WHY DID JESUS DIE?
Christ’s Death Was Prophesied
Jesus' death was prophesied a long time before He died. Prophets like Isaiah, Moses and Daniel prophesied the passion long before the birth of Christ. We know this, right? Well, although we know it’s prophesied, we're not always sure where. It's a good thing that God gave us the Bible!
Why Did Jesus Have To Die?
To understand why Jesus had to die, let's start from the beginning (literally, the beginning). In the book of Genesis (the first book of the Bible), one of the very first stories we read is Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3). For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, the basic outline is that God tells Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was in the middle of the garden. They get tricked by a serpent (which symbolizes Satan), disobey God’s command, eat the fruit, get punished by God and are banished from the Garden of Eden. Now as God is 'telling them off', He punishes the serpent by saying,"I (God) will put enmity between you (the snake) and the woman, and between your offspring (demons) and hers; HE will strike your head, and you will bruise HIS HEEL" (Genesis 3:15). Now when God says "her", it is either a reference to Eve, the first woman or (more likely) it is a reference to Mary, the Mother of God. The ‘history of salvation’ begins here. When God talks about "her offspring", this is either a reference to all of humanity or it could mean Jesus. Jesus was able to come into the world because Mary said ‘Yes’ to God’s plan. Now, this is the amazing part; Jesus must be the man who crushes the serpent's head. This would make sense since Jesus freed us from the tyranny of Satan. But then we're told that "you will bruise his heel.” What? Jesus is going to be hurt/ killed by the snake? No! To be honest, we’ve all sinned at least once in our lives (if not then congratulations!) Therefore we have all contributed to the punishment we deserve because of our sins. However, God out of His infinite mercy decided to allow His only son, Jesus, to take the full punishment (snake-bite) on Himself through the cross. And this is only the first prophecy! Abraham And Isaac Another prophecy in the Bible about the death of Christ is the one made through Abraham (the father of many nations). He was a man set apart by God to be the father of His chosen people; Israel. He had no children even though he was ninety-nine years old! In his old age God finally answered his prayer and gave him a son, whom he named Isaac. Then, in Genesis 22, God asked Abraham to prove his love for Him by sacrificing his only son to Him as a burnt offering! This is a foresight of how God would give up His Son, Jesus for us. Abraham was heart
