“Why Did Jesus Die?” Part 2
1. For our sins
1 Peter 3:18 (NASB) For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God…
2. To establish His lordship
Romans 14:9 (NLT) Christ died and rose again for this very purpose—to be Lord both of the living and of the dead…
Jesus died so that He could become our Lord and Savior.
Romans 10:9-10 (NIV) …if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe [in Christ as Savior] and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
A. Our Savior
His sacrifice allowed the Father to extend mercy, instead of judgment.
Colossians 1:13-14 (NLT) For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
B. Our Lord
Titus 2:14 (NLT) He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people [possession], totally committed to doing good deeds.
The moment He became our Savior, He also became our Master.
1 John 5:11-13 (NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.
Matthew 16:24-25 (NLT) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save [find] it.”
Unlike the Rich Young Ruler, we need to believe that God has something better for us on the “other side” of our surrender.
Q — Why do we struggle with surrendering the throne of our lives?
1. We want a God who gives us everything, yet requires nothing from us
1 Corinthians 10:7 (NKJV) And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
If we desire relationship without responsibility, and a genuine conversion without transformation — we are believing in a false gospel.
2. We have believed in an unrealistic view of ourselves
Revelation 3:15-17 (NLT) I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing! And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
“How easily we deceive ourselves into thinking that what looks impressive to the world also looks impressive to God. Nothing could be farther from the truth.” —David Ravenhill
3. God created us in His image, and now we’ve tried to return the favor.
“We con’t want to mess around with a God who is other than us. We want a God who is like us. A God who can be controlled by us. We can’t wrap our brains around a God who can reconcile judgment and mercy, anger and kindness, love and hate, grace and holiness. We want a one-dimensional God. One we can understand and explain.
What we can define, we can confine. And in our efforts to define God—we have confined His expression to the extent of our current being. But we cannot expect to limit God and still find things like an unlimited power, unconditional love, and an overflowing life. It just doesn’t work that way.” —Addison Bevere
Q — How do we fear a God who looks just like us?
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 40:12 (NLT) Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers [span of his hand]? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
Acts 17:24-30 (NLT) He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. 27 His purpose was for the nations to seek after Him and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. …29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. 30 God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.
1 Peter 2:9 (NLT) …for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.