THE SACRIFICE: Why Jesus Died

Let us reflect upon the hill of Golgotha where our Saviour Jesus bled and died. How He was beaten and bruised and nailed to a cross. How He was mocked and forced to wear a crown of thorns, which pierced His flesh. How He was given vinegar to drink when He cried out "I thirst".

Jesus could have called ten thousand angels to deliver him from His hour of death, but He endured the suffering and the anguish, the pain and agony.....for us. He, who was pure and without sin, took upon Himself the shame and punishment of our sins. When we were held captive in our own sin, He paid the ransom to free us. He rescued us from the dark pit, the sinking sand, the horrors of spending eternity in Hell. He made a way that we could escape the darkness and enter into the true Light of peace, love, comfort, and safety. He gave His life to save us. He did it all for us. He looked ahead in time and saw us, each one of us individually, before we were ever born. He knew us better than anyone, yet He loved us despite our many faults and was willing to die in our place. Why did He do it? Because He loved us. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8

How can we not love Him for this? How can we not bow our heads in humbleness and praise His holy name? He shed His precious blood to save the world from sin and to give everlasting life to all those who truly love Him, obey Him, and believe upon His name. "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 it necessary that Jesus die for our sins, you ask? The Old Testament scriptures needed to be fulfilled in order for Salvation to be available for all mankind....both the Jew and Gentile alike. In early times, the Jewish people would sacrifice the blood of spotless lambs on a altar for God. This was required by God, in the Old Testament, when He gave His laws to Moses. The Old Covenant was that the blood sacrifice of a pure lamb was the only way for atonement. It signified that an innocent life needed to be taken in order for another to be set free. God hates sin and darkness. Without something being punished and its blood being shed, for example a pure lamb, man could not come into the presence of God and seek forgiveness. For this cause, Jesus, God's own dear Son, took our punishment and paid the Ransom. "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." - Matthew 20:28

Jesus is the Lamb of God. The perfect sacrifice. A sacrifice that was made once and for all. Jesus' death made a way for us to freely come to God, through prayer. There is no longer any need for the blood of real lambs to be sacrificed on an altar in a tabernacle or temple. Because of Jesus, the temple is now right here in our hearts and He, the Holy Spirit, dwells within us if we accept His gift of Salvation and are willing to change our lives and follow the true Light. "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." - Revelation 21:3-4

The only sacrifice that is now required is a sacrifice of praise to Him. God longs for the praises of His people. He loves to hear us speak His name and to hear us worship Him in song. He delights in our praises.

------------------- Hebrews 9:11-28-------------------

11 "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.

19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.

21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;

26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

------------------- Hebrews 10:1-18-------------------

1 "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.

4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;

9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin."


Jesus is the New Covenant. He is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, as you will see in the following Old Testament scriptures...


-------------------Jeremiah 31:31-34 -------------------

31 "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."


-------------------Isaiah 53:2-12 -------------------

2 "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."


Jesus may have died on that cross over 2000 years ago, but His death on the cross was not the end. It was the beginning. The beginning of something more wonderful than the world had ever known. It was the beginning of a New Covenant which is available for everyone, both Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus (Yeshua, in Hebrew) is the Christ (meaning: Messiah or rather Mashiach, in Hebrew) that was promised to Israel and to the world. No words can possibly describe the beauty and perfection of Jesus and God's plan for Salvation. He is the very reason for life itself.

Immediately following the death of Jesus, there was darkness in the middle of the day and a great earthquake. Most importantly, the veil of the temple was split in two...from top to bottom. This veil held people back from entering the Holy of Holies (God's presence) in the Temple. The splitting of the veil symbolized that all mankind could now enter freely into the presence of God (the spiritual Holy of Holies) and be forgiven....with nothing holding them back. Jesus made this possible.

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." - John 14:6

Is Jesus dead? No. After Jesus had died, His body was placed in a borrowed tomb and on the third day he rose again. He is not dead. He is alive! Even death could not hold our King. We serve a risen Saviour. "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" - John 11:25-27

Today, He sits on the right hand of God, but lives in the hearts of all those who choose to follow Him and who believe on His holy name. He is as close as the very mention of His name and He is with us always. "...and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." - Matthew 28:20

Would you like to invite God to come into your heart today or perhaps re-dedicate your life to him? Please visit our How To Be Saved page.

Copyright © Abide In The True Light
Originally Published as: The Sacrifice: Why Jesus Died
Originally published on: Sunday, August 4, 2013