Today it is 3 April,  2015 AD (Anno Domini – in the year of the Lord, not ‘after death’) – this date and every day, testifies to all of us that Jesus once walked on planet earth more than 2 thousand years ago.

Good Friday commemorates the death by crucifixion of Jesus Christ at Calvary, before His resurrection three days later on Easter Sunday.

WHY must Jesus die for us?

The gospel reveals that God acts righteously in forgiving us; He does not ignore our sins, but takes care of them in Jesus Christ.  Representationally, God presented Jesus as a sacrifice for our forgiveness. Sin has consequences, and Jesus volunteered to suffer the consequences on our behalf. The cross demonstrates God’s love as well as His justice.

• “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

• “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10

• Jesus said in Luke 24:46 “Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,”

• ‘Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ” Galatians 3:13

• “ And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 John 2:2

• “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus became a curse on our behalf so we could escape the curse of the law, which is death. He became something He was not, so that we could become something we were not. He became sin for us, so that we might be declared righteous through Him. Because He suffered what we deserved, He redeemed us from the curse of the law. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” Because He suffered death, we can enjoy peace with God.

• “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. Victory was won on the cross. By His death, “Jesus was able to “destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2:14-15). “

• “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:25-26
•  ^“and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.”Acts 13:39
• For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17