Why was Jesus killed? Why did he have to die? Surely it would have benefited the human race if he’d lived and taught for many years? No, the Bible says he was born to die! In the words of Caiaphas, the High Priest, who did not realise the truth of his own words: “It is essential for one man to die for the people”. He meant to avoid the risk of a bloody rebellion against Rome. As it turned out, it meant that his death would save the world. How? Well, take an example we can all grasp. In the book “Miracle on the River Kwai”, the slave labourers, British PoW’s, built the Burmah railway line. At the end of one day a Japanese guard yelled that a shovel was missing, and demanded that the thief should step forward. No one moved. “You all die – all die” he raved, and cocked his gun. Then one prisoner stepped forward, and was smashed and clubbed to death by the out-of- control guard.
They counted again later, and found that no shovel was missing after all: it had been a miscount. But that one man had died to save them all from being shot by a power-crazed guard.
Now that sacrifice was because of a mistake. There was no mistake when Jesus died. It was all planned. Jesus of Nazareth died in the place of all sinners to save sinners. He substituted himself, and, being innocent, took the penalty which he did not deserve.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. I Peter 2: 24-25
The word ‘tree’ is the Hebrew word for ‘cross’.
A Prayer: Lord Jesus, you died to atone for sins, not your own, for my sins, even mine. In you do I put my trust. Only in you can I put my trust.
Now read Hebrews 9: 11-28Hebrews 9: 11-28
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; ¹² Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. ¹³ For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: ¹⁴ How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? spot: or, fault ¹⁵ And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. ¹⁶ For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. be: or, be brought in ¹⁷ For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. ¹⁸ Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. dedicated: or, purified ¹⁹ For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, scarlet: or, purple ²⁰ Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. ²¹ Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. ²² And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. ²³ It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: ²⁵ Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; ²⁶ For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: ²⁸ So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.  

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