In 1 Cor 15:3-5 we can read a very concise statement of Christian truth made by the Apostle Paul;3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

You notice that the death of Jesus is given first place here, because it happened that way, but it also speaks to the fact that His death was not something new. His death was anticipated throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. On the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, when Peter affirmed this when he gave his sermon to the men of Judea. He said, "this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death."

While the meaning and the death of Jesus are interpreted for us by the Scriptures, they don't explain necessarily why the Father picked this way of dealing with the sin problem of man. We have to depend on the Bible to teach us what God has seen fit to reveal to us concerning Jesus' death. Whatever speculation I might make on the subject amounts to nothing. What we should remember is that God Himself made authentic the need and the importance and the accomplishments of Jesus' death by means of His resurrection. It was the "fact" that He rose from "being dead" that the early church preached. It began on the Day of Pentecost, used by Peter as proof of the things claimed by Christ and of the meaning of His death.

Acts 17:30-3130 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."

Generally speaking, Scripture tells us that Jesus' death was necessary because of the fall of man. In Genesis we're taught that God created man in His own image, to be compatible for fellowship with Him. I can only assume that man was to use the mind he was given to know God, and emotionally he was made to respond to God with love and gratitude, in obedience and service.

We know what happened in the Garden of Eden. Even though he had everything he needed, man failed the test and gave his allegiance to God over to the things of the world and chose to live in rebellion against God, seeking after his own wants and desires. For his disobedience to God in eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve were told they would meet death. It wasn't just a physical death they were promised with, but the loss of their spiritual lives and their fellowship with the Most Wonderful One of all. Their spiritual deaths could result in their eternal separation from God.

But God is so faithful, and so gracious and forgiving. Right away, He promised in Genesis 3:15 that a Savior for mankind (in seed form) would be provided for mankind. His promise is developed throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, progressing through the mouths of the Prophets by God's special revelation to man. His coming is seen in His "types" or the "pictures" of Jesus, as in sacrificial system of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and the sacrifices made there. Add to that Isaiah Chapter 53, verses 1 through 11. These verses are specifically anticipatory of the substitutionary, attoning death of the promised Messiah Savior, and there are others.

What the Bible declares to us is that because Adam, (man) rebelled and was disobedient to God, he didn't just die spiritually, but that his condition (sin) was passed on to all those (us) who came after him. So, if this ongoing condition of spiritual death is to be "fixed," then somebody has to pay the penalty for man's sin, in order to redeem him from that condition.

Since sin and death came in by a man, then it was by a man, a perfect, sinless man that the payment for sin and the gift of life must come. There was only One.

Someone might ask, "Since Jesus was perfect, why weren't the things He suffered in His life enough to eradicate man's sin problem?" Or they might ask simply, "Why did Jesus have to die?" Once more, this is something we can't quite get our minds around, and we have to rely on what's revealed by God to us in His Word.

Jesus' sufferings may not have been attoning, but they happened, and I don't believe I could handle them. His sinless example of perfect obedience to the Father, even though it meant sorrow and great suffering for Him, cannot be separated from the Cross. It certainly removes all doubt though doesn't it, that what He did was enough to pay for our sins?

A. Jesus was our substitute, He died in our place for our sins.
B. He bought our freeedom from slavery to sin with His own life.
C. He made it possible to measure up to God's standard of holyness-----perfection, and that's something we could not have done for ourselves.

Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, man's problem has been wanting his own way, and not God's. This is a very crucial point, because man has to turn from his own way and believe the message of the Gospel, the truth. Man has to turn from his own sinful ways and trust in Jesus, and that His death and resurrection paid for our sins. We all know the verses.

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16-19

For me it all boils down to God's tremendous grace. It is unfathomable for us. We can't get our minds completely around it in this life. We were dead and lost, and for whatever the reason the Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the Almighty God determined that only His death on the Cross for our sins must be the price paid for them, He was faithful to go there and He is faithful to us now, and we're found and we're made alive by His mercy and forgiveness by grace, through faith in Him.

Someday we will know why God chose this means, the death of His Son, to save us. For now, as always and forever, we must praise His name.