Why did Jesus have to die?

Have you ever stopped to think about why Jesus had to die? Why did it have to be this way? There is a simple poetry in these words and yet it reveals to me the sweet taste of mercy and love that God has shown to me. So much...that He gave His only son...

The sinner saved by grace is haunted by Calvary, by the cross, and especially by the question, Why did He die? A clue comes from the Gospel of John: "For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." Another clue from Paul's cry in Galations: "He loved me and delivered himself up for me." The answer lies in love.

But the answer seems too easy, too glib. Yes, God saved us because He loved us. But He is God. He has infinite imagination. Couldn't He have dreamed up a different redemption? Couldn't He have saved us with a smile, a pang of hunger, a word of forgiveness, a single drop of blood? And if He had to die, then for God's sake - for Christ's sake - couldn't He have died in bed, died with dignity? Why was He condemned like a criminal? Why was His back flayed with whips? Why was His head crowned with Thorns? Why was He nailed to wood and allowed to die in frightful, lonely agony? Why was the last breath drawn in bloody disgrace, while the world for which He lay dying egged on His executioners with savage fury like some kind of gang rape by uncivilized brutes in Central Park? Why did they have to take the very best?

- The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning

What would Jesus do?

“If the gospel isn’t good news for everybody, then it isn’t good news for anybody. And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display. To do this, the church must stop thinking of everybody primarily in categories of in or out, saved or not, believer or nonbeliever.”

-Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

I just love this quote! This talks about a means to the end and focuses on the journey rather than that ultimate goal of salvation. It takes the responsibility of "conversion" out of our hands and places it in God's hands where it rightly belongs. We are commanded to love as Christ has loved...not to save as Christ saves. How arrogant is it for us to assume that we have the ability to do that.