Luke 24:46,47
46 Then he said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
When was the last time you've heard someone say to you: "Was that really necessary?"
When the Easter season rolls around, people observe and celebrate in a variety of ways - family, ham dinners, hunting for eggs, eating Peeps, but sometimes the details of the original Resurrection Sunday become fuzzy or lost to distractions. Why did it have to happen that way, with the Christ on the cross and the torment and the empty grave?
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Why did it have to happen this way?
Christ had to be human. Christ represented the human race, yet because all human are born with a sin nature, Christ also had to be God; thus, the virgin birth. Only a perfect human representative could undo the rebellious representation Adam cursed us with in the fall - neither angel nor animal would suffice as a holy redeemer for the human race. After humanity's initial rebellion, God told Eve that he would provide one to redeem them from the sin problem - one from her race (Genesis 3:15). Throughout the rest of scripture, that 'one' would be called the Messiah or the Christ - the Hebrew and Greek designations for the anointed one.
Christ had to be God.
Because each natural-born human is ingrained with the sin nature, Christ would have to also share the nature of the only truly holy entity in existence: God himself. His triune perfections allowed him to add humanity to his person through the virgin birth. Each and every human is accountable already for his or her own sins, but Christ would have been both sinless and eternally infinite; thus his sacrifice of death on the cross is limitless; He is able to offer his sacrifice of death for sin on behalf of an infinite number of sins and sinners.
As the Pharisees interrogated Jesus in order to submit him to be crucified, they asked him directly, Are you then the Son of God? So he said to them, "You rightly say that I am." (Luke 22:70).
Christ had to suffer the penalty for our sins - death. Romans 3:23-25 shows that although each one of us are cursed by sin and willingly respond to our sin nature, God finds satisfaction that the penalty of death for those sins has been met through the Christ's blood on the cross 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation (satisfaction) by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness..."
Only Jesus Christ's death can be satisfaction for the sin you commit against God.
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Christ had to show victory over death through resurrection.
The Resurrection validates the acceptance of Christ's sacrifice by God on behalf of humanity and verifies that eternal life is a realistic expectation. Romans 4:24-25 shows how the Resurrection is an essential part of trusting in God's plan of salvation for us: "It shall be imputed (transferred) to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification."
Each step of the process that we see in the promise, birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ serves an essential value to God and to humanity in being freed and forgiven from sin. This means every individual who prays to God to place their faith in Jesus to be their Savior (Christ) through his death and resurrection will be saved from the penalty of sin and receive the promise of eternal life.
