“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” — 1 Peter 3:18

Another Easter is upon us and it is only proper that we take time to reflect on the essence and blessing of this sacred season. Our focus is on the central question: Why did Jesus die?

Made for Fellowship

While other members of the creation had different natures, God decided to make man in a special image – his own image. “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26) he said. In the account of the fall of man, we have a sense of the nature of the relationship that existed between God and his creation. The man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid themselves from the LORD (Genesis 3:8). They probably were used to the sound of his steps and could tell even by hearing that it was the LORD visiting. The lesson here is that previously, the first man and woman had lived in close fellowship with God. The divine condescended to interact with the created. That is what we were created for.

Jesus also exemplified this in his interaction with his chosen disciples. He “ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils” (Mark 3:14, my italics). ‘Should’ connotes obligation while ‘might’ connotes possibility. The matter of being with Jesus was obligatory for the disciples; whether he would send them forth was a possibility. That tells us that he prefers our fellowship with him to whatever we would do for him. Serving him should come from being with him. We were made for his presence.

We were made for his presence.

When sin truncated that closeness, Jesus paid the highest price to restore it.

Brought Near Through His Death

Jesus died because we were dead. Paul says we “were dead in [our] transgressions and sins, in which [we] used to live” (Ephesians 2:1-2) and “were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). The irony is that we were alive but the life we were living was a dead life because of sin. I define death as the absence of life or separation from life. Anyone who doesn’t have the life of God or put another way, is separated from it, is dead. Separation from the life of God is the condition of every person born of a woman. The Gentiles are “darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18). That separation is the consequence of sin.

Separation from the life of God is the condition of every person born of a woman.

When Adam and Eve sinned, even before God spoke, they felt the consequence within them. They “sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:7). When they “heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, … they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8). This was even before they met God; sin caused a separation between them and their creator. But there was more to come. When asked where he was, Adam said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so, I hid” (Genesis 3:10). I wonder why of all the things that he could have done, it was hiding (separating himself from God) that came to Adam’s mind. Why did Adam’s instinctive response to guilt involve hiding? Separation had already begun within them.

After listening to their excuses for sin, God went ahead to pronounce his judgment on their sin and it included a separation from him. The “LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden” and “after he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:23-24). The split was both spiritual and physical now. That has continued to be the condition of every person who comes to earth. It also impacts everything, including our ability to receive answers to prayer and get God to act on our behalf. Isaiah says, “the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2).

If sin separated us from God, salvation must restore that connection. And that is precisely what Jesus accomplished through His death

If sin separated us from God, salvation must restore that connection. And that is precisely what Jesus accomplished through His death.

His Death Removed the Barrier

Jesus is our peace. Through him, we who once “were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). Not only did he bring us close to God, his death also removed the wall of hostility that existed between the races – Jewish and Gentile – and made one new man out of the two (Ephesians 2:14-15). In our main text above, Peter said Jesus, the righteous one, suffered for the unrighteous and died for this very purpose – “that he might bring us to God.” By his blood, we who once were outside the pale are inside the circle of God’s love and purpose. The fellowship lost in Eden was restored at Calvary. That’s the miracle of Easter. This is the good news of the gospel. There is a way in which even though you do not have a quarrel with someone, you are not close to them. Jesus didn’t just die to remove the enmity between us and God but leave us distanced from him, he died so that the fellowship can be restored and we would enjoy God’s presence. He right now dwells in the redeemed by his Spirit so that in every moment of every day we are with him.

Jesus didn’t just die to remove the enmity between us and God but leave us distanced from him, he died so that the fellowship can be restored and we would enjoy God’s presence.

All Things for This Purpose

It was John Piper who said all the other gifts of the gospel exist to make this one – bringing us to God – possible. We are forgiven so that our guilt does not keep us away from God. It was this guilt that made the first pair to hide on hearing the sound of the LORD God in Eden. We are being sanctified so that we can have our taste buds fixed to desire and enjoy him. We are justified so that our condemnation does not keep us away from God. If there is no justification, on what grounds can we approach a holy God? God is propitiated so that his wrath does not stand between us and God as our Father. If he isn’t appeased by the sacrifice of Jesus, it would be impossible for us to draw near to him. Remember he is a consuming fire. We are given eternal life presently and will receive non-perishable bodies after the resurrection from the dead, so that we have the capacities for being with God and enjoying him to the fullest. Our mortal lives and this mortal bodies are incapable of that.

Saved to be with Him Forever

This that Jesus has accomplished – bringing us to God – is not only for this life; it extends into the life to come. Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35). He answers that, “neither death nor life, neither messenger of Heaven nor monarch of earth, neither what happens today nor what may happen tomorrow, neither a power from on high nor a power below, nor anything else in God’s whole world has any power to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 8:38-39).

On that Day when the trumpet sounds,” the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). How long will we be with him? Forever! That is the blessing of Easter. That is why Jesus died. Hallelujah!