Significance of Jesus’ Death

Significance of Jesus’ Death

By Apostle Felix

50  Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
51  And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;
52  And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
53  Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. 

John 11: 50 – 53

Jesus’ death is significant not only in christianity but also in humanity because His death was substitutionary sacrifice to pay for man’s sin, reconcile man to God, and provide eternal life. The remarkable thing is that, although Jesus was sinless, His death was because of sin – the sin of others. He died to satisfy God’s wrath against human sin. Sin had caused a separation between God and man. And that separation introduced death and a curse into humanity. What sustains the resource is the source. So, since man was severed from God because of sin, man died and everything under him came under a curse.

16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 

Genesis 2: 16, 17

Adam was commanded not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But he went ahead to eat from the tree hence sin entered humanity. Upon man sinning, he covered himself without fig leaves that proved insufficient to provide covering from his shame. God clothed them with animal skin which He had killed to show that a sacrifice was necessary for the atonement of sin. It was not Adam that was killed but an innocent animal that did not participate in Adam’s sin.

6  And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 

Exodus 12: 6

Throughout the Old Testament, the principle of atonement prevailed until the ultimate fulfillment in Jesus’ death on the cross. Death in the Old Testament was actually a demonstration of God’s judgement upon sin. From Noah’s flood to the plagues in Egypt God was demonstrating how harmful sin is. People were not dying because God hated them, but because of the absence of His love and presence in humanity. The evil we witness in our communities is not due to God’s negligence but because of the absence of God’s love and presence in the hearts of men. Egypt was a type of sin and His people were trapped and enslaved by it. God sent His deliverer, Moses into Egypt to deliver Israel from their bondage. But none of the plagues could let Israel leave Egypt until the tenth plague that involved the death of one for another. Innocent animals were killed and their blood put over the door posts for the angel of death to Passover and never to enter. While there was justification in the house of Israel, there was judgement in the house of Egypt. Sin was judged for man to go free. Sin had to be judged.

21  For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him. 

2 Corinthians 5: 21

Though sinless, Jesus decided to become sin and bear all human brunt. He was judged as sin on behalf of humanity. He became our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed for our sins, not His. He had no sin to die for. Only man had sinned against God. The significance of Jesus’ death, therefore is that the sinless man became sin and died the death of a sinner in order to save the one who had sinned.