Why did Jesus die by crucifixion? Why was He required to die by crucifixion? Why couldn’t He have been stoned, which was the common death-by-execution carried out by the Jews? There are several answers to this. First, it fits the prophecy of Psalm 22 where the death of the Messiah is predicted to be by crucifixion, even though crucifixion was not “invented” until a later time.
Furthermore, it fulfilled the story of the
bronze serpent in the wilderness (Num. 21:4-9).
Israel sinned against the LORD in the waning days of their 40 year
dessert wanderings. God chastened them
with poisonous serpents and many were dying.
But they cried out for mercy, confessing their sins. God is merciful and gracious, longsuffering,
and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin (Ex. 34:6-7). So He showed mercy, directing Moses to make a
bronze serpent and put it on a pole where people could see it. Anyone who looked to the bronze serpent was
healed. Likewise, anyone who looks to
Christ, lifted up on the cross, is saved.
(Jesus emphasized the type of death He would suffer in John 12:32-33.)
But in Gal. 3:13 I believe we have the
fundamental reason Christ had to be crucified.
We know that Christ became one with us, with humanity. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us
(John 1:14). But He did not become one
with us in the sense that He became a sinner.
If He had sinned in His earthly life, then He would have been under the
curse of sin and in need of a Savior. He
could not be anyone else’s Savior. Yet,
He did become a curse by His death by crucifixion.
When the people of Israel had entered the
land, under Joshua they began to take possession of the land through various
battles and wars. More than once (Joshua
8:29; 10:26-27), after killing the king of a city, they would take the body and
hang it in plain sight. Why did they do
this? It was to make clear that the king
was under God’s curse. Again, how did
they know this? The answer comes from
the Law of Moses, in Deut. 21:23, where it says, he who is hanged is
accursed by God. This hanging put
them under a curse.
Christ fulfilled the law. He lived a perfect life according to the law. But in His death, when He identified with transgressors (Isa. 53:12), He became a curse for us, for humans who, because of sin, are under the curse of the law. He was hanged on a tree, the cross. And that is what makes Christ, and only Christ, qualified as the object of our faith, faith that justifies the ungodly! Oh what a Savior, O hallelujah!
“Man of Sorrows!” what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior! (Phillip Bliss, Public Domain)
No comments:
Post a Comment