Why did Jesus die? — (Part 2)
I know that we’re dealing with a rogue nuclear state and potential US senators are justifying child abuse. I know that answers to this question might seem overdone and irrelevant at the moment, but I’d ask you to reconsider. If you’ve read Chapter 4 (Part 1 and Part 2), then you know evil is real. To me, the height of evil is using the appearance of righteousness to steal someone’s humanity. We are all susceptible to it. God wants to rescue us from it. Jesus’ death has something to do with that. Here we go!
“An understanding of atonement grounded in covenant may adequately answer the critiques brought by feminist and womanist theologians…All in all, the theological focus on covenant highlights the graceful, continued offer of relationship which God extends to the world…” — Merit Trelstad
In Part 1, the main point was to say that the law, which was a big part of God’s plan, became an obstacle to what God desired to accomplish in the world. It had become a source of condemnation and hostility.
Out With the Old, Up With the New
As it turns out the law was only meant to be temporary anyway. In the book of the Bible called Galatians the law is compared to a chaperone. It was like a guardian who made sure that a young child made it to school without being harmed or getting distracted. But, when the child grew up she could be responsible for herself and the guardian could be dismissed.
The law was the guide for God’s people so that they could learn to trust God and be a light to the world. According to Galatians, a day was to come when God’s people would no longer relate to him through the law, but through faith. After all, there were people who knew God and walked with God before the law even existed. Because the law was meant to be temporary and it wasn’t serving even its temporary purpose, God dismissed the law from its role. Here’s how the Bible says it:
But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit — Romans 7:6
God has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. — 2 Corinthians 3:6
God has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace. — Ephesians 2:15
God made you alive together with Jesus, when he forgave us all our sins, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. God set this aside, nailing it to the cross. — Colossians 2:14
In speaking of a new covenant, God has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear. — Hebrews 8:13
In each of these passages there are two common themes. First, you see that the law is spoken of in final terms. We are discharged from the law because God has abolished it by nailing it to the cross. It is obsolete and will soon disappear. Second, in place of the law, God is doing something new. Humanity now lives in the new life of the Spirit and has become servants of a new covenant. Through this God is creating one, new humanity where there is peace. The old is dying and something new is coming alive. Jesus’ own life and death illustrate this movement from old to new as well.
Jesus’ life was spent among people considered unclean by the law. Jesus touched and was touched by people with diseases, illnesses, and conditions that defined them as unclean. In doing so he became unclean himself. He was considered a glutton and a drunkard for eating among the sinners and prostitutes. The religious leaders would go so far as to call him possessed by a demon. In the minds of powerful and influential religious leaders Jesus was unholy. Jesus was one to be cursed by God, not used by him. “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” Gal. 3:10
Jesus’ death illustrates the same old/new pattern. Galatians also says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” (3:13). These words come from the law:
If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and you hang him on a tree, you must not leave the body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is a curse of God. — Deuteronomy 21:22–23
According to the powerful and influential religious leaders of the day, Jesus was a cursed man. Not only did Jesus live a cursed life and he died a cursed death. In their minds, Jesus deserved to die and their judgment was justified by the law. In their eyes, Jesus’ life was an offense to God and deserved God’s wrath. To them, justice was served when Jesus died. Their righteous God has killed an unrighteous man. End of story. Or, so they thought.
You may know that the crucifixion is not the end of the story. There is a resurrection. Jesus’ death is followed by a new life. If Jesus’ crucifixion gave the appearance that God had cursed Jesus, then his resurrection revealed that Jesus was not cursed after all but truly blessed. Jesus’ resurrection became a direct contradiction of the law’s prescription. Far from being an offence to God, the resurrection showed that Jesus was the center piece of the new thing that God was doing to invite the whole world into a new partnership (a new covenant).
Hopefully, the point here is clear. One of the reasons that Jesus died was to put to death the place of the law in God’s plans. The law, which was good, had become a source of condemnation and hostility. It had become so spoiled, in fact, that it could even be used to justify killing God’s Son. So, in the death of Jesus, God removed the law from its place because it was no longer serving its intended purpose. Many interpretations of the law had condemned Jesus as a criminal, but God proved them all to be wrong.
If Jesus was “cursed” by the law in his life and in his death and God still raised him from the dead, then God must be doing something new in Jesus “apart from the law.” (Rom. 3:21) If Jesus was raised from the dead, then what it means to walk with God was being redefined. If Jesus was raised from the dead, then he is the one who shows us what it means to know God and partner with God. In Jesus’ death the law and its curse were being put to death. God’s relationship with us would no longer be through the law, but in Jesus. In his resurrection a new covenant was coming to life.
On the night before he died Jesus sat at a table with his closest followers. He lifted up some bread. He gave thanks and broke it and passed it out to his followers saying, “This is my body for you.” Then, after they had eaten, Jesus took wine. He poured it out and passed it around saying, “This cup is a new covenant in my blood. As often as you drink it, do so in remembrance of me.” Through the bread and the cup Jesus was sharing God’s true intentions. He was sharing his life with others so that they could truly live as God intended.
There is no doubt that Jesus’ death changed something in the way that God relates to humanity. What most people expect to hear is that Jesus’ death paid the debt of an offended Lord who demands payment. Or, that Jesus bore the punishment of a terribly angry judge. These ideas make it difficult to believe in a forgiving, generous, patient, and lovingly loyal God. They also make it difficult for people who have been abused to trust that God is on their side. This is why writers like Trelstad and others suggest that we should focus on the idea of covenant instead.
We come to understand that even though humanity had failed to join God in the partnership and even though God was terribly angry about it, God would rather do away with the agreement than do away with the people. God would rather redefine the relationship than end the relationship. God was not an angry abuser of an innocent man, much less his one and only son. By focusing on a change in covenant, we find an understanding of Jesus’ death that is more consistent with who we’ve understood God to be in this book so far: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
Through Jesus’ death and resurrection the covenant changed. What it looks like to profess a love of God would be seen, not in the law, but in Jesus. The shape of our commitment in response to God’s promise would be found, not in the law, but in Jesus. Therefore, in Jesus, we find God extending a graceful offer of relationship to the whole world. Death may seem an extreme measure to signal a change in the relationship but it was essential in order to illustrate that the law had been decisively and completely put to rest in favor of a new covenant.
Apart from Jesus’ death and resurrection, God’s people would have continued to debate the right interpretation of the law. Rather than leaving it completely behind, some people would have suggested that the whole law be kept word for word. Other people would have suggested that the law be kept more loosely and find teachers that suited their own understanding. Still others would have rejected the law entirely. In other words, God’s people would have continued to argue and debate the law and find themselves outside of a grace-filled relationship with God. They would have stayed lost in condemnation and hostility giving the devil an opportunity stir up more abuse.
What we discover about God in and through Jesus is grace. It is God’s initiative to provide more for his people and call for more from his people. In addition, we find that grace is for more than just one group of people. God wanted more for all people and more from all people. God wants to be in a grace-filled relationship with everyone. In order to accomplish that, God made a decisive move through Jesus’ death that established a new way to relate to and partner with him.
In the crucifixion, God put to death the old law. In the resurrection, God brought to life a new covenant in Jesus. It was in this new covenant that human beings were able to begin again with a clean slate. God graciously redefined the relationship in order to make a “graceful, continued offer of relationship” to the whole world. In addition, by establishing a new covenant in Jesus, God also revealed a better promise.
The next two posts will take a look at that “better promise” and focus on the question “Why did Jesus have to die?”
