To Rightly Grasp the Resurrection, One Must First Understand Sin

In one of my favorite songs—Worlds Apart by Jars of Clay—singing of the death of Jesus, the lyrics ask (at about the 2:29 mark in the linked video) “Did you really have to die for me?” The answer, of course, is a resounding “Yes!”

One of the most important questions in the history of the universe is “Why did Jesus have to die?” This is especially the case as we are in the throes of what some are referring to as the “Negative World” era, where “Everybody Wants to Rule Their World.”

Aaron Renn describes the “Negative World” (2014–the present) as a period when a culture adopts a negative view of Christianity, “particularly in the elite domains of society.” Mr. Renn adds that, in the Negative World:

Christian morality is expressly repudiated and seen as a threat to the public good and the new public moral order. Subscribing to Christian moral views or violating the secular moral order brings negative consequences.

Of course, this is exactly what we see in America today, especially where the “woke” rule. Much of the disdain for Christianity that we see today—and throughout time—is due to what God has had to say and do about sin. Far too many Americans today have refused to close their minds on matters that have been settled for all time, and instead have decided to adopt their own moral code (especially on matters within the sexual realm).

We are a nation littered with those who are deciding for themselves what is good, what is truth, and what is sin. We have largely abandoned the notion that we are sinners in need of a Savior. Thus, unsurprisingly, few Americans truly understand the reasons behind the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

The late-great Oswald Chambers provides one of the best descriptions of why Jesus went to the cross:

The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin…There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross— He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.

The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ (Revelation 13:8). The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating ‘God was manifested in the flesh…’ from ‘…He made Him…to be sin for us…’ (1 Timothy 3:16 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.

One of my favorite Scriptures that explains the death of Jesus is near the end of the first chapter of the book of Colossians. Colossians 1:19-20 reads:

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

In other words, Jesus was, in the words of C.S. Lewis, “The Perfect Penitent.” As Lewis puts it:

We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed.

Christ dying for our sins is an amazing—and necessary—act of love and sacrifice, but it is not the end of the matter. Just as important as Christ dying for our sins is His resurrection. The physical resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of Christianity. British theologian Michael Green said it well when he noted, “Without faith in the resurrection there would be no Christianity at all.”

The facts of Jesus’s birth, life, death, and resurrection all are, of course, central to Christianity. For millennia, each of these events has been celebrated, studied, taught, and preached. Most everyone—from the fervently faithful, to the lukewarm, to the “near Christian”, to those outside Christianity—at least admire the loving life, work, and words of Jesus. However, for a complete understanding of the events of Jesus’s life—especially His death and resurrection—one must seek to understand sin and its sorrowful, destructive, and deadly effect upon humanity.

Unless you have a proper understanding of sin—especially the sin in your own life—you don’t really understand why Jesus came into this world, why He said the things He said, why He did the things He did, and why He died and rose to life again. The first act of Jesus’s public ministry was His baptism by John. As Jesus came to the Jordan River, John declared (John 1:29), “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Since the first humans decided that they wanted to “be like God,” the world has been plagued—literally cursed—by sin. More so than any other human who has walked this planet, Jesus knew—and knows—what we need most. He understood perfectly the sin-sickness of humanity and that He alone had—and still has—the cure.

People don’t like hearing that things in their life need to change: that they are on the wrong path; that the things they are currently enjoying are really quite evil and deadly. In other words, people don’t like being told that they need to “repent.”

As I noted several years ago, the greatest lie ever told is that there is no God. The second greatest lie ever told is that the devil does not exist. The third greatest lie ever told is that your (and my) sin is not really sin. One of the greatest debates within the church today surrounds the question of what is sin. If we can’t answer that question well and accurately, then we will fall short of understanding and appreciating all that Jesus did for us.

As Oswald Chambers reveals above, Jesus came for no other reason than to redeem us, to save us. Save us from what? From the sin that leads to death, hell, and eternal separation from God. We don’t get to come to God and accept Jesus on our own terms. It must be unconditional surrender. We must be willing to lay down everything that is an affront to God. He created us, He sustains us, and He alone can save us.
The ministry of God—feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick—should never be separated from the message of God—to repent of our sin and believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be: the Son of God and the savior of the world. The ministry of God and the message of God—both together complete the mission of God. In other words, God became man not simply to improve us, or to help us out of a jam, or to give us what we ask for, or to make us feel better, but to make us into new creatures. 

Happy Resurrection Day!

Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com