Honestly, I think at least once a week I hear someone invoke the phrase, This is why Jesus died on the cross or ask the question, Why did Jesus have to die? or some other variation of the concept.

Heres the thing: Jesus did NOT have to die on the cross.

In other words, God did not require Jesus to be crucified to fulfill some mystical prophecy.

However, it is clear that the death of Jesus was expected from the very beginning. So, whereas we might say that Jesus didnt need to be crucified [specifically], it was inevitable and necessary for Jesus to die [or to taste death].

How do we know this? Because once Christ became flesh, death became inevitable. Once Immortality became clothed with Mortality; once the Incorruptible took on Corruptibility; Once God became Man, death was a foregone conclusion. It couldnt have ended any other way.

The decision for Christ to take on flesh indicated an intention to experience death, one way or the other.

So, once the Incarnation took place, the death of Jesus was already in play. Just as everyone one of us who is born must one day taste death, so, too, did Christ agree to die simply by virtue of being united with us in our mortal bodies.

And, I would argue, that the death of Christ no matter how it had taken place would have resulted in the salvation and transformation of all mankind, with or without the cross.

The plan all along was for Christ to become incarnate in a body of flesh so that the seed of immortality could be planted into the soil of mortality [death] and the resurrection power of Christ could forever liberate us from the power of the grave.

As Jesus phrased it: Truly, truly, I say to you,unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. [John 12:24]

So, it was always the plan for Christ to die. This is how the power of death was broken. The resurrection life of Christ invaded the realm of death and turned it inside out. The light of the world descended into the depths of outer darkness and illuminated it from within.

Or, as Paul phrases it in the inverse here in 1 Corinthians 15:

For thisperishable must put onthe imperishable, and thismortal must put on immortality.But when thisperishable will have put onthe imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, Death is swallowed upin victory.Odeath, where is your victory? Odeath, where is your sting?The sting ofdeath is sin, andthe power of sin is the law;butthanks be to God, who gives us thevictory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [1 Cor. 15:53-57]

See, because Christ the imperishable one took on perishable flesh, and because the immortal one became mortal, we [the mortal ones] are qualified to take on immortality [now that we are all in Christ and Christ is now in us].

Whether Jesus had died from cholera, or typhoid fever, or old age, or yes, by the hands of men who nailed him to a Roman cross, is irrelevant. Regardless of the how, the what was always in full view: Christ became flesh and experienced death so that we could put on immortality and share in the life of Christ forever.

Paul says as much in the very same chapter of 1 Corinthians:

But now Christhas been raised from the dead, thefirst fruits of those whoare asleep.For sinceby a mancamedeath, by a man alsocamethe resurrection of the dead.Foras in Adam all die, so also inChrist all will be made alive. [1 Cor. 15:20-22]

So, Christ knew he would die from the start. But how he would die wasnt inevitable, or even contingent upon the success of his mission. Once Christ took on mortal flesh everything was set in motion.

To be clear, God did not send Jesus to be crucified. We [humans] decided that Jesus would die in this way. But there was nothing magical or specific about crucifixion itself that accomplished Gods plan. Christs obedience, even unto death on a cross, is what mattered most.

Over the years I think too much has been made about the cross, specifically, as if drowning Jesus wouldve thwarted the entire salvation operation, or as if food poisoning wouldve been insufficient for us to have counted his death as a victory over sin and death.

We chose the cross as the means of Christs death. Peter and the other Disciples say it over and over again:

thisMan, delivered over by thepredetermined plan and foreknowledge of God,you nailed to a cross by the hands ofgodless men and putHimto death. Acts 2:23

but put to death thePrince of life,the onewhomGod raised from the dead,a factto which we arewitnesses. Acts 3:15

The God of our fathersraised up Jesus,whom you hadput to death by hanging Him on across. Acts 5:30

Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming ofthe Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderersyou have now become; Acts 7:52

What we did was kill Jesus.

What God did was to raise him up again.

We crucified Jesus.

God did not.

Certainly, Jesus knew that he would most likely be crucified by the Roman authorities. That wasnt hard to guess. Even Plato predicted, hundreds of years prior to Christ, that a truly righteous man would be beaten and crucified if we ever got our hands on him. [SeePlatosRepublic, Book II.360-61]

So, while the death of Christ was inevitable, his crucifixion was not.

The answer, then, to the question, Why did Jesus have to die? is answered simply: Because he became human at his Incarnation.

But the answer to the question, Why did Jesus die on the cross? is answered by admitting that our reaction to Christs innocence, righteousness and radical love was to nail him to a cross.

Yes, Jesus died for our sins in that it was our sins that nailed him to the cross. But, even as we were in the process of nailing him there, his forgiveness was instantaneous and complete. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

In Christ, we are reconciled to God. In Christ, our sins are not being counted against us. In Christ, we experience freedom and newness of life.

Our choice was to crucify. His choice was to love and forgive.

**

FREE DOWNLOAD: The e-book Unraveled: More Thoughts On Christian Entanglement by Keith Giles is available now as a free PDF. If youd like a FREE download of the entire 85-page book, you can grab oneHERE

Keith Gilesand his wife, Wendy, work withPeace Catalyst Internationalto help build relationships between Christians and Muslims in El Paso, TX. Keith was formerly a licensed and ordained minister who walked away from organized church over a decade ago to start a home fellowship that gave away 100% of the offering to the poor in the community. Today he is the author of several best-selling books, includingJesus Undefeated: Condemning the False Doctrine of Eternal Torment which is available now on Amazon.

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Why Jesus Did NOT Have To Die On The Cross - Patheos