WHEN someone dies suddenly, or in childhood, we naturally ask, "Why did he die so suddenly, or so young?" But when we recall that Jesus was the "Prince of Life," the "Resurrection and the Life," and that He had authority over the sea, the winds, disease, demons and the grave, we may well ask, "Why did Jesus die?"

THE rulers of the Jews would have answered, "He died because He was an impostor and blasphemer, performing miracles by Satanic power and claiming to be 'the Christ the Son of God.' " Before the Jewish high priest, under oath, Jesus affirmed that He was indeed the Christ, the Son of God; upon which the high priest rent his clothes, saying:

He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witness? Behold, now- we have heard His blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death (Matt. 26:65-66).

To encompass His doom the rulers hurried to Pilate, they having no authority to.-mete out capital punishment, charging Him with perverting the people, sedition, and therefore under Roman law also "guilty of death." Both Herod and Pilate acquitted Him of this charge, and therefore declared Him guiltless "touching those things whereof ye accuse Him" (Luke 23:14-15).

To justify this relentless opposition, they, with the curious throng's approval,, challenge Him to prove them in error and establish His righteousness by descent from the Cross.

And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads, And saying, . . . if Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross.

Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the Cross, and we will believe Him (Matt.. 27:39-42).

As a final challenge they, the thieves assenting to its fairness, presented the seeming justifiable assumption that if He were all that He claimed, God would surely come to Him and deliver Him — to His vindication and their discomfiture.

He trusted in God ; let Him deliver Him now,. if He v/ill, have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God.

The thieves also, which were crucified with ^ ' Him, cast the same in His teeth (M^tt. 27:43-44).

The failure to descend and God's withholding deliverance satisfied His enemies that He was an impostor and blasphemer; in heaven's sight "guilty of death." The people were so absolutely convinced that heaven had sided with the rulers that they feared no wrath from heaven and fearlessly cried: "His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matt. 27:25).

Reformed Judaism and Modernism in general, say that Jesus died a martyr to high moral ideals. Such a death would have been a worthy end to the life of a sincere reformer. But Jesus was the world's greatest deceiver if He was not more than a reformer; He claimed to be Messiah and the Son of God. Some of the Modernists say that He was in life and sacrifice only a stimulating example. "Who follows in His train?"

But we believe that Jesus was not held to the Cross by the strength of Roman thongs and nails. We believe:

I. JESUS THE SON OF GOD DIED BECAUSE OF HIS OWN DELIBERATE CHOICE

HE WAS able to make such a choice because of His unique birth and voluntary entrance into the human family.

We know it is written, "In Adam all die"; but Jesus according to Bible prophecy and history was not "in Adam."

Her Seed . . . shall bruise thy head (Gen. 3:15).

Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son. and shall call His name Immanuel (Isa. 7:14).

God sent forth His Son. made of a woman (Gal. 4:4).

A body hast Thou prepared Me (Heb. 10:5).

The last Adam . . . the Second Man from heaven (I Cor. 14:45, 47). ^>

By the character of His birth Jesus was not "in Adam." He possessed the normal human appetites of Adam before the fall; hunger, thirst, sleep, aspirations and dependence upon a Creator's provision were normal appetites. Jesus by His unique birth — begotten by the Holy Spirit and not by a human father — was truly not born under the curse; He could choose to lay down His soul — His life. From love for Eve the first Adam chose to pass under the curse; the last Adam also chose death because of love for others. Jesus is "the last Adam," for no other shall ever thus live, "made of a woman" possessing a soul and body untainted by sin.

Jesus was able to make the choice because He was God incarnate, "the second Man, the Lord from heaven." He, the Second Person of the Trinity, was not created, but voluntarily laid aside the glory of equality and "laid hold on the seed of Abraham" and became among men "the last Adam a quickening Spirit." We gratefully quote a few lines from the Athanasian creed and a testimony from Paul.

The right faith is, that we believe and confess: that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man;

God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds ; and man, of the substance of His mother, born in the world;

Perfect God, and perfect man: of a reasonable soul and flesh subsisting;

Equal to the Father, as touching His Godhead: and inferior to the Father, as touching His manhood.

Who although He be God and man: yet He is not two but one Christ. The Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal. 2:20).

II. JESUS DIED BECAUSE AS THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD HE WAS JOYOUSLY OBEDIENT TO HIS FATHER'S WILL

THE fortieth Psalm contains a remarkable prophetic forecast of the Incarnation. Our Lord is described ;is One, already prefigured in the head of the book — probably in Abel's sacrifice and Isaac's obedience — delighting to do God's will; with the law of God, love for God and love for man, "within My heart." The sacrifices could not put away sins, but they did accurately typify the need of sacrifice for the salvation of men.

The Apostle Paul concludes his remarkable word-picture of our Lord's descent from heaven's throne to shameful Cross with the revealing declaration: "And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross" (Phil. 2:8).

Could the living filial obedience of Jesus be more beautifully typified than in the obedience of Isaac the "only begotten son" of Abraham? Isaac and Abraham were united in heart and faith as they two "went both of them together" to the hill Moriah of which God had told Abraham. In perfect, delightful fellowship they journeyed till they came to the place which God had told him of. "And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood" (Gen. 22:9).

