A Necessary Death
Gail still speaks of that day as the day that I tried to kill her. I took her deep into woods where no one could see us or hear us and, she has contended, tried to cause her death. I deny the charge.
I've been teaching about death for the last few weeks in my Seminary-in-Prison class. Death is essential to Christianity. There is no Christianity without death.
All the way back at the beginning of time, God created the world, the universe, and all that exists. He covered the land with trees, plants, flowers, and all kinds of vegetation. He put two great lights into the sky above, one to govern the day and the other to govern the night. Along with those great lights, he filled the sky with stars. Then he caused the waters and the sky to teem with living creatures, every kind of fish and winged creature. On the land, he put every kind of wild animal, livestock, and creature that roamed the land. He said of his creation that it was all good.
Finally, he said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness….
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27).
After he crowned creation with a creature made in his own image, a creature able to fellowship with him and love him, he said the creation was not just good; it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
The Lord took that man he had created in his own image and put him in a garden that the Lord had planted, a garden filled with all kinds of trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. He told the man that that beautiful place was for him: “Work it. Take care of it. Enjoy it. It is my gift to you.”
“I made you in my image so that you will love me as I love you. We will walk in the garden in the cool of the day and enjoy fellowship together. Now, if you love me, you will obey me. I am giving you one command to obey. Just one. It’s not hard. See that tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Do not eat from that tree. You may eat from all the other trees. But that one tree, do not eat from it. If you do not obey me in this and eat from that tree, you will surely die.”
You know what happened next. Adam and Eve ate from that tree, and death entered the world. Adam and Eve died. Their children died. Everyone descended from Adam died. Everyone who has ever lived has eventually died. Death is a central fact of reality. Everyone dies.
Then, many years later, Jesus arrived on the scene. Jesus was different. He was not descended from Adam. Jesus was not conceived through natural generation. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus lived a sinless life. Jesus was not under the penalty of death that entered the world through Adam. And yet, Jesus also died. Why? Why did Jesus, who was not under Adam’s curse and who lived a sinless life, die?
The New City Catechism asks the question, “Why was it necessary for Christ, the Redeemer, to die?”
The answer provided by the Catechism is that “Since death is the punishment for sin, Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to God. By his substitutionary atoning death, he alone redeems us from hell and gains for us forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and everlasting life.”
Death is central to the Bible's story. God cares so much for righteousness and holiness that every sin is punished with death. God is just.
But God is also love. He loves us so much that he himself came into the world, God incarnate, to take our place, to become our substitute, to die our death so that we could live his life.
This is the Substitutionary Atonement, which I’ve been teaching my seminary students. It is central to our understanding of the work of Christ.
Jesus died in our place, paying our debt so that we could be given the gift of life. He took our sins. We get his life.
Without death, his death, there is no life. That is the core message of Christianity. Jesus died in the place of sinners. This is what we remember and celebrate on Good Friday. Jesus died in our place.
Look to Jesus. Flee to Jesus. Embrace the grace of God offered to you through Jesus' substitutionary death. Seek to walk in loving and joyful obedience to the One who loves you so much.
When Gail and I moved to Chattanooga in July 2019, we fell in love with the beauty of the mountains and forests of the Tennessee Valley. It was so different from where we moved from in Miami. For the first few months after we moved, we went out every weekend on a new adventure, exploring a new park and hiking a new trail.
On a Saturday in August, we went to Savage Gulf State Park and set out to hike to Greeter Falls. It was hot, in the upper 90s, and the trail was steep. But I was determined to see those Falls.
“It’s hot,” Gail said. “This trail is straight up,” Gail said.
”Come on, we can do this!” I said.
“Are you trying to kill me?” Gail said.
And that became the day that Gail says I tried to kill her. She did not die that day. And because Jesus came, died, and rose again, she and we get to have eternal life. Thanks be to God!
Much love, Barry
Please pray for our prison ministries. Click here for our March Prayer Requests