Welcome to Guntario's Bible Studies

Why Did Jesus Have to Die? The Perfect Union of Justice and Mercy

This article is in response to the many times I get asked the question online, "Why did Jesus have to die? Couldn't He have simply forgiven us?" It's a fair question, and from a human perspective, it seems like a simple solution. But God is not like us. He is perfect, just, and incapable of sin. He cannot sweep sin under the rug and remain just. At the same time, God is also merciful.

In this article, I will walk through why Jesus had to die, and why only God could satisfy the requirements for atonement. The cross is not arbitrary. It is the perfect intersection of God’s justice and mercy. As usual, if you have questions or something to add, feel free to use the contact form.

---

God Is Just

Easton's Bible Dictionary defines God's Justice as:

That perfection of his nature whereby he is infinitely righteous in himself and in all he does, the righteousness of the divine nature exercised in his moral government. At first God imposes righteous laws on his creatures and executes them righteously. Justice is not an optional product of his will, but an unchangeable principle of his very nature. His legislative justice is his requiring of his rational creatures conformity in all respects to the moral law. His rectoral or distributive justice is his dealing with his accountable creatures according to the requirements of the law in rewarding or punishing them (Psalms 89:14). In remunerative justice he distributes rewards (James 1:12; 2 Timothy 4:8); in vindictive or punitive justice he inflicts punishment on account of transgression (2 Thessalonians 1:6). He cannot, as being infinitely righteous, do otherwise than regard and hate sin as intrinsically hateful and deserving of punishment. “He cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). His essential and eternal righteousness immutably determines him to visit every sin as such with merited punishment.

As you can see, God’s righteousness requires that all sin be dealt with. No sin can be excused. If God were to ignore sin, He would be denying His own nature. Let's look at this Biblically:

• (Deuteronomy 32:4) The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.
• (Psalms 89:14) Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before your face.
• (Romans 2:5-6) But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God; who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”

But God Is Also Merciful

Easton's Bible Dictionary defines God's mercy as:

Compassion for the miserable. Its object is misery. By the atoning sacrifice of Christ a way is open for the exercise of mercy towards the sons of men, in harmony with the demands of truth and righteousness (Genesis 19:19; Exodus 20:6; Exodus 34:6, Exodus 34:7; Psalms 85:10; Psalms 86:15, Psalms 86:16). In Christ mercy and truth meet together. Mercy is also a Christian grace (Matthew 5:7; Matthew 18:33-35).

Basically, mercy is having compassion for those deserving of justice. Easton's Dictionary says that the "object is misery." Who are the most miserable but those of us know we're deserving of punishment? We deserve punishment, but God has compassion on us, even though we're evil.

• (Exodus 34:6-7) Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
• (Psalms 103:8-14) Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness. He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Like a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.
• (Ephesians 2:4-5) But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Why God Can't Just Forgive

Let’s use a real-world example. A man commits murder. He admits he is guilty and expresses deep remorse. When he stands before the judge, the judge lets him go because he is sorry.

Would that judge be just? Of course not.

Justice requires that wrongdoing be punished. The same is true with God. When we lie, steal, lust, or act in greed, we are rebelling against Him. God says the punishment is death. If He ignored that, He would not be just.

• The Bible teaches that the punishment for sin is death

  • (Genesis 2:16-17) Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die."
  • (Ezekiel 18:4) Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins, he shall die.
  • (Leviticus 17:11) For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.

• God instituted sacrifice as substitution for the punishment of death

  • (Leviticus 16:21-22) Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall carry all their iniquities on himself to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
  • (Leviticus 17:11) For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.

Why Didn't the Sacrificial System Work?

The sacrificial system instituted by God was intended to people to the true sacrifice in Jesus. It was never meant to be the final solution. It had to be done over and over and over, and could only provide temporary, external atonement, because the blood of bulls and goats cannot cover spiritual corruption. Animals are not moral agents made in God’s image and cannot truly represent human guilt. The problem of sin is internal corruption, not simply our actions. The sacrifices could make someone ritually clean, but could not purify the person.

• Sacrifice could not take away sin, and sacrifice required true change of heart

  • (Hebrews 10:4) For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
  • (Galatians 3:21-22) Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law. But the Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
  • (Romans 3:20) Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
  • (Psalm 40:6) Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire… burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
  • (Psalms 51:16-17) For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
  • (Hosea 6:6) For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

• Only a perfect sacrifice would suffice

  • Sacrifices in the Law had to be without blemish
    • (Exodus 12:5) Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:
    • (Leviticus 1:3) ‘If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without defect. He shall offer it at the door of the Tent of Meeting, that he may be accepted before Yahweh.
    • (Leviticus 22:18-25) “Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘Whoever is of the house of Israel, or of the foreigners in Israel, who offers his offering, whether it is any of their vows, or any of their freewill offerings, which they offer to Yahweh for a burnt offering; that you may be accepted, you shall offer a male without defect, of the bulls, of the sheep, or of the goats. But whatever has a defect, that you shall not offer; for it shall not be acceptable for you. Whoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh to accomplish a vow, or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it shall be perfect to be accepted. It shall have no defect. Blind, injured, maimed, having a wart, festering, or having a running sore: you shall not offer these to Yahweh, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to Yahweh. Either a bull or a lamb that has any deformity or lacking in his parts, that you may offer for a freewill offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted. You must not offer to Yahweh that which has its testicles bruised, crushed, broken, or cut. You must not do this in your land. You must not offer the bread of your God from the hand of a foreigner as any of these; because their corruption is in them. There is a defect in them. They shall not be accepted for you.’”

Conclusion

We see that God can't just sweep sin under the rug and still be called just. But we also see that God is merciful. This merciful God who is incapable of being unjust provided a way to do both. He provided Himself as a sacrifice to meet the requirements of justification instead of us. Through Himself as the perfect sacrifice, the requirements of justification were met, yet God's mercy is able to be put on full display. If we accept this gift that He gave us through His taking our sins upon Himself in our place, He will take us to Himself and we'll spend eternity with Him in Heaven. Through the cross, God was able to provide the perfect intersection between justice and mercy. We cannot earn this mercy. The only thing we need to do to receive His mercy is believe that He did these things.

• Jesus is our perfect sacrifice
  • (1 Peter 1:18-19) knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ;
  • (Hebrews 9:13-14) For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh: how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
  • (Hebrews 7:26-27) For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.
  • (2 Corinthians 5:21) For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
• To receive God's mercy, you simply have to believe
  • (John 3:14-18) As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
  • (John 5:24) “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
  • (John 6:40) This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
  • (Acts 16:30-31) ...“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
  • (Romans 10:9-13) that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him. For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
  • (Ephesians 2:8-9) for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.
  • (Romans 6:23)  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So please, know that Jesus had to die because God is completely just. He's incapable of anything else. He is the source of justice. If God were to sweep our sin under a rug, He would no longer be just, and that's not a possibility. But because God is also merciful, He provided a way to be both just and merciful through the death of Jesus on the cross. To receive His mercy, the only thing He asks of us is that we believe.

An obvious question that can arise from this is to wonder how God can be a human. If you're interested, this is addressed in my article on the Trinity.