Fundamental
Evangelistic Association
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©FOUNDATION
A MAGAZINE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
Dennis W. Costella, Editor; Karel Beyer, Production Manager; Matt
Costella,
Copy Editor
M.H. Reynolds, Jr. (1919-1997), Founding Editor
Why Did Christ Die?
by Dr. A.C. Gaebelein
A Radio Address Delivered by Dr. Gaebelein on April 9, 1936
D
URING THIS WEEK many millions of people remember the
death of one Man. It took place almost two thousand years ago. Only
small groups witnessed His death, but since He died, His Name and what
happened so long ago has been heralded throughout the world. Millions
are living in every continent who hear and know that Name. The story of
His Life and the death He died has been translated into hundreds of
languages and is now read by the different races which compose humanity.
His Name is "Jesus Christ," or as His contemporaries called Him –
Jesus of Nazareth. We are in possession of the records of portions of
the Life He lived on earth, and these records, the four Gospels, are
historically fully trustworthy. Infidels of every description have tried
to discredit them. They stand firm and unshaken. They reveal Him as the
outstanding figure of history. He towers above the rest of humanity. No
one like Him before and none after.
He was a wonderful Teacher. One of His followers, who listened to
Him, said: "Thou hast the Words of eternal life." Great philosophers and
religious leaders who lived before He was on earth also taught. They
gave ethical precepts; they tried to explain the enigma of human
existence and destiny, and uttered their speculations as to a higher
being and the unseen. But none ever spoke words as He spoke; words of
Life and Words of Wisdom, words which reveal God, His character, His
love, His grace, His Fatherhood. He made known the unknown; He flashed
forth the unseen and the future. So deep are all His teachings that they
transcend our human thinking, and yet so simple that a child can
understand them.
The Life He lived was perfect. There was no flaw in His character. He
exhibited a moral glory before which the lives of the best of men pale
into significance. His moral glory is dazzling. It possesses a strange
attracting power. In one word - He was a perfect, a holy, a sinless
Being.
Furthermore, during the three years of public ministry He displayed
astonishing power. He healed all manner of diseases instantaneously by
His word. His "I will" cleansed the leper; the maimed were made whole.
He commanded the demons to leave their prey, and the raving maniacs were
delivered and became rational beings, taking their places at His feet.
He raised the dead not once but several times. The wind and the waves
had to obey His voice. They were hushed by His majestic, "Peace! Be
still!"
Who was this wonderful man? That He was only a man is impossible. The
Gospels tell us that He is the God-Man, God Himself manifest in the
flesh. Such also is His self-witness. He spoke constantly of the fact
that He came from above, came as the sent-One by the Father. He claimed
equality with God, to work the same works, and to have the same power as
He has. He also claimed worship for Himself. He said: "Before Abraham
was, I am." He is the preexisting One, Who was before all things. "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God." He is Creator, for "All things were made by Him." We listen again
to His voice - "I and the Father are one"; "Whosoever seeth Me seeth the
Father."
And this wonderful Man, that unique Being, the God-Man died. Before
He ever died He predicted the manner of His death; He knew beforehand
all the torture, the suffering, the shame which would be heaped upon
Him. He knew they would nail Him to a Cross. But why did He die?
Why do human beings die? Why is it that human life is filled with
pain, sickness, affliction, sorrow and finally there looms up the grave
and the death of the body? Was this the eternal purpose of a loving
Creator Who created a class of beings for His own pleasure and
fellowship? No! We cannot believe this. Nor does the Bible teach it.
Death is in the world on account of sin. Men die because they have
sinned. "The wages of sin is death." If there were no sin there would be
no death.
And this Man never sinned. He was not innocent but holy. No wrong
word ever passed His gracious lips; no evil, unclean thought ever
entered His mind. No guile was found in His mouth. He did not need to
repent, nor to pray: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
His challenge was: "Who of you can convince Me of sin?" It was never
met. He did not sin for He had no sin; the fallen nature of man was not
His nature. He was God in the form of Man and God cannot sin.
Why then did He die? Did death have a claim on His body? I turn to
Death and ask - "O Death! Look at that Man, that holy Man, that sinless
Man! Tell me, O Death, canst thou touch Him? Is He to be thy prey?" And
Death answers – "No!"
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!
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