This is where the one verse at a time approach proves unideal. As the next six verses all flow following the ":" after this first phrase. But that's ok, we'll still go for it.
My focus for these purposes will be on the phrase, "Christ died for our sins."
I think this is one of the most misunderstood phrases in the modern American worldview. I say this because while the vast majority of Americans polled would answer affirmatively to the question, "Did Jesus Christ die for your sins?", I fear most people could not explain simple questions that stem from that such as "Why?" or "Was that really necessary?"
I can say this with confidence because I spent most of my life generally "believing" that Christ died for my sins, but completely unable to define that "belief". Further, I've conversed with dozens of others in that same situation and seeing their quizzical expressions when I queried, "So, why did Jesus have to die?"
It's a serious question. Most people have some idea that his death is related to love, but often cannot quite piece the connections together.
Many times in response to my question as to "Why?" people have answered, "Because he loves us". And while this is a plausible motivator, it still doesn't explain Jesus dieing, it just shows why he'd possibly be willing.
So, why did Jesus die on the cross?
Jesus died because we had a big problem. A problem that we couldn't fix. Mankind had and has chosen to walk away from our Creator and because of this we are separated from God. And because Jesus does indeed love us, he steps in to do something about it. But what does he do?
He dies.
I know, seems like an odd solution.
He had to do so, if he was going to do anything effective at all. He couldn't do a bunch of push-ups or get beat up or give humanity a free pass, but rather someone had to remove mankind's problem by paying the price for that offense. The Bible is exceedingly clear that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 3:23).
And in love, he takes our place and pays for the sin that we alone earned. It's a stunning and horrifying act of love. The extremity is shocking.
There is no other way.
Some people characterize salvation, the search for truth, and religion as a big mountain with God (or "god") at the top. They'll argue that there's many paths up the mountain, but they're all going to the same summit. One path might be a trail the weaves and cutbacks and gradually climbs to the peak. One might be a straight, steep staircase. And one may require extensive climbing equipment and great personal risk, but ultimately they are all going to the same place. Each path represents a different world religion or philosophy and the end will be the same for each person regardless of their chosen path, because "God is too big for one religion."
This is an interesting word picture. It's a very nice, happy, secure feeling illustration as well. But, it has at least one tremendous flaw.
If Christianity is just one of many possible paths to god/God, I don't have any interest in reaching that summit. Because the Christ story is brutal. God's own son is gruesomely tortured and murdered under the supposed reasoning that man and God needed to be reconciled.
But, if there were a bunch of other ways to get to God (or even one other way), why would any sort of good, loving God create an option like that? If there's another way to God, then it makes no sense that this God would choose to send his Son and let him be murdered just so that people could have "one more option." It's nonsense.
The type of God that illustration creates is a monster.
But instead, what if there was a God that deeply desired to know and be known by his creatures? Instead, what if that God loved them so dearly that he was willing to do anything to open that relationship? And what if, by their own doing, that price for restoring that relationship was both brutal and tragic, but that God was willing to pay it anyways? And to pay it with his own suffering, his own blood, and his own life?
Well, that's an entirely different story.
It's a difficult story.
But it's a beautiful story.
It's a true story.
"Christ died for our sins."
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