Well now tonight, my subject in the second
in the series, I Want an Answer, is
why did Jesus die?
And in the spirit, and in the message
of that great solo you have just listened
to, I want to draw your attention straight
away to some verses in the fifteenth of
the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians.
1 Corinthians, chapter fifteen, and we'll read those
first few verses.
Verses one to four.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye
have received, and wherein ye stand.
By which also ye are saved, if ye
keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you, first of all,
that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins, according to the scripture,
and that he was buried, and he rose
again the third day, according to the scripture.
I delivered unto you, first of all, that
which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins, according to the scripture, and
that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day, according to the scripture.
My dear friends in Minneapolis, and those of
you listening over radio tonight, I want to
bring you a simple, straightforward statement concerning this
tremendous truth of the cross of Christ.
Why did Jesus Christ die?
I want to state publicly, and positively, and
simply tonight, four tremendous truths that emerge out
of these verses concerning the death of Jesus.
And I do hope that men and women,
and especially some young people here who've never
seen any significance at all in the death
of Jesus Christ, I do hope and I
do pray that tonight you're going to look
right into the face of the man of
Calvary, and you're going to say, love so
amazing, so divine, demand, yes Lord, and shall
have my soul, my life, my all.
So you follow me as we consider this
great theme, this touchstone of the Christian doctrine,
this cardinal truth of our Christian gospel, the
very heart of our message.
Well now, the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the very pivotal fact of time.
Indeed, it is the converging point of two
eternities.
The death of the Lord Jesus Christ is
eternal and universal in its significance and implication.
The death of the Lord Jesus Christ is
the very foundation upon which God comes out
in grace in all his dealings now.
It'll be the very basis upon which he
will deal in judgment in a coming day.
There is no truth in the whole of
the Bible which carries more importance than this
central truth, that Christ died for our sins
according to the scripture, that he was buried,
and that the third day he rose again
according to the scripture.
And four salient truths emerge out of these
verses to which I now want to draw
your attention.
The first is this, that I want you
to observe that the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ was voluntary.
It was a voluntary death.
Christ died.
I know we can turn through the New
Testament gospel and epistles as well and read
such phrases as this, that Christ was slain,
that he was murdered, that he was killed,
that he was put to death.
But when we have read all those phrases,
it still remains true, very significantly true, that
Christ died.
His death was voluntary, first of all, as
to motive.
Yes, in the very councils of eternity this
death was planned.
He came forth from the very farthest side
from heaven in order that he might die.
I can hear that word coming down through
the prophetic page, Lo, I come in the
volume of a book which is written of
me to do thy will, O my God,
thy law is within my heart.
Lo, I come to do thy will, O
my God, that same will concerning which he
prayed in the garden, Not my will, but
thine, be done.
As the Lord Jesus walked this earth and
looked into the faces of his disciples, he
made this tremendous statement, The Son of Man
came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister and to give his life a ransom
for many.
When he neared the end of the journey,
as the shadow of the cross fell across
his path, we hear the Savior say, For
this cause came I unto this hour.
And he's looking right into Calvary, and he's
anticipating that awful death.
For this cause came I unto this hour.
It was voluntary not only as to motive,
it was voluntary as to method.
Again and again men tried to kill the
Lord Jesus.
When he opened his ministry they caught him
and would have flung him over the hillside
at Nazareth, but he escaped out of their
hands.
Subsequently they tried to lay hold of him
and apprehend him that they might stone him
again and again and again, but he escaped
out of their hands.
And yet right throughout his ministry, and particularly
from the middle of his ministry onward, he
could look into the faces of his disciples
and say this, The Son of Man, the
Son of Man, the Son of Man shall
be taken by the Gentiles and he shall
be scourged, he shall be crucified, and the
third day he shall rise again.
He knew the very method by which he
was going to glorify God in death.
It was voluntary even as to method.
But what absolutely arrests me as a thinking
fellow here tonight, as I consider the word
of God in this amazing death, this death
out of all death, this death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, is just this point, that
it was voluntary even as to moment.
Even as to moment.
I read the gospel story and I hear,
I hear the evangelist telling of this, that
he bowed his head and he gave up
the ghost.
He bowed his head and he dismissed his
spirit.
