Why did it have to be Jesus?

RevJP · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 7:17 am Post subject: Why did it have to be Jesus?

Jesus - Your our Substitute

God's plan of salvation hinges on fulfilling the requirements of two diametrically opposed principles:

- His unchanging love for you
- His unchanging standard of holiness

The only way that God could fulfil both these requirements was to find a substitute to die in your place. But it was not as simple as that. A suitable substitute had to meet the following conditions:

- He had to willingly lay down his life - love like God's
- He could have no sin in his life - holiness like God's

But there was no man who could meet these conditions for all have sinned (Romans 3:23). Nor would anyone have been able to meet God's condition of absolute and unconditional love. Sure, God could have found someone who would die for good people, but would anyone be willing to die for the very worst of sinners? Would anyone be willing to actually carry their guilt before God?

Read Romans 5:6-8
No suitable substitute could be found in the whole of the human race. So God took on the requirements of a substitute himself. The Son of God became the Son of Man (Luke 19:10) in order to reconcile man to God.

Read Philippians 2:5-8
Read Hebrews 2:9

This is the amazing love of the Cross. Jesus met both of God's requirements - absolute love and absolute holiness - and thus qualified to be our substitute before God. And as the perfect substitute, Jesus also totally identified with us so that we could totally identify with him (read Hebrews 4:14-16).

Read Isaiah 53:4-5

The Cross was the place where God's love and justice met. God's righteous judgment demanded the death penalty for sin, but God's love met his own demands.

Read 1 Peter 2:24
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TeChNoWC · Newbie Alert Joined: 29 Jun 2008 Posts: 1

Job have died for us? Or possibly a newly born baby of virgin birth (though I am thinking it would have to be a willed act). Job also was considered all righteous, but not necessarily that he had never sinned, so maybe I have answered my own question. It seems that only the Lord Himself was capable of doing such an amazing feat for all of us.