(by Kevin Wang)

My wife recently has been sharing the Gospel with a Muslim coworker. He raises many questions about Christianity. One of these is: If God is loving and merciful, if God is almighty and in charge of the entire universe, why would He need to send a Son to earth? And why would that Son have to die? This coworker thinks God can simply forgive any sin for any man. In fact, this man said he knows a Christian who raised the same question in his church, and no one in the church could give him a satisfactory answer – so this Christian converted to Islam!

People love to hear about God’s love, mercy, grace and forgiveness. But what exactly did Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, do for us? Why did Jesus have to become man? Why did He have to die? I will not give a comprehensive answer today; rather, let’s look primarily at one verse: 1 Peter 3:18.

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)

The verse begins: “Christ also suffered once for sins.” The NASB translates this as, “Christ died for sins once for all.” Jesus suffered physical and emotional pain when he was mocked and flogged; then He suffered physical death. But why? Why did Jesus die? Peter says he “died for sins.” Whose sins? Certainly not his own. The Bible tells us Jesus lived a perfect life – a life no other human ever lived. So who else does the verse refer to? The only others mentioned are referred to by the pronoun “us” in the middle of the verse. Yes, us. You and me. Jesus suffered death in the flesh for us. He, the “righteous,” died for us, the “unrighteous.” The book of Romans tells us “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And “the wages of sin is death.” We often hear there are two things guaranteed, death and taxes. Well, some smart people could potentially evade taxes, but no man on earth can evade death. The entirety of human history testifies to this verdict: “the wages of sin is death.”

But Christ died for our sins, He paid the penalty of God’s judgment against sins, so that God can be wholly just – for He sees to it that no sin goes unpunished. Indeed, “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). God had to send His Son to die if He was to forgive anyone, and remain just. But He did send that Son. That Son did die – and He offers us forgiveness through that death. That’s why we call the Gospel the Good News. Christ died once for all, on our behalf, in our place, for the sake of our sins. His death is sufficient to reconcile us to God, since He is the perfect sacrifice to cleanse our sins. He is like bleach that cleanses our dirty clothes from all the muddy stains; He is like antivirus software that wipes out all the harmful viruses on your computer. No antivirus software is perfect, because it is written by imperfect humans; you need to update the program periodically and rescan your computer. But – praise God! – Christ is perfect. His sacrifice is perfect and permanent. That’s why Peter says, “He died for our sins once for all.” There is no need for reinstallation or weekly updates like Microsoft Windows. It is once for all. It is everlasting. That’s why we only need to be baptized once, once for all, to signify our salvation in Christ, through His death and resurrection.

But Christ did far more for us than die for our sins. Just like a coin has two sides, what Christ did for us also has two sides. The end of this verse says, “being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” On the negative side, Jesus was put to death in the flesh for our sins to satisfy the justice of God; on the positive side, he was made alive in the spirit, “that he might bring us to God.” That is, that He might show us the love of God. Just like his death in the flesh is once for all, his resurrection in the spirit is also once for all and everlasting.

God doesn’t just patch over sin, covering us for a little while, until sin breaks out again. God doesn’t just trim the weeds; God roots them out. God doesn’t offer bypass surgery; He gives us a new heart. Not a new heart of flesh, but a new heart in the spirit, because Christ was made alive in the spirit. With the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we have this intimate, infinite and permanent connection with God. The Holy Spirit is our power source that will never have a blackout, that will never short circuit. It is as if we are plugged into the power source of the entire universe. Furthermore, this power source is wireless, and has infinite range, with no areas of poor reception –because it is from the infinitely powerful Holy Spirit. So when Christ dies for us, the righteous for the unrighteous, he takes away sin from us – and He gives us new life, so that we become children of God. That’s why the Apostle Paul says, “but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15).

For those among us who have never accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord, who have never believed in His death and resurrection, today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to receive what Christ has done for you: He died on your behalf; He was raised by the Holy Spirit to give you the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters of God, by whom you may cry, “Abba! Father!”

For those among us who have already received Jesus as Savior and Lord: May we give thanks and praise to God for what Christ has done for us. May the precious Word of God soak into our minds and hearts, through the work of the Holy Spirit, so that we treasure Christ above everything else in our lives – and so that we may declare what the Apostle Paul declared:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

Amen.