Why the Cross Was Necessary

God has an aversion to sin and will have absolutely nothing to do with it because He is Holy; it is His very nature. Since sin is diametrically opposed to holiness, God cannot be in the presence of sin. (He does still love the sinner, however, but they cannot have a relationship before salvation.) From the fall of Adam and Eve, we've all inherited a sinful nature, and we'd never be able to live in presence of God as we are. 

Death is the penalty for sin. In the Old Testament, the people tried to keep God's law, and, when they failed, they offered an animal sacrifice to pay their sin debt. But this was a temporary fix, and it became cumbersome as the population and humanity's sins grew. Therefore, God sent the ultimate sacrifice, His perfect, sinless Son, to die in our place. Jesus’ sacrifice allows us to trade our sins for his righteousness, so we can be in the presence of Holy God. He took our sins upon Himself, and this became the most agonizing time of the whole crucifixion ordeal when God turned from Him for the first time ever due to our sins. 

Jesus had to die in our place to atone for our sins, and we have to accept Him as our Savior for us to live in eternity.  Only the death of God’s Son on the cross was pure and good enough to pay the price for our sins for all time. Jesus kept every one of God’s laws for us and then died for our sins, so we can now live under His grace and not under the law. Now, when we approach the throne of God, He doesn't see any of our sins because Christ's blood washed them all away. He sees only righteousness, because of the trade we made when we accepted Christ into our lives.

Jesus’ death was like no other. His sacrifice on the cross lies at the heart of the gospel. How we answer that question of who Jesus is will be the single most important decision we ever make in our lives. Putting your faith in Jesus as God’s Son means forgiveness, love, and eternal life. We need to recognize that nothing else comes close to being as important in our lives as how much we surrender our hearts to Him. 

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