Have you ever taken trouble to examine that
little word, bowed his head?
That doesn't mean, my friend, that he drooped
his head in helplessness.
No, no, no.
The word means that he placed his head
consciously, voluntarily, strongly, and then with a loud
voice, with a loud voice, he cried, accomplished,
finished, and dismissed his spirit.
No one ever died before like that.
No one has ever died since like that.
The same word translated, bowed his head, there,
is the same word we read in the
gospel stories where Jesus says, the Son of
Man hath not where to lay his head.
Ladies and gentlemen, I call upon you to
use your intelligence and reason tonight and to
follow me in this tremendous proof that this
death was voluntary and the fact that it
was voluntary at the motive and necessary moment
lifts it right out of the realm of
death, ordinary, death, extraordinary, into a place of
uniqueness, infinite wonder, and redemptive significance.
The death of Jesus Christ was voluntary.
Christ died.
No one ever died like that before him.
No one has ever died like that since
him.
But let us go a little deeper and
notice that this death, this wonderful death of
Jesus Christ, isn't only voluntary.
I notice that the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ was vicarious.
Christ died for our sins.
It was a representative death.
It wasn't the death of a martyr merely.
It was the death of a sin bearer,
a representative, a substitute who was representing before
God and before the world, before principalities and
powers, certain tremendous issues and factors to which
I now draw your attention.
Christ died for our sins.
Three great, three great factors were represented there.
God, sin, man.
It was vicarious.
It was a representative death.
In the first place, will you notice that
Christ hanging on Calvary's cross?
As Calvary represented, first of all, the holiness
of God.
The holiness of God.
When the Lord Jesus hung there, he was
expressing, listen carefully, God's holy love and holy
justice.
When Jesus died at Calvary's cross, in one
crowning act, he met all the demands of
holy love and holy justice.
When Jesus died at Calvary's cross, he met
all the demands, listen again, of a sin
-hating God and a man-loving God.
And Paul declares, Jesus Christ, whom God hath
set forth to tell out to horizons to
declare his righteousness, holy love, and holy justice.
O sweet and happy shelter!
O refuge tried and sweet!
O trusting place where heaven's love and heaven's
justice meet.
My friend, if you ever want to ask
yourself the question, how holy is God?
How holy is his love?
How holy is God?
How holy is his justice, my friend?
You close your eyes and in spirit prepare
to Calvary and look off to yon man
who hangs pinned to a Roman gibbet and
see there, I beg of you, God's holy
love and holy justice meeting together on account
of men upon this planet.
But not only did Jesus represent there God's
holiness, Jesus represented Calvary, listen, man's, listen, sin,
man's sinfulness.
The holiness of God is represented there and
the heinousness of sin, heinousness of sin, the
hideousness of sin is represented there.
For I read my Bible and I hear
this word coming through the lips and from
the pen of Peter, who his own self
dared ask sins in his body on the
tree.
And I want you to pause a moment
reverently and tenderly and look away to Calvary
just, just as I seek to lead your
mind just at this moment.
If you want to see, my friend, the
sins of your thought life, I want you
to look away yonder to Calvary and see
the trickles of blood that ooze from those
thorn, listen, those thorn-pierced parts of his
head that was a substitute for you because
of the sinfulness of your thought life.
If you want to see something of the
sinfulness of your actions, will you behold those
hands held to the wood by nails?
Will you watch the blood spurt from the
palms of his hands?
You want to understand something of the sinfulness
of your waywardness, will you see young substitutes
held by gory spikes to the wooden cross
by his feet?
If you want to understand something of the
depravity and desperate wickedness of your heart, will
you look again and see that riven side
from which flows blood and water?
And will you cry from the depth of
your heart, O wonder of all wonders that
through his death for me, my open sins,
my secret sins can all forgiven be.
O make me understand it, help me to
take it in, what it meant to be
the Holy One, to bear away my sin.
The holiness of God was represented.
The heinousness of sin was represented.
But I want you to look again at
Calvary, and I want you to see that
it's a vicarious death because the helplessness, the
utter helplessness of man is represented.
For as I look at Calvary, I hear
Paul saying this, if he was crucified in
weakness, he was crucified in weakness, and even
though in the moment of death to show
that he was in complete possession of his
faculties, he cried with a strong voice, and
he consciously bowed his head.
