Why Jesus Died – (1) To Absorb God’s Wrath and (2) To Please the Father

As announced yesterday, today we begin our series on “Why Jesus Came to Die” – a synopsis of John Piper’s book The Passion of Jesus Christ. Here are the first 2 reasons:

1. To absorb God’s wrath (Gal 3:13; Rom 3:23; I John 4:10) – Because God is just, He must punish sin (Exod 34:7). Our sins demands death (Rom 6:23). Because God’s wrath must be poured out upon sin, God’s solution was to put His Son in our place as the object of His wrath. Thus, Christ becomes that curse for us. By Jesus becoming the object of God’s wrath, He serves as our propitiation. Jesus took God’s wrath and diverted it away from us and onto Himself. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10).

2. To please His Heavenly Father (Isa 53:10; Eph 5:2) – Jesus’ willingness to absorb God’s wrath was something not debated in heaven between the Father and the Son. It was His Father’s idea and the Son took it on for His own mission on earth. No debate, no arguing, no “wait just a minute.”