Blessed type of Jesus who submitted to the will of His loving Father! Isaac was physically able to frustrate his father's efforts but spiritually unable because, of spiritual agreement with his father; he shared his father's faith of whom it is written: "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac" (Heb. 11:17). "Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure" (Heb. 11:19).

Our Lord knew by the sign of Jonah that His body would remain in the grave three days and three nights; but Abraham expected an early resurrection for Isaac. He told the young men that he and Isaac would "go yonder and worship, and come again to you" (Gen. 22:5). Jesus said of His own death, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father" (Jno. 10:17-18).

Through disobedience, Adam wrested from his brow the crown of authority and became the servant of sin and death. By perfect obedience Jesus, the second Man, the Lord from heaven," won deliverance for the captives and lifted the crown of authority in heaven and earth to His own brow. "Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth" (Phil. 2:8-10).

III. JESUS DIED BECAUSE OF HIS PERFECT LOVE FOR THOSE TO WHOM, BY HIS INCARNATION, HE HAD BECOME NEIGHBOR

I BELIEVE He had Himself in mind when He delivered the philanthropy provoking parable of the Good Samaritan. He is the "neighbour" Who gave not merely goods, but "Himself" for an enemy — "for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." In His Gospel, John does not use the word compassion — yearning of the soul—as do the other gospel writers, He saw in the feeding of the multitude a "sign" of deity, whilst the others saw Jesus the man moved with compassion for the hungry multitude. Ah, Jesus was truly a brother to all in need:

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity (Rev. 17:17).

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (I Jno. 3:16).

A man refused to give to foreign missions because, he believed in helping his neighbours. The solicitor asked him, "How far down do you own your acres?" "Right down to the center, I guess." "Then your property unites at the center of the earth with every man's acres and you are neighbour to all the world. Therefore I exhort you to help your neighbours on the other side of the earth."

IV. JESUS DIED BECAUSE BY LAYING "HOLD ON THE SEED OF ABRAHAM,'' BEING "MADE UNDER THE LAW," HE FRATERNALLY OBLIGATED HIMSELF TO MEET EVERY OBLIGATION AND BEAR THE FULL PENALTY OF THEIR FAILURES UNDER THE COVENANT OF WORKS ASSUMED BY HIS BRETHREN ACCORDING TO THE FLESH AT SINAI

THE COVENANT of works "the covenant which He commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments" (Deut. 4:13), is related to all the commandments, judgments and ordinances of the law as the Constitution is to our laws: it must be fulfilled, ceremonial and moral law, or remain a hindrance to God's gracious covenant for Israel and for all mankind, made under oath to Abraham; Christ-centered, unconditional, oath-bound and perpetual: God offered national life and "the first dominion" in the land upon their obedience to the covenant. The covenant was solemnly entered into by the mediator and the people and was binding. God well knew their inability because of sinful natures to obey. In the types such as feast days, sacrifices, the smitten rock, the manna, the uplifted serpent and the tabernacle, God foretold the coming of One Who would perfectly obey and substitutionally suffer the full penalty of broken covenant and thus honor the law and absolutely deliver the nation from the covenant made at Sinai. A cancelled note or contract, or a receipt on bill gives peace of mind to the one formerly obligated.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ: that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith (Gal. 3:13-14).

By the Cross God is set free to fulfil His will revealed in the covenants of grace, and in His sovereign will to give the blessings of eternal salvation to Gentiles upon simple faith. He will later fulfil that part of the Abrahamic covenant which concerns Israel as a nation— all on the same terms as the spiritual blessings now offered the nations.

Thank God Israel is placed back of Sinai and back of the covenant of circumcision, back with Abram, the Gentile to whom the gospel of grace was preached before the law and before the circumcision, before the covenant of works. Upon simple faith in God's promise of what He would do for Abraham, apart from works, righteousness was imputed to Abraham

How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. For the promise, that He should be heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith (Romans 4:10, 13).

Thus gloriously and eternally delivered, Israel with all redeemed ones is free to serve not in "the oldness of the letter," testing the walk by the law, but "in newness of spirit," testing; lives by the words spoken to "the church of God," through the apostles, by our living Head, Who purchased us by His precious blood and works within our hearts to will and to do of His good pleasure. No longer are any redeemed ones under the law "but under grace." The revealed will of our ascended Lord is our law and our delight. We are servants of a crucified, exalted Saviour Who died to redeem us not only from the curse of the law, but "from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works."

He died that we might be forgiven;

     He died to make us good:

That we might go at last to heaven

     Saved by His precious blood.

V. JESUS ALSO DIED THAT HIS REDEEMED ONES, WHEN THEY TAIL TO WALK ACCORDING TO "THIS RULE," MAY, UPON CONFESSION OF SIN, BE RESTORED TO PERFECT FELLOWSHIP THROUGH THE MERITS OF HIS BLOOD

IF WE confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I Jno. 1:9).

For my cleansing this I plead,

     Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For every blessing for unsaved and saved, Jesus pleads not His deity and spotless life but His glorious death; the memorials of which are the five bleeding wounds He bears forever. He is our great High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, ever living to plead His work as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; . . . For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified (Heb. 10:12, 14).

Because Jesus, by His death, won for us "eternal life," "eternal salvation, an eternal inheritance, we are eternally secure from condemnation; and when pained at displeasing Him, without fear we may. Come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).