Why Did Jesus Die?

The idea that Jesus died on a cross so that our sins could be forgiven can be hard to grasp or accept. Most of us like to think of ourselves as good people. We notice that there is a lot of evil around us and we long for justice when others have done something wrong. On the other hand, when we ourselves have done something wrong, we are less interested in justice. We think that others should be able to forgive us, but we aren't as quick to forgive those who have hurt us.


We don't want to do the wrong thing, but there's something in us that make us do what we don't want to do and that makes it hard to do what is right, The Bible calls this our sinful nature. Before Jesus was born every time God's people sinned they would have to sacrifice something (traditionally a lamb) to get forgiveness from God. Imagine if every time we did something evil we would have to pay a fine, most of us would run out of money pretty quickly. You steal something, you pay. You lied, you pay. You cheated, you pay. When Jesus died on the cross he payed the price for all our wrongs. Jesus volunteered to pay for all the wrongs humanity had done in the past, the present and would do in the future.


The moment we realize that it isn't only other people around us who do evil things, but that sin is in all of us, we become very thankful to God that he removed what we sometimes call karma and replaced it with grace. Grace means that we can make huge mistakes in life and still be forgiven by God, God won't stop loving us even though we've done things that hurt others and ourselves.


The day we decide to surrender our lives to God all our mistakes and wrongs are forgiven, every single one of them. From that day on, when God looks at us he no longer sees our mistakes, he sees a new person. That is why Jesus died on the cross, to make us spotless in front of God. The thankfulness and awe that comes from being saved is what will propel us into wanting to serve God wholeheartedly through loving God, loving ourselves and loving others. Karma means that each person gets what he deserves. Grace means that Jesus got what we deserved.