The Necessity of the Cross: Why was Jesus Crucified?
Consider first the divine nature and character of God: the beauty and majesty of Holy Love.
God is Holy Love. He is wholly Holy and He is wholly Love. God; who is Holy, is inseparable from the God who is Love. The great “I AM” is ever and always all that He is at all times. God does not, indeed cannot, lay aside one aspect of His nature in order to manifest another. His divine nature and various attributes are always in absolute harmony at all times.
Just as the Persons of the Trinity within the God-head are each identifiable yet, inseparable; even so is the fundamental duality of the divine nature of God. When someone separates the holiness of God from the love of God; emphasizing one while neglecting the other, they are misunderstanding, and are in danger of misrepresenting, the nature and character of God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are wholly, Holy Love!
Psa 99:5 Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.
1Jn 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
The Divine Nature and Character of God
Holy Love
Holy: good, wholly other-than, unique, no comparative, different.
Love: severe, other-centered, self-giving.
The eternal, unchanging God is Holy Love. He is a hungry, consuming Fire. He is everlasting Light. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is Righteous. He is Just. He is Jealous. He is Wisdom.
God is merciful, full of grace and kind. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is wholly, Holy Love!
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Consider next the nature and character of fallen man: the horror and depravity of sin. From the moment Adam was deceived by Satan and chose to sin by rejecting God’s Word, all mankind has been the inheritors of his nature of rebellion against God, and it’s fruit; which is death. What is it about sin that is so horrifying and depraved about the sin and life of a sinning person?
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
“sin entered into the world, and death by sin…”
Every time sin is committed, it is directly enabling and promoting death in the world. Everything that contributes to death is the fruit of sin. Sin is the inherited nature and character of every descendant of Adam in the earth. All are sinners by nature, and by default; promoters of Satan’s kingdom of darkness through sin and death.
All that produces death; whether it be by disease, murder, war, abortion, prejudice, hatred, starvation, suicide, or any other of the innumerable ways by which death comes, it’s spiritual root is always mankind’s sin in the earth.
This biblical truth strips away the subtle lies of rationalization and justification that some sins are more or less ok, because they are not nearly as not bad as others. All sin fuels death. Sin must be destroyed and the sinner punished as a promoter of death. That is why God has declared: “the soul that sinneth must die”. {Ezek 18:20}
The Nature and Character of Fallen Man:
the horror and depravity of sin.
Sin: deceived, selfish, lust, rebellious, pride, fear, guilt and shame.
Death: darkness, chaos, lies, anger, abortion, theft, war, disease.
Fallen man is deceived by sin; selfishly rebellious, prideful in lust, and driven by fear, anger, guilt and shame. He dwells in confusion and chaos; ever bound by lies. Sinful man is the prisoner of Satan.
Hopelessly captive, the servant of sin fuels and promotes death and the Kingdom of darkness every day of their lives.
1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
The Problem of Eternity: Forgiveness!
God, Who is holy, must deal righteously with that which is unholy; sin and its’ fruit, at its source, which is mankind. The Holy God must put away sin and its fruit, both of which are unholy, by cutting off and putting away their source. Therefore, He must cut off and put away through death, mankind. In this lay the crisis of eternity for God, because God Who is Holy is also God Who is Love.
In the measured wrath of righteous judgment, His holiness demanded death to sinful mankind. In the passionate mercy of His Fatherly heart, His love demanded an acceptable, sacrificial Substitute!
Joh 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Only the eternally pure, sinless, and Holy Lamb, once and forever; for all mankind, would be accepted by the Father and sacrificed in substitutional identification as the sin of the world.
The wrath of His righteous judgment; toward both sin and sinner, was satisfied in that is was fully poured out upon His Son. All that mankind might be before Him in love, holy and unblamable in His sight, accepted in the Beloved.
Behold! The Holy One of Israel, given by the Father for:
the propitiation of our sin, our redemption from sin, our justification before Him, and our reconciliation to Him; all and forever only, through the atonement of the cross.
II Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
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