Good Friday: Why Did Jesus Die On the Cross? (1 Peter 3:18)

Hi, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into Newsong Churches Podcast.

We're a biblically faithful, gospel-centered Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

You can learn more about us at newsongportperry.ca.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed.

And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

And having said this, he breathed his last.

Why did Jesus die on the cross?

Was Jesus just a victim of injustice?

If so, then the power of the cross is in holding the powerful accountable to their actions.

But in the face of overwhelming tyranny, what guarantee do we have that justice will ultimately be served?

Did Jesus die to give us an inspiring example of self-sacrificial love?

If so, then the power of the cross is in our following Jesus through selfless service to others.

But what happens when our self-sacrifice fails to inspire others and instead is crushed by the selfish and self-interested?

So these two common answers have this in common.

Even still, there are no guarantees.

So why should we care?

But I wonder, what if we asked one of Jesus' own disciples the question, why did Jesus die on the cross?

I wonder what their answer would tell us about the power of the cross.

See, it's Jesus' disciple Peter, the same Peter who denied he knew Jesus as he went to the cross, who later grasped the significance of the cross.

He answers the question like this Jesus also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

Why did Jesus die on the cross?

Peter writes this letter and wants us to be clear.

Jesus died on the cross to reconcile sinners to God.

Christ also suffered once for sins, Peter writes.

Admittedly, sin might be an unpopular word, but it is a useful and descriptive word.

Sin is an archery term, which means to miss the mark.

If the absolute right thing to do, the thing that God wills, is in the exact center of life's target, then sin is the degree to which our actions have veered off center.

And if we are honest with ourselves, we know that there is something off-center about our moral and spiritual lives.

Author Alexander Scholzenitsyn, reflecting on his days spent suffering in the Russian Gulag, writes in the Gulag Archipelago that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, not between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart and through all human hearts.

See, we might try to paper over it, or we might try to make up for it, but in our more honest moments, we recognize what Solzhenitsyn does.

We recognize that we are haunted by guilt, by failure, by complicity in damaging systems and relationships.

If we can acknowledge this, then perhaps we can acknowledge we've sinned.

We're sinners.

And the wages of sin, Scripture tells us, is death.

So why would Jesus Christ suffer for sinners?

He suffers because he's the only one who can, the righteous for the unrighteous.

Jesus' disciples, the ones who knew him best and staked their lives on what they said about him, made a crucial and unique claim about him.

They didn't claim that Jesus was merely a religious or moral teacher, even an exceptional one.

Rather, what they claimed about Jesus was that he was God with us, God revealing himself to human beings as a human being.

As God incarnate, Jesus is alone in all human history, as the one who perfectly fulfills God's good will.

He alone is sinless.

Peter knows his own story, he knows his wrongdoing, he definitely knows his own denial of Jesus.

And yet, Peter now understands as he writes this letter, out of his great love for us, Jesus is willing to take our place.

At the cross, Jesus does for us sinners what we cannot do for ourselves.

He became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become his righteousness.

Why would Jesus do this?

So that he might bring us to God.

At the cross, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

Jesus took upon himself the power and guilt of all sin and wrongdoing, everything which separates us from our holy God, and put it to death in his death.

Now all that is left for us is what he gives us, his righteousness and peace.

God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved.

And this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God.

It does more than offer an example of sacrificial love.

It offers us God's own mercy towards sinners in Jesus.

Jesus died on the cross to reconcile sinners to God.

So how then do we respond to the cross?

Two things.

First, we turn to God.

This means we have to first acknowledge ourselves as sinners and turn away from our sins.

Turning to God can begin today, and it will continue every day for the rest of our lives.

It belongs to the life of a Christian to come to a greater and greater knowledge of the goodness God wills for us to do, and a greater and greater willingness to refuse anything less than that.

We trust Jesus Christ, that what he has done on the cross has put away the power of guilt, failure, and damage that sin has wrought.

We turn to God.

Second, we place our confidence in Christ.

Through the cross, Jesus Christ has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

It is finished, and that is our great assurance.

One ancient letter expresses the Christian's confidence in this way.

Looking at the cross, we can say, O sweet exchange, O unsearchable operation, O benefits surpassing all expectation, that the wickedness of many should be hid in the single righteous one, and that the righteousness of one should justify many transgressors.

Why did Jesus die on the cross?

To reconcile sinners like you and me to our God.

What a wonderful thing it is to be a Christian.

A Christian knows that the power of the cross is not in what we do for God, but in what God has done for us.

Christ also suffered, once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

Today, may you know the joy and peace that the cross alone can bring.

Would you turn to Jesus today?

Would you trust what he has done for you?

Today be reconciled to God through the cross of Jesus.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

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Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.