Can You Explain the Death of Jesus?

Tom:

Too often I fear when the gospel is presented to groups of people it’s not always explained as well as it should be.While a pastor or evangelist may communicate that Jesus is the Son of God and that He was sent to die for the sins of the world, the reason for His sacrificial death is many times not made clear.Questions must certainly arise in some non-believers’ minds: Why? What’s the problem?Why is Christ’s death a solution?So Dave and I have been going through the first couple of chapters in Genesis where the reasons for Christ’s death on the cross are found.Dave can you give us a quick review leading up to chapter 3:15?What have we kind of covered so far in a nutshell?

Dave:

Well in a nutshell to make it very simple, man has rebelled against God.There are consequences for that.God is our Creator.He gave us life and being and He put man in a beautiful garden.I mean this world would still be a beautiful garden if it were not for sin.Man believed the lie of the serpent.Hey, there are things that God is withholding from you and this tree is the doorway to a new life, so assert yourself and take it!

Tom:

Which God said if you do, that’s disobedience and death is the penalty.

Dave:

Well, death meaning spiritual death.You are cut off from God.You have cut yourself off from fellowship with God and man died in his spirit.I believe that the Spirit of God indwelt Adam and Eve.Can I put it like I remember Major Thomas (I think) put it many years ago?He said the human soul (I’m going to try to remember this now and I don’t want to do damage to what he said), but he said the human soul is like a castle and within that is the grand piano of personality and when man was created God, the Holy Spirit sat at the grand piano of human personality because man was made in the image of God.He was to express the love, patience and goodness and purity of God and only God himself could do that.But the devil said to Adam and Eve or Eve and I guess Adam went along with it, he said wait a minute, the Holy Spirit is sitting at that grand piano of human personality, but there are a lot of other tunes, you could really boogie it up.Just get on that piano yourself!And so they showed God the door and locked the door and turned around to go to the grand piano of human personality and what do you know?It was a demon with the most crashing, bashing, smashing—I mean the demon of self had gotten a hold of it now and Adam blames Eve and Eve blames it on—it has gone and I think Major Thomas said the whole problem is how are we going to get that guy out of there and get the Holy Spirit back in?Well, man has to believe the gospel.This is a matter of justice.We have sinned; we have broken God’s laws.That’s serious!God can’t just make a bookkeeping entry. Man was thrown out of the garden and he has been alienated; separated from God ever since.Paul says that the gospel is how man can be reconciled to God.Not how we are going to sit down and negotiate with God you know?Not let’s make a 50-50 deal, but God sets the terms and that brings us to where we are today.

Tom:

I think I want to back up just a little bit because some people think sin—that there are gradations of sin.There are, there’s the rapist, the murderer, there’s genocide—

Dave:

I’m not so bad…

Tom:

Right, but when you think about it, this was a very simple thing that Eve did.All she did was take this fruit and eat it.You know some people say, as a former Catholic when I would go to confession if I confessed as a second or third grader, let’s say I confessed that I took a cookie which my mom told me not to before dinner and I kind of snuck a cookie, they would say well it’s just a venial sin, it’s not a big item or a big deal.But the sin that Eve committed set the human race to now we do have genocide, now we do have sin that has just proliferated and become incredibly ugly, vile, depraved, the whole nine yards.

Dave:

Well Tom let’s try to discuss that for a moment so that we can all understand it.Why was it so important—eating the fruit of that tree?In fact we mentioned in earlier programs that this was the easiest command that God could give.There was an abundance of fruit.I don’t think this was any special fruit.It could have been peach, or pear, or apple.I believe there were many other trees that had the exact same kind of fruit.There was nothing about this physical fruit that would kill you.It was that it was an act of disobedience and God made it the simplest thing that He possibly could.So this is why James says, “He who offends in one point is guilty of all.”You break one of the Ten Commandments, you have broken all of them because each sin is rebellion against God and that is what the whole thing is all about.

