His death was attempted a number of times. Three times the effort was made to stone Him. No stone ever struck Him; once they tried to cast Him down a precipice. He disappeared out of their midst. The ship in which He was asleep filled with water. He was undisturbed, for that ship could never sink. Death had no power over Him. He was sinless and therefore deathless. Yet, He died that cruel death by crucifixion. Why then did He die? Did He die as a martyr? Such is the answer that we hear today from thousands of religious teachers. He died on account of the teachings He gave; His was the martyr's death. The same men also tell us that His body remained in the grave; that over that grave it must be written: "Dust to dust and ashes to ashes." If that were true, we could charge God with being an unrighteous Being. We could impeach the throne of righteousness.
But how did the martyrs die? Hear them singing their hymns of praise! See them facing heroically the lions, the tigers, the torture and the stake. They counted it honor and glory to lay down their lives. They rejoiced as cruel death approached.
But listen to the Lord Jesus, the holy One, the sinless One, when death loomed up before Him. Listen – "Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour." See Him in Gethsemane. Hear that bitter wail–"Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done." Behold His agony – "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Why this trembling, why this soul agony, why this terror? Was it produced by the fear of physical death? Was the Lord Jesus Christ a coward" Certainly not!
But this agony, this soul trouble, as He looked toward the Cross, answers the question: "Why did Christ die?" He did not die, as we die, because He had sinned, but He died for our sins, the Just for the unjust. He died as the Lamb of God, the holy, spotless Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world. He knew, going to that Cross, there would come, while hanging there, three hours during which the sun would hide his face, and in that awful darkness He Who knew no sin would be made sin. Sin, that horrible, hateful thing, would be put then upon Him, not by man, but by God Himself. What it meant - "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" is only known to Him. We cannot understand it, but we can believe it and worship.
And when that sin-bearing, that sin-atoning Work was done, then no one took His Life from Him - He gave that Life. And that He yielded it is evidenced by that marvelous, victorious shout–"'It is finished!"
Christ died for our sins! Here is our salvation; here is our peace; here is our hope of eternal glory! Christ crucified is still for the Jew the stumbling-block – , for the Greek, the Gentile world with its boasted culture, learning and progress, it is foolishness. But to all who believe God, who believe His Word, Christ, the Christ Who died for our sins, is the Wisdom and the Power of God. The Wisdom of God, for He displays in the sacrificial death of His Son His infinite wisdom. The world by wisdom did not know God. It could not find its way back to God. The wisdom of the world could not bridge the gulf between the holy God and unholy, lost humanity. Then God stepped in and laid across that gulf a Cross and upon that Cross His Son.
And the Christ Who died for our sins, Who took sin upon Himself, Who satisfied God's righteousness, is the Power of God. The sin-bearing Work of the Lord Jesus Christ gives God power to save man from the horrible pit of sin, to cleanse and forgive him, as he grasps in faith the pierced hand of the Lord Jesus, and then that power lifts him out of his lost condition into the glorious place of a child of God.
Friend, do you believe that Christ died for your sins? Do you believe He bore your sins in His own body on the tree? Have you looked to that Cross on which the Prince of Glory died, and looking there, have said in faith: "He loved me, He gave Himself for me"? Have you cast yourself upon Him and accepted Him? Have you done what is written - "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved"? Then you are saved.
Then rejoice and be glad. Rejoice! For you are acquitted of all your guilt. Rejoice! For Jesus paid it all. Rejoice! You are born again and have become a true child of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Rejoice! You are accepted in the Beloved One. Rejoice! You have passed from death unto Life. Rejoice! God is your loving Father. Rejoice! There is no condemnation. Rejoice! You are an heir of God and fellow-heir with Christ, and the Father's House will be your eternal and glorious Home.
But oh! Remember it again, the price He paid to make this possible. Look once more to that Cross and see how He was smitten and afflicted of God as your Substitute. What is your answer to His sacrificial love? How often Christians sing it in sacred song, and how little they practice it
"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
‘Twould be a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Only then can we enjoy fully our blood-bought redemption when we live for Him, Who died for us.
And you who never have believed that Christ died for your sins and have never accepted Him – you, who trust in your own works, your own righteousness, which in the sight of God are nothing but filthy rags – you who reject His sin-bearing, His finished Work, let me say to you there is but one Way to God – the Way of the Cross. He who died for our sins is that Way, and there never can be any other way. "No man cometh to the Father, but by Me" is an eternal, never-changing Truth. The greater part of the religious world rejects that Truth. It puts into its place another Gospel. Instead of preaching "Christ crucified" they speak of the leadership of Jesus and claim that the teachings of Jesus, practically applied, will save the world.
That is a delusion! And because the religious world turns away from the Cross of Christ, from the true heart of Christianity – that Christ died for our sins, that salvation for a lost world is offered and found alone beneath the Cross of Jesus – the night of sin becomes darker, and the manifestation of the power of darkness becomes greater, till an apostate Christendom worships the coming "Man of Sin," whose shadow lengthens in our day.
O friend without Christ–take the Way of the Cross this very moment! Beneath that Cross, and there alone, you can have peace with God, righteousness and glory.
And that Christ Who died for your sins loves you. He wants you! He is now waiting for you. He will welcome you, for He still assures you – "Whosoever cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." Repeat it now, and do it
"Just as I am – without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
