A good friend of mine recently asked a group of us, “Why did Christ have to die?” The late Alan Burns, in his article, “The Son of God,” wrote some things that stimulated some thoughts concerning this question. In closing, I’d like to share some of these.
“The birth and the death of Christ are each the necessary complement of the other. Without either the work of salvation would be incomplete, for if the birth of Messiah was necessary to His identification with the humanity He would redeem, His death was equally necessary to the perfect judgment of the sin He would condemn. In His wonderful birth He brought the divine into the sphere of the human; in His equally marvelous death and subsequent resurrection, He brought the human into the sphere of the divine. In other words: In birth He brought God to man; in death He brought man to God” (“The Son of God,” pg. 2).
I could be mistaken here, but the way I see it, the One Who was responsible for sin’s entrance into the creation is the One Who had to identify Himself with humanity since it was through the human that sin came into the world (Rom. 5: 12). It was this One then, Who was manifested in flesh, Who was able to condemn sin in the flesh. He was able to do this because He was not infirm in flesh. This is why Jesus Christ had to die for sin. God sending the Son of Himself (Rom. 8: 3), God manifested in flesh, in His life and subsequent death, He, not another, condemned sin in the flesh.
This is why Luke quoted the prophet Isaiah:
“And all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3: 6).
The word salvation in this verse is the concrete form sOtErion, and not the more common sOteria which is abstract. The Greek word sOtErion has the meaning of saving work. “The Lord Jesus is God made visible and concrete. He is God’s Saving Work that all flesh shall one day see. Matt. 5: 8—‘Happy are the clean in heart, for they shall see God’” (Rick Farwell).
The same concrete form of salvation is used by Luke in 2: 30. The Lord Jesus, even as a little boy of just under six weeks of age, is already declared to be God’s Saving Work! For indeed, the name Jesus means “Yahweh Savior” (Acts 4: 12; Rom. 10: 13).
“The glory of creation belongs to Christ. He is the Alpha of the universe. The great Architect, on whose design the worlds were formed. The mighty Mechanic, whose mind may be seen displayed in the vast, yet silent, machinery of natural law. The chief Artist, whose palette has furnished the light and shadows of scenic beauty.
John the Beloved thus states the relation sustained by Christ to all Creation:
POSITIVE—‘All things were made by Him,’
NEGATIVE—‘Without Him was nothing made that has been made’ (Jn. 1: 3).
But while this fact is widely recognized, another, equally important, is not as much recognized as it should be. It is a wondrous fact that the relations of Christ to creation is all-inclusive; but dazzling glory shines from the further truth that Messiah’s redemptive activities have not been, and will not be, less extensive than was the exercise of His creative powers.
The Apostle Paul develops the truth revealed by John. John, led by the Spirit, brings us back to the beginning of things. Paul, equally inspired, carries us forward to their consummation. In Col. 1: 16-20 the apostle thus groups the commencement and the consummation of the universe:
‘BY HIM.’ ‘ALL THINGS’—their origin.
‘FOR HIM.’ ‘ALL THINGS’—their destiny” (“The Son of God,” pgs. 2-4).
Having noted the primal purpose of Deity, we are prepared to view sin as deflection from that purpose on the part of the creature…What our Lord did upon the Tree was to provide the ground in which God could unite the bonds which sin had severed, and bring the universe to a harmonious unity, unlike it has never known before.
“The work of redemption may be viewed in two aspects—objective and subjective. Objective redemption was affected by Christ on the Cross. Subjective redemption—redemption in its application—is yet to be completed by Christ in the Glory. It may therefore be seen that what Messiah did on the Cross is prophetic of what He is yet to do on the Throne. We may even catch a glimpse of that future ministry in the vision of the new Creation, where the river of life flows from the Throne of the Lamb—the Sacrifice in the place of acceptation and rule. His ministry on the Throne will be but the development of His work upon the Tree.
"We must now pass on to consider, briefly, the place which Messiah now occupies as the result of His achievements. Let it suffice to say that as the ages to come will reveal fresh and deeper glories in the Person of our Lord, so will they also unveil new aspects of His Work, of which His earthly ministry, including even the marvels and mysteries of the Cross, are said to be but the beginning (Acts 1: 1)” (“The Son of God,” by Alan Burns, pgs. 5, 6).
I am grateful for all those who have labored in the Word, whose articles God has used to help someone like me who is searching for a deeper realization of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Ted McDivitt (from his article 'Our Great God and Savior')
