Why did the Messiah (Christ) have to die?

One question that comes up is, Why did the Messiah (Christ) have to die? The bottom line is that in the government of God, when humanity fell, then the principle God had put in for the forgiveness of sin having to do with the shedding of blood. The shedding of blood always meant the means of the remission of sin. The chief principle started out right when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden because they were naked. When he cast them out of the garden, He made for them coats but the coats were made of skins and the word means animal skins. What that means is that for God to have made them animal skins, animal blood has to be shed. And therefore, right from the very day they were cast out of the Garden of Eden, there was animal blood that was shed and they got a clear picture of what their sin cost. And furthermore, the word for atonement in Hebrew doesn’t carry quite the same meaning as in the New Testament which is ‘removal’. In Hebrew, the word kipporum (Kaphar) means a covering. The animal skins covered their nakedness, portraying that their sin would be covered but would be covered by animal blood. Animal blood cannot take away the sin but animal blood could be used for the purpose of covering of sin. Furthermore, the death had to be of something that was innocent and one reason why God would not accept human sacrifice because, until the Messiah came, all the descendants of Adam and Eve would have inherited the sin nature that passed down from generation to generation from Adam. Therefore, no one can die on behalf of another, in so far as the atonement was concerned, because they were not innocent of sin themselves but animals were innocent of sin and, therefore, the animal blood would have to be shed to cover the sin of the person who was the sinner.

This is totally understood because when Cain and Abel came to give to their offering, the reason why Cain’s offering was not acceptable was because it was not a blood sacrifice. For as He accepted Abel’s sacrifice because Abel offered what God required since they were expelled from the garden, He required animal blood. To make this finally specific, it is spelled out in Leviticus. In the first seven chapters of Leviticus, there are five different offerings. The first four are all blood sacrifices. The only difference is the meal offering and God allowed a very poor person that couldn’t afford buy a simple blood offering, offer up a meal offering. But even the meal offering would come in contact with blood because every morning the first sacrifice of the Mosaic Law was the burnt offering and then the meal offering was place upon the burnt offering and therefore even the meal offering would come in contact with blood. Furthermore, in chapter 16, there would come the Day of Atonement so that while throughout the year people could bring different blood sacrifices for different categories of sin throughout the year, what happened on the Day of Atonement was that one sacrifice was offered for the whole nation.

The common misconception on the Day of Atonement was that everybody brought their sin sacrifice. The answer is, ‘no’. Sin sacrifices individually came throughout the year. By Day of Atonement, there was one goat that shed its blood, so the one goat’s blood was shed and the atonement was given and offered to all Israel. And so the blood atonement of the goat was unlimited to all Israel but only applied to those who truly believed. Though that the provision of the atonement was unlimited, the application was limited to those that actually believed and they received the covering of their sin but it was a covering and not a removal. And God then finally portrays exactly why blood sacrifices were (required) in Leviticus chapter 17 verse 11. That is, the blood that is to be shed for the forgiveness of sins. I’ve given you the blood to make atonement for your souls and, under God’s governmental system, blood will be the only means. It will be a substitution but it has to come from something innocent and not guilty of sin and temporarily – that became animal blood. That was the principle.

So, when God begins to give more and more messianic prophecies, finally a key prophecy is made in Isaiah Chapter 53. The whole context is Chapter 52 verse 13 to Chapter 53 verse 12. He talks about the sufferings of the Messiah, abuse of the Messiah, the rejection of the Messiah but the key passage is verse 10 and it says in verse 10, “When you shall make his soul an offering for sin”. In that passage you have the key reason why the Messiah has to die. Messiah has to become the final sacrifice for sin and God requires the final sacrifice of sin to be human blood but it has to be innocent human blood. And when Yeshua (The Hebrew name for Jesus) was born, He was born free of sin and, (even) as often as Satan tempted Him and subjected Him (to test His authority), furthermore, He was the only Jew who kept the 613 Commandments of Moses perfectly applicable to Him. He has innocent human blood and so, with the innocent human blood, he was able to provide the atonement. Like with the goat, the atonement of blood of the Messiah was shed for all. It was unlimited for all but, secondly, it was applied only to those who believe. And because this was the final sacrifice for sin and it was innocent human blood, at that point, sin was not only merely covered, it would be removed; for those who believe, their sins are not only merely covered, they are removed.

We have a new relationship with God that the Old Testament saints could not experience. This is the difference; in the book of Hebrews when the Old Testament saint offered up a sin sacrifice, he still walked away with a consciousness of his sin because the sin was not taken away. He knew he was forgiven, his fellowship with God was restored but he still walked away with a consciousness of sin, knowing you have to repeat the sacrifice again sometime later. So, the animal blood could not cleanse the conscious of the Old Testament saints but the blood of the Messiah not only removes our sins but cleanses our conscious. The one act of belief, the one act of reception forever removes our sin and we have a unique relationship with God with a cleansed conscious and will now walk away without guilt any further for whatever our past life was.

VIDEO: WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?

For more information on Dr Arnold Fructenbaum’s ministry in New Zealand visit www.ariel.org.nz

BOOK SALES | TRAINING | GUEST SPEAKERS