Yet, sacred love compelled inability to come down
from the cross, and even though they cried,
if thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross, come down from the
cross, he wouldn't come down from the cross,
that he might demonstrate once and forever man's
utter helplessness to ever save himself, that he
might represent once and forever that man is
cast upon the grace of God for his
salvation.
Man is a helpless creature, and that very
helplessness was demonstrated and represented at Calvary's cross.
And so the word says, when we were
yet without strength, when we were yet without
strength, without the strength to lift a little
finger to save ourselves or help ourselves, when
we were yet without strength, Christ died for
us.
Guilty, vile, and helpless we, spotless Lamb of
God was he.
Full atonement can it be, hallelujah, what a
Savior, a vicarious death, a vicarious death.
But ladies and gentlemen, come a little further
and understand what this verse has to say.
Not only are we here confronted with a
voluntary death, not only are we confronted here
with a vicarious death, but here we're confronted
with a verified death, for Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures.
This wasn't the untimely death of a young
man, this wasn't a mistake, this was a
death that was planned in the counsels of
God.
Here was a death according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God.
Here is a death that is verified from
the scriptures according to the scriptures.
And those of you who know your Bibles
at all, those of you who know the
significance and connotation of that word scriptures, will
know that that's a reference to the Old
Testament scriptures divided into the law.
The father and the prophet.
And I look into the law and I
ask myself the question, what does the law
have to say about the death of Christ?
And I hear the word coming down from
Leviticus, from the book of the law, without
the shedding of blood there is no remission
for sins.
Long before Jesus died, that statement had been
uttered from the law, without the shedding of
blood there is no remission for sins.
My friends, I want to tell you tonight
that the death of Jesus Christ to me
is not just the example of good man
who died.
The death of the Lord Jesus Christ to
me is not just the manifestation of love
in order that I might be able to
have a pattern to copy in terms of
sacrifice.
No, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
is, listen to me, is an atoning death.
It has this penal aspect about it, it
has this eternal aspect about it.
Calvary was something in the heart of God
before it became manifest in the body of
Christ hanging upon the cross.
Without the shedding of blood there is no
remission for sins.
But not only does the law speak about
it, the sounds speak about it.
And I turn to Psalm 22 and I
read there that not only does the law
demand the death of Christ, but the very
sounds depict the death of Christ.
They depict the death of Christ, listen, in
every detail.
You go through that Psalm 22 and you
will see that there is a picture there
of pierced hands and pierced feet.
Here is death by crucifixion, death by crucifixion
a thousand years before it ever happened.
Crucifixion was the death introduced by the Romans.
Crucifixion was known by the Jews, and yet
a thousand years, a thousand years before Jesus
is nailed for Roman gibbet, the very death
is depicted in detail, even to the cry
of dereliction which comes from His parched throat
and lip as in that midnight, midday, when
the world is shrouded because of that which
the Son of God is enduring.
We hear that cry, that cry that sends
a cold shudder down my spine as I
think of it.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
The law demanded it, the Psalms depicted it,
the prophets declared it, declared it.
For take, take one passage only, a supreme
passage notwithstanding Isaiah 53.
Read that passage through on your knees, my
friend, and you cannot but be confronted with
Calvary.
It's inescapable.
Here is God's Jehovah's servant, substitute Savior, atoning
for the sin of the world.
He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him,
and with it Christ's praise, God, we are
healed.
The law demanded it, the Psalms depicted it,
the prophets declared it.
It was a verified death.
Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures.
But, of course, the great burden of my
heart this evening and that to which I
want to draw your attention in these closing
moments is this, that here is a death
which is not only voluntary, here is a
death which is not only vicarious, here is
a death which is not only verified, but
here is a death which is victorious.
This is not the death of a victim,
this is the death of a victor.
This is not tragedy, this is triumph.
Here is someone who is going into death
and taking the cross and turning it into
a throne.
Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures.
He was buried, yes, but the third day
He rose again according to the Scriptures.
And God's witness to the triumph of that
death, God's witness to the completeness of that
death, God's witness, listen, to the finality of
that death, is demonstrated in the fact that
He raised Him from the dead by the
power of His Spirit.
