An accidental blog

"If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit." Abraham Kuyper Common Grace 1.1.

Wednesday 19 March 2008

Why did Jesus [have to] die?

John Piper in his book available here lists 50 reasons:

The Past Accomplishment of Christ’s Work

Salvation From, Through, and to God

Chapter 1 – To Absorb the Wrath of God
Chapter 21 – To Reconcile Us to God
Chapter 24 – To Give Us Confident Access to the Holiest Place
Chapter 25 – To Become for Us the Place Where We Meet God

The Work of a Perfect Saviour

Chapter 2 – To Please His Heavenly Father
Chapter 3 – To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected
Chapter 4 – To Achieve His Own Resurrection from the Dead
Chapter 43 – To Unleash the Power of God in the Gospel

The Redemption of God’s Own Possession

Chapter 8 – To Become a Ransom for Many
Chapter 20 – To Deliver Us from the Present Evil Age
Chapter 23 – So That We Might Belong to Him
Chapter 42 – To Disarm the Rulers and Authorities

The Vindication of God’s Righteousness

Chapter 9 – For the Forgiveness of Our Sins
Chapter 10 – To Provide the Basis for Our Justification
Chapter 11 – To Complete the Obedience That Becomes Our Righteousness
Chapter 12 – To Take Away Our Condemnation

The Fulfilment of God’s Law

Chapter 7 – To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us
Chapter 13 – To Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation
Chapter 26 – To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End and Become the Eternal High Priest
Chapter 31 – So That We Would Die to the Law and Bear Fruit for God

The Present Experience of Christ’s Work

A New Self


Chapter 14 – To Bring Us to Faith and Keep Us Faithful
Chapter 15 – To Make Us Holy, Blameless, and Perfect
Chapter 30 – That We Might Die to Sin and Live to Righteousness
Chapter 34 – To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him

A Living Faith

Chapter 32 – To Enable Us to Live for Christ and Not Ourselves
Chapter 33 – To Make His Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting
Chapter 36 – To Create a People Passionate for Good Works
Chapter 37 – To Call Us to Follow His Example of Lowliness and Costly Love

A Relationship of Love

Chapter 5 – To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners
Chapter 6 – To Show His Own Love for Us
Chapter 27 – To Become a Sympathetic and Helpful High Priest
Chapter 35 – To Give Marriage Its Deepest Meaning

A Freedom and Liberty in Life

Chapter 16 – To Give Us a Clear Conscience
Chapter 28 – To Free Us from the Futility of Our Ancestry
Chapter 29 – To Free Us from the Slavery of Sin
Chapter 39 – To Free Us from Bondage to the Fear of Death

A Hope for the Whole World

Chapter 38 – To Create a Band of Crucified Followers
Chapter 44 – To Destroy Hostility Between Races
Chapter 45 – To Ransom People from Every Tribe and Language and People and Nation
Chapter 46 – To Gather All His Sheep from Around the World

The Future Consummation of Christ’s Work

Final Victory Over Sickness and Death

Chapter 17 – To Obtain for Us All Things That Are Good for Us
Chapter 18 – To Heal Us from Moral and Physical Sickness
Chapter 40 – So That We Would Be with Him Immediately After Death
Chapter 41- To Secure Our Resurrection from the Dead

Eternal Life in the Presence of God

Chapter 19 – To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe on Him
Chapter 22 – To Bring Us to God
Chapter 47 – To Rescue Us from Final Judgment

Eternal Joy in the Glory of Christ

Chapter 48 – To Gain His Joy and Ours
Chapter 49 – So That He Would Be Crowned with Glory and Honour

5 comments:

Paul said...

I object to the "have to" bit. What do you mean by it?

stevebishop said...

Hi Paul,

What is it you object to in the 'have'?

I suppose if the fall never happened then Jesus didn't have to die. I suppose that God could have accomplished redemption in some other way.

To be honest, I thought I was using the title of Piper's book as the post title - but my short-term memory failed me!

Cheers,
Steve

stevebishop said...

'The wife' made a good point: Jesus didn't have to - he chose to; he did it because he loved us.

Paul said...

I agree with your wife.

But I'd go further: clearly His death was sufficient to have "accomplished redemption" -- but I don't think it is for us to say that it was necessary, and I don't think it is revealed to us in scripture. (Could be wrong).

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