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WHY
WAS HE CRUCIFIED?
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.
John 3:16
Why was Jesus crucified? Because you and I are loved more than we could possible fathom. That is why He died a death on the cross. Jesus was the atonement for us, for all our sins. By believing in Him, we are reconciled back to God. When Adam sinned in the garden of Eden, death was passed to all men. Not physical, but spiritual. This death passed from generation to generation. Man needed a way to become spiritually connected with God again. In the Old Testament under the law of Moses, atonement was made in the following manner:
And thou shalt offer every day
a bullock for a sin offering for atonement: and thou shalt cleanse the
altar, when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it,
to sanctify it.
Exodus 29:36
This was done to wash away sin. However, when Christ was crucified, His blood washed us from sin as Christ became the atonement for all of us! Christ reconciled us back to God! The book of Romans really lays all this out very thoroughly, but here are a few verses that will hopefully help your understanding.
For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Romans 5:10-11
What does this say? We were once enemies of God. Not that God didn't love us, but we weren't connected to God spiritually, as sons. But because Jesus Christ went to the cross and died for us, we have the atonement needed to be reconciled back to God. Perfect blood had to be shed for this to happen, and Jesus did this. The book of Romans explains this further.
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:
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came
upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free
gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Romans 5:12 & 18
This states that the sin of one man, the first man, Adam, passed death unto all men and all men were condemned as sinners. But because of Jesus' death on the cross and His perfect blood being shed, we have been made righteous. This righteousness is given to all that claim Jesus as Lord in their life and believe God raised Him from the dead. This will be covered in the next section How do I make Jesus Lord of my life?. Look at this next verse.
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not
for our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:2
He, Jesus Christ, is the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation means here, "atoning sacrifice". What Jesus did was satisfy the righteous demand God has to punish sin. When Jesus satisfied that demand, those of us who believe on Christ will be made righteous. Now I know that the above explanations do not cover everything, but hopefully it has helped you understand a little better about the reason for Jesus being here, to reconcile us back to God. I'm leaving out the reasons he was arrested, tried, and sentenced to die because I would love for you to learn this on your own. Read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and see how the events unfolded, see how much Jesus went through in His time on this planet. And again, please do not take everything I say as truth, look it up for yourselves for your understanding and your benefit. To close out this section, I'd like to share one more verse about God's unending love for you.
Herein 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
Now let's take a look at the next section, How
do I make Jesus Lord of my life?