to be in the same moral condition as Adam was when the deal was made. Are you starting to get the picture? Mankind could never produce a redeemer! As a condition of Adam's fall, every child born of man was born into legal slavery to Satan (original sin).

Now God had a couple of options open to Him here. The easy way was to let things run their course and when Satan had demonstrated the utter haplessness of his position to the watching universe, just zap the earth, Satan, mankind and all. That of course would have meant that everyone who ever lived on the planet would only have the time allotted to them here as a life and not have a chance for eternal life which was what was originally intended when we were created.

The other option was to somehow provide a way mankind, and the earth, could be redeemed. And the only way to do this was for God Himself, in the form of His Son, to take on human flesh as a man and pay the redemption price for mankind. It had to be the Son part of the Godhead that did this because the Father had to remain aloof. In fact we are told that this plan was made before the world began. God had foreknowledge of what mankind would do and provided a solution even before creating him.

We all know the story of how the Holy Spirit caused the conception of the baby in the virgin Mary. Since he was not conceived of man, but of God, He was able to be born without the 'original sin' condition common to all mankind. Because this redemption thing had to be done by a Man and not a God, Jesus was totally unable to use any divine power while He went through this process. He was also tempted severely by Satan, who gave his personal attention to the task, because not being stupid, he knew what was being done here. Jesus could have sinned just as Adam did. Imagine what might have resulted if that had happened!

Now because Satan had such an interest in getting Jesus to sin, even to think an angry thought, he arranged for Him to be killed by the cruellest and most horrible means ever thought up by an evil mankind. Maybe he could get Jesus to get angry with the soldiers who were torturing him. When that didn't happen he arranged for one of the thieves to tempt Jesus to use His divine power to come down off the cross. He could have done that, but it would have meant failing His mission.

It was known beforehand what method would be used to kill Jesus because when the children of Israel were in the desert at one time they were being bitten by a plague of poisonous snakes. God gave instructions to make a brass serpent and hang it on a cross. Any snake bitten Israeli who looked upon the brass serpent on the cross was healed of the snake bite. This was a prelude to when Jesus, (who took upon Himself the sins of the world and was therefore pictured as a snake, a symbol of sin), would be hoisted up on a cross and all who look upon Him (believe in Him) will be healed of sin and have everlasting life.

Jesus paid the redemption price for the earth and mankind and as the result of this, we all now belong to Jesus, or can if we choose to. In Revelation we are given a vision of the Father holding up a scroll sealed with seven seals, and calling for someone to take the scroll. Only one being could come forward and take that scroll, and He is pictured both as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and as a Lamb, slain. Our redeemer, Jesus. He took the scroll out of the Father's hand and proceeded to open the seals. We are given other visions of history, prophecy when Revelation was written, as each seal is opened. When the last seal is opened, there are thunders, and lightening and great noise and Jesus comes back to earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to take back his possession by force.

My study of prophecy and that of every other bible student I have encountered, reveals that this time is almost upon us. There is now quite an urgency to spread the Gospel message of salvation while we are still able.

I pray that readers not already saved will do something about it. And that those who are, will be taken with this sense of urgency I and others now feel.

Lance Wearmouth

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    Borrowed from: Answers 2 Prayer