The Necessity for the Cross

Did Jesus really need to die on the Cross?

Isn’t there another way?

God did a very interesting thing after Adam and Eve sinned and immediately experienced spiritual death. He “delayed” the Advent of the Redeemer. Technically, He could have sent Jesus as soon as the two realized the enormity of what they had done and its consequences. Instead, He “delayed” this for many centuries. Why?

One answer is simple: He wanted to prove to us that there was only one way to solve the problem. After Adam and Eve sinned, they were left on their own. They had fellowshipped one-on-one with God Himself, but no longer could do so. They weren’t hardened by seeing sin and violence all around them; they hadn’t been raised by abusive parents. How would they do? How would they raise their children? Many theologians call this period of time the Age of Conscience, for they had no written rules, no civil laws or even civil government. What happened? Their first child, Cain, murdered his brother Abel in anger.

And things quickly went from bad to worse. The memory of what it was like to fellowship with God one-on-one didn’t “stick” to their offspring, and following their inner promptings was such a dismal failure that in just a few generations people were so evil that they brought the judgment of the Great Flood upon themselves. Doing evil became the focus of their lives: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5 KJV)

So God did something extremely drastic: He wiped the slate clean and started the human race over again with Noah and his wife — along with their sons and their wives. He gave them some very simple rules. They now were able to eat both meat and plants; they were to execute any person or animal that shed human blood, because humans alone were made in God’s image; they were to multiply and spread throughout the earth (Genesis 9:3-7).

How did Noah’s descendants do? Within a few generations they decided to ignore the “spread throughout the earth” part, and come together to build a great city with a tall tower. Genesis 11:4 makes it clear that their reason for building the city was direct rebellion against God’s command that they spread throughout the earth. Not only that, they’d decided that they would build the tower to reach Heaven. Perhaps they thought that if God wouldn’t come down to them, they’d just go up to Him! (A “little thing” like sin wasn’t going to stop them.) Needless to say, God took action. He “confounded their language” (Genesis 11:7) so they would cease building the city and tower, and, as a result, cease disobeying His directive to spread out over the earth.

Time passed, and when living by the dictates of conscience was clearly proven to be inadequate, God began a transition. He chose Abraham and his wife Sarah to begin a nation specifically chosen to be His people to whom he would reveal His plan for civil government as well as worship. Once this family had become large enough to be a nation, He made them a nation and gave them the Ten Commandments and many laws both for civil government and for worship. Living by conscience hadn’t worked: people hadn’t worshipped God or avoided sin. How would living by laws fare?

Did anyone obey The Law? Remember, breaking even one law meant a person was guilty. The answer, which should surprise no one, is that not one person was able to keep The Law. No one was able to remain sinless. The Day of Atonement was part of the worship plan because no one could keep The Law.

So, as we look at the time between the Fall of Man — Adam and Eve sinning — and the time of Jesus’ birth, we see that God allowed the other avenues to be proven inadequate before sending Jesus. People kept on avoiding personal responsibility to God and personal fellowship with Him. Human effort wasn’t enough. Someone had to intervene to bridge the gap between people who sin and a holy God, and bring life to the spiritually dead.

Next: The One on the Cross

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