Christ rose again the third day according to
the Scriptures.
As I think of that death as a
demonstration and an embodiment of the victory of
our Lord Jesus Christ, I see, I see
all the manifestations of that victory in the
rising Son of God from the dead.
For death cannot hold its prey, Jesus my
Savior.
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord,
up from the grave.
He arose as a mighty victor o'er
His foes.
He arose as victor over dark domain and
He lives evermore with His saints to reign.
Hallelujah!
Christ arose.
And by rising from the dead, I want
you to see tonight just three tremendous truths.
That in the first place, He conquered the
power of death.
He conquered the power of death.
By dying, He overcame him that had the
power of death.
That is the devil.
Had you ever thought of this, my friend,
that the Lord Jesus took the very weapon
of the devil out of his hand in
order to deal the devil a mortal blow?
Like David of old, like David of old
who stepped on the neck of Goliath and
took out Goliath's own sword in order to
cut the head of Goliath off.
So this greater David entered the fight and
he plucked the weapon out of the devil's
hand to deal him the mortal blow, and
he overcame him that had the power of
death.
That is the devil.
And he conquered the devil in death.
But he conquered something more in death.
He not only conquered the power of death,
but he conquered the very pain of death,
the sting of death, which is sin.
Paul teaches us that the sting of death
is sin, but the Lord Jesus Christ in
death extracted that very sting and took it
into Himself.
He tasted death for every man.
Mommy, mommy, mommy, said the little girl as
she ran in from the garden to her
mother.
Awash, awash, awash.
And mother, a little anxious, but nevertheless composed
for the moment, drew her little girl around
her, covered her under her apron, and waited
a moment or two and then said, Darling,
it's all right, it's all right, it's all
safe now.
The wasp won't hurt you anymore.
How is that?
said the little girl with a curious look
in her eye as she came out from
under the apron.
The mother pointed to her bare arm where
the quivering, where the quivering sting of the
wasp lay embedded in her arm.
There, darling, she said, there, darling, I've taken
the sting.
It's got no more sting for you.
He took the sting.
He took the sting out of death.
He tasted death for every man.
Not only did he overcome the power of
death, not only did he overcome the sting
of death, he overcame the fear of death.
And I'm looking into the faces of men
and women who, if they were honest with
me and one honest with God, have a
deep, deep fear concerning after death.
For the Bible states, and never let us
forget it, after death, the judgment.
It is appointed unto men once to die.
But after this, the judgment.
But thank God for every man who enters
into the meaning, the mystery of Calvary and
into the victory of the resurrection, there is
not only victory over Satan, there's not only
victory over sin, but there's victory over this
slavish fear.
For through death he overcame him that had
the power of death and delivered them, who
through fear of death were all their lifetimes
subject to bondage.
And I'm looking into the face now of
a dear man from South Wales.
I'll never forget it.
A man who had gone through seas of
trouble.
A man who had fear of death.
A man who had such fear of death
that he kept awake most nights.
He couldn't even sleep.
And something dreadful had happened in his home.
Something tremendously dreadful.
His darling little girl, the one upon whom
he had set all his affection, the very
apple of his eye, had been tragically knocked
down by a truck that very day and
crushed to death.
And I was called upon, I was called
upon to conduct the funeral.
I've never seen so many people around a
graveside in South Wales.
He was a member of the town council.
He had been a previous mayor.
He was a schoolmaster.
He was known by thousands of children in
South Wales.
And here he is standing there at the
graveside.
He's standing there trembling all over.
He says, what, what awaits my little girl?
There's death, and after death what?
After death what?
And I'll never forget taking up this very
word that through death he overcame him that
had the power of death that he might
deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetimes subject to bondage.
And as we lowered that little life down
into the grave, and as that man sobbed
his heart out, and as I preached from
my heart to that great congregation of Welshmen
who stood around the grave, suddenly it was
as if the Holy Spirit broke in upon
that soul, and he cried out from the
depth of his soul with that great Welsh
voice of his, Thank God I've been delivered
from fear.
I see it.
It's glory, glory, glory.
It had happened.
He had seen the victory of the resurrection.
Death wasn't the end.
There was a hope.
There was glory.