Tom:

And God said in Genesis:2:16-17 [16] And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: [17] But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
See All...:“The day you eat there of you will surely die!Death, separation from God forever.That’s what any sin brings unless it’s…well we’re going to get to the verse.God has a solution for this in Chapter 3—

Dave:

He had the solution even before He created man right?

Tom:

Right.

Dave:

And the scripture even says that Christ was a lamb (as it were) slain for our sins before the foundation of the world.God wasn’t caught by surprise.

Tom:

No, but the penalty is what I want to underscore here.The penalty is death.In Genesis:3:15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
See All... it says, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”Now this is the gospel; this is the solution.We are going to explain it.You know as everybody thinks well what does that have to do with anything.This is the solution to mankind’s problems.

Dave:

Tom how are you going to explain it?You are not going to explain it because you’re the expert, but you are going to explain it on the basis of what the Bible says.The Bible is its own commentary.So if I come to a verse— woe, wait a minute, I can’t quite understand it, but maybe it’s deep, maybe there’s a lot that’s in there that I don’t understand, how am I going to understand it?I go to other passages of the Bible and the Bible tells me what it means.Okay, that’s why we search the scriptures.

Tom:

Right, so what DOES this mean?“I will put enmity between thee.Now God here is speaking to Satan the adversary.And he’s saying I will put enmity between thee and the woman.Who’s that?

Dave:

Well it was Eve at this point.

Tom:

And it’s talking about…

Dave:

But she’s the mother of the human race.

Tom:

Right.And between thy seed and her seed, the seed of Lucifer, the adversary.

Dave:

That’s interesting because Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews: They said well we have God as our Father, a lot of people think that today.Jesus said you are of your father the devil.So I would assume this is the seed of the serpent that He’s talking about.That is all of those who follow Satan in rebellion against God in a sense are the children.

Tom:

Do they know they are following Satan or are we talking about Satanists or people into witchcraft or something like that?

Dave:

No, well some do, but very few.

Tom:

They are talking about those who continue the rebellion that began with Eve and Adam.

Dave:

They are living for self in opposition to God.In fact, Tom most of the world doesn’t care and a lot of people that call themselves Christians don’t care.God said of the Jews that He chose.My people have forgotten me days without number and it really speaks to my heart.How many times do I tell Jesus that I love Him, that I’m grateful?How many times do I acknowledge that God created me and I owe my life and breath to Him?Everything that I do, it must be according to His will, but we forget that; the world forgets it.So the rebels are necessarily thinking that they are rebelling.They simply are living for self.

Tom:

“…Between thy seed and her seed.”Who is her seed?

Dave:

Well, Jesus Christ.

Tom:

Right.

Dave:

This is the Virgin born Son of God who would destroy the works of the devil.

Tom:

Dave, earlier we talked about prophecy.This is the first amazing prophecy that we alluded to earlier and gave all the reasons of the Messiah to come.This began it.“…it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.”What’s that mean?

Dave:

Well, Jesus would deliver the death blow to the serpent, but the serpent is going to bruise the heel. In other words, he’s going to be a ferocious opponent who is going to cause a lot of problems; pain even to the church, but the church will be triumphant.But through Christ alone, not on its own.

Tom:

This is prophecy, this is the gospel first presented in the book of Genesis:3:15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
See All....God brought the solution; Christ is the solution.

Dave:

And it’s the only hope that we have.

Tom:

Dave, it is our heart’s cry for those who are listening.We are going over these things.We are giving our view, our understanding of what the scriptures say.

Dave:

We are taking it from the Bible and they can check it out.

Tom:

Right and we want them to check it out and to be encouraged.If you are going to walk by faith it has to be the faith that you are accountable for before God, not through…

Dave:

Based upon facts, based upon the Word of God.

Tom:

And not because Dave Hunt says so, or T. A. McMahon, or John McArthur, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, it doesn’t make any difference. We are to know what we believe, why we believe it and have the Holy Spirit teach us, encourage us and bring us along in the truth.

Dave:

From the Word of God itself.

Tom:

Right.

Dave:

Amen.