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Romans 3:21-26 is a description of salvation.
It’s perhaps the most important passage in the Bible.
If you don’t understand that paragraph, you don’t understand salvation.
Tonight we will look at verse 25.
In this passage tonight I want us to look at the meaning of the atonement -- why Jesus Christ had to die.
It is the heart of the Gospel.
We'll pull in some verses from other parts of Scripture and camp on this verse for a week because it's the most important doctrine in the Bible.
It's the heart of Christianity.
If you don't understand why Jesus Christ died for you, you don't understand Christianity.
No single explanation can adequately explain the full meaning of Christ's death.
Throughout history, great men have emphasized different aspects of it.
To better understand Christ's death, we must look at it from several viewpoints.
I. False Explanations
Here are a couple of things that Jesus did not die for...
1. Jesus did not die by accident.
Some people believe that the crucifixion was an accident… that Jesus was a victim of circumstances.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Jesus predicted his own death.
Jesus death wasn’t an accident.
He didn’t die because he was forced to.
The Romans probably thought he died because of them, but he didn’t.
When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and a battalion of soldiers had come to get Him.
They asked where Jesus was.
Jesus walked up to them and said, "I am He" and they all fell backwards.
A battalion consisted at least of 120 men.
They came to take Him captive and they were so in awe, that these men, trained in combat and with their weapons on, fell over backwards in almost a faint.
There was so much power in Jesus' life.
Nobody took His life from Him.
He gave it voluntarily.
2. Jesus Christ died as a martyr.
He was a good man and He died for His cause.
He was a victim of a corrupt world.
He basically died for His principles.
He wasn't God but just a good martyr -- like Martin Luther King or Kennedy... any person you name to be a martyr.
However, Jesus was not just a man, but God.
This did not catch God by surprise.
It wasn’t a surprise that Jesus was executed.
It was predicted.
Why did Jesus die?
It was a necessity.
Jesus predicted his death many times.
If there could have been any other way, don’t you think God would have used it.
Throughout history, great men have offered evidences or examples, illustrations of why Jesus actually had to die on the cross.
These explanations are technically called the theories of atonement.
They are true, each of them in their own way, but none of them are complete in themselves.
To understand why Jesus had to die, you have to look at all the explanations that the Bible gives, not just one or the other.
II.
Five Major Explanations of Christ’s Death.
1.
The Ransom Explanation
Key Words: Ransom & payment
Main Idea: Jesus paid the price to set us free.
When someone is being held hostage, they demand a ransom.
There was a ransom paid for Patty Hearst...
The very first person who proposed this idea was a man named Origin, back in the 3rd century.
He said, Satan is in a war with God.
He has taken all of humanity captive.
Jesus Christ came to earth to exchange Himself for us as a hostage.
So, Satan got Jesus and he thought he had won.
But little did he know the power of Jesus.
Jesus exploded through death and came back to life.
And the trick was on the devil.
And the penalty had been paid.
Scriptures: Mark 10:45, John 8:34-36, Rom.
8:2, Eph.
1:7, Titus 2:14, Revelation 5:9, 1 Cor.
6;20, Isaiah 61:1
Who did Jesus pay the Ransom to?
One theory is that he paid it to the devil because the devil was the one holding people hostage.
It might have been paid to God to justify forgiveness…
Bottom line, our salvation cost Jesus a lot.
2. The Moral Influence Explanation
Key Words: love & example
Main Idea: Jesus died to demonstrate God’s love.
Jesus Christ died as an example of God's graciousness.
Jesus Christ died to show us how much God loves people and that He really cares.
Jesus Christ died on the cross (this idea says) in order to soften people's hearts and when you look at the cross you're moved to compassion and you want to say, "Lord, forgive me!"
It helps us to be more loving and more grateful.
Thief on the cross
Jesus never preached a sermon to this guy.
For all we know this was his first encounter.
But just by looking at Jesus Christ on the cross, that man was moved to realize, Here was a man different from me and he asked him to save him - right from the cross.
He was influenced right on the cross.
The Centurion
Here is a guy who looks at Jesus from the foot of the cross and he says there's something different about this guy.
Is Jesus an example?
Yes, but it’s only a partial truth.
He is far more.
Scriptures: 1 Peter 2:21-23, 1 Peter 4:1-2, Eph.
5:2, Phil.
2:3-8
So there is a legitimate reason for this approach.
Jesus did die as an example of God's love.
But there are some real weaknesses with this.
Some cautions about this interpretation of the death on the cross.
Caution: Jesus death was more than an example.
Liberals love to emphasize this viewpoint.
They like to say, "Jesus was a great example of sacrificial love" and that's it.
But that does not take sin seriously enough.
What that comes across as: All we need is an example and that is enough to make us do better.
I need more than an example to do better.
I know what I ought to do; it's the power to do it!
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