He'd be delivered from the fear of death.
Ladies and gentlemen, here tonight I'm putting it
to you.
Do you know victory over, listen, the power
of death, the devil?
Do you know victory over the sting of
death, sin?
Do you know victory over, listen, the panic
of death, fear?
You can tonight, as you come and bow
at Calvary, as you look off to that
man who hangs there betwixt heaven and earth,
I want you to face him for a
few moments as we close tonight.
I want you to remember that you're being
confronted with a unique death.
Here is a death, first of all, which
is voluntary.
Here is a death which is vicarious.
It represents God's holiness.
It represents ingeniousness.
It represents man's helplessness.
It represents, in the deepest, most atoning way,
substitutionary way, all that you ever need for
your salvation.
Here is a death which is verified, and
here is a death, praise God, which is
victorious.
But as you stand or as you kneel,
as you prostrate yourself in the presence of
the man of Calvary, what is your answer
to him?
What is your answer to him?
Let me, if I can, hang two pictures
before you as I close here tonight.
I have reproductions in my study at home
of two pictures that were hung in the
British Academy in seventeen, in nineteen, seventeen, and
eighteen.
Two pictures by Margaret Lindsay Williams.
One of them is called, The Devil's Daughter.
It's an unusual picture, and I want you
just to follow me as I try to
paint it to you on canvas and you
watch.
It's the picture of a ballet dancer.
This ballet dancer is moving away, is moving
away from the sign of the cross, the
cross which is being held before her eyes.
That cross spells, that cross spells pardon and
peace and power and salvation and life.
But she's moving away from it.
She prefers her gay life.
She prefers her worldliness.
And instead of grasping that cross, she's holding
to her bosom an awful symbol.
It's a scowl.
And Margaret Lindsay Williams has painted that scowl
with its gaping eye sockets, with its jaws
wide open.
It looks ugly.
And she's turning away from the cross and
she's holding to her bosom this dreadful, ugly
scowl.
You ask yourself the question, can a girl
ever do a thing like that?
Can a person ever do a thing like
that?
She's not a sordid, immoral, wicked girl.
She's just a flippant, she's just a flippant,
fascinating, attractive little butterfly dancing her way through
life.
And she hasn't even thought seriously about life.
Can she be turning away from life and
embracing death?
Can that be possible?
You turn from one picture and you turn
to another.
And this picture is the story of the
triumph.
It's called the triumph.
The theme has changed.
Now the same girl is prostrate before one
who stands almost invisible in the background.
The scowl that she held in her arms
has now dropped from her arms and rolled
away.
Behind her are the gay symbols of her
past life, the soft lights, the stage, and
all that represented her past life.
Instead of grasping that scowl, she's caressing the
feet of the one before whom she worships.
With a deafness and skill that only belongs
to an artist, Margaret Williams has painted a
falling tear in this girl's eye.
You're moved to sympathy.
It's a piece of art.
It's a piece of wonderful painting that draws
everything out of you.
Why does she weep?
Why is she so moved?
And you look carefully at that picture and
you see, you see behind, behind the wonderful
colorings of that paint the form of none
other than Jesus Christ, the man of Calvary.
Over the head of this girl is being
held a crown of life by the pierced
hands of the Master.
And the obvious answer is this.
Love divine has conquered the sufferings of Jesus,
the cross of Jesus.
She's calculated.
She's conquered.
She's at the feet of the Savior.
And you almost hear her saying the words
that have become associated with the reproductions of
those two amazing pictures.
Listen to the words.
Out there amongst the hills, my Savior died.
Pierced by those cruel nails, was crucified.
Lord Jesus, thou hast done all this for
me.
Henceforward, I would live only for thee.
The only answer to the Christ of the
cross, to the man of Calvary, to Calvary's
love.
Now, as you look off to Calvary tonight,
I'm asking you, what is your answer to
Jesus Christ?
Will you look into his face and say,
Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, I do believe, I
will believe now, that you did die for
me, that at the cross you shed your
blood from sin to set me free.
And Lord Jesus, accepting that pardon, accepting that
forgiveness that flows from Calvary, Lord Jesus, love
so amazing, so divine, shall have my soul,
my life, my all.
Let us bow our heads in prayer.