We have looked at the birth of the man Jesus Christ. We have looked at the life of Jesus Christ. Now we look at his death. If you have not looked at Jesus Christ before, please review the previous lessons about Jesus Christ.

Please remember that these notes cannot look closely at everything about Jesus Christ. Please read the story of Jesus in the Bible.

The wages of sin

The death of Jesus Christ is the very centre of the Christian faith. Because he died, Jesus made possible a link between God in heaven and man on earth.

How was this so?

Jesus was a special person who never sinned. He never did anything wrong. But he was tempted, just like we are. Look at Hebrews 2:18.

We learned in a previous lesson that the first man that God made, Adam, sinned by disobeying God. See Romans 5:12

Dying is the "wages" (or payment) for sin. Look at Romans 6:23. Because Jesus never sinned, he did not "earn" death. He gave up his life willingly to pay the price of sin for all who will believe in him. John 15:13 tells us "Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." We are all sinners, but Jesus was willing to give up his life because he loved us.

Remember that Jesus spent the first 30 years of his life preparing for the job God had given him to do. Then, he came into public view for only 3 years, teaching the people as he walked around the land of Israel. He told them that he was the Messiah, the King they had waited for so long for. We read in the Bible that the common people loved the words of Jesus, but the Jewish rulers hated him and wanted to destroy him, because he told them how evil they were! Even the common people rejected him in the end. One of his closest followers, Judas, arranged for the Jewish rulers to arrest Jesus secretly when there were few people around.

You can read the sad story of Jesus' arrest, false trial and horrible death in:-

Matthew 26:47 to 27:66, Mark 14:43 to 15:47, Luke 22:47 to 23:56.

Why God allowed Jesus to die

He died a painful death by crucifixion. Crucifixion was one of the cruelest executions invented by men. Why did God, His Father, let this happen? Because..

"God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."       John 3:16

To see why Jesus needed to die, we have to understand what the Bible says about forgiveness by sacrifice.

"Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." Hebrews 9:2.

You might like to look at Hebrews chapters 9 and 10. See chapters 9:11-15

and 10:10 "....we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

The wonderful thing about the death of Jesus was that it was not the end. Jesus had not "earned" death, because he had done nothing wrong during his life. After three days, God gave Jesus back his life - Jesus was made to live again! Now he lives for all time - he will never die!

The resurrection of Jesus

You can read about the resurrection of Jesus in:

Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-8.

Romans 6:9 tells us that:

"since Christ was raised from the dead he cannot die again - death no longer has mastery (or control) over him."

Jesus is now in heaven, with God his Father - see Mark 16:19. He will return to be King of all the world.

If we believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can have peace and safety in an unsafe world - see Romans 5:1. We can pray to God about our worries and problems, and because Jesus is there beside God, we can receive help. Jesus is our link to heaven. He is our representative in heaven, because he is a human being like us. Jesus understands our problems because he lived on the earth just as we do.

The joy and peace we shall enjoy in the future can be found in Revelation 5:9-10:

..For you (Jesus) were slain (killed) and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.

It will be a wonderful time. Would you like to be there?

Have a look at some places in the Old Testament that speak about the death of Jesus many years before it happened.

Isaiah 53:1-12

Psalm 22:1-19

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Last Updated: Sunday, 20 August 2006