The Cross: Why Did Jesus Have to Die?Sample

Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

Key Question: Couldn’t God just forgive us?

That’s a fair question. If God is love, why not just say, “It’s all good,” and move on?

But here’s the deeper reality: true forgiveness always costs something. It absorbs pain, not avoids it.

Think of a time someone really hurt you: betrayed your trust, broke your heart, left a scar. Forgiving them meant you had to absorb the weight of that pain instead of passing it on. That's what God did on the Cross—at a cosmic level.

Jesus didn’t die to convince God to forgive. He died to unmask evil, break its power, and heal humanity from the inside out.

The Cross is God’s radical act of stepping into our mess—not bypassing it—and taking the worst of our injustice, fear, shame, violence, and sin into Himself. He absorbed it and said, “No more.”

The Cross is what love looks like when it faces real evil. It doesn't retaliate. It lays down power to raise others up.

And this is why Jesus had to die— because he came to save us, not just from sin’s consequence, but from its control.

Prayer

Jesus, I may not understand everything about why you died, but I see the depth of your love. Help me receive your forgiveness and learn to forgive others in the same way. Amen.

Today’s Questions

• For yourself: What does it change to know that forgiveness doesn’t erase justice—it overcomes it with love?
• For your group: Have you ever seen forgiveness cost someone something? What did it reveal?