Why Did Jesus Have To Die For Me To Go To Heaven?

Last updated on: November 29, 2015 at 12:58 pm by Jack Wellman

Why Did Jesus Have To Die For Me To Go To Heaven? 2015-11-29T12:58:58-06:00 Jack Wellman

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Why did Jesus have to die? Even more, why did Jesus have to die for me to go to heaven?

The Only Way to Heaven

There is only one way to enter into the kingdom of heaven and that is by a new birth. If someone isn’t born again, they can’t enter the kingdom, and in fact, they can’t even see it (John 3:3, 7). The Apostle Peter told the council that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). What Peter was saying was that it is only through having faith in Christ that one can be saved and that there is only one name that we must be saved by and that is Jesus Christ because “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1st Tim 2:5) and just as Jesus said “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44).

Cut off from God

All of humanity is cut off from God by their sins. Isaiah wrote of this problem, saying “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isaiah 64:6) and “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isiah 59:2). God says that “When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood” (Isaiah 1:15) and even though Israel was God’s chosen people it was “because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword” (Ezekiel 39:23) and though “they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil” (Micah 3:4). We’ve got a serious problem; we need reconciling back to God and that’s where the ministry of reconciliation becomes essential.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

Paul writes of the impossibility of being reconciled back to God by any other means except through Christ and “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2nd Cor 5:17) and this, only because “through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2nd Cor 5:18-19). Through Jesus Christ it was God Who “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2nd Cor 5:21). We needed a Mediator to be our go-between between us and God and thankfully, “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (1st Tim 2:5-6). Jesus came as Redeemer and Mediator “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt 28:20) and “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal 1:4).

The Godly Dying for the Ungodly

Paul wrote that God “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14) so “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5) but first of all, Jesus Christ “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal 3:13). You and I “were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from [our] forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1st Pet 1:18-19). That’s why Jesus had to die.

Conclusion

If you’re not yet born again, then you’ll face the wrath of God on Judgment Day (Rev 20:12-15) and have to pay eternally for your own sins (Rev 21:8). Why not rather repent and trust in Christ Who took upon Himself the wrath of God that lay upon sinners. He paid what He did not owe for a debt that we could not pay so that all who would believe in Him would have eternal life and would never perish (John 3:16). That’s exactly why they call it the “good news” because we’ve been forgiven in Christ. To reject this news however, is to have very bad news and that news will be delivered someday, after death, when all the unrepentant are judged (Heb 9:27).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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