Why Jesus Died – (37) To To Call Us to Follow Him and (38) To Be Crucified Followers

Only 7 more days of considering John Piper’s 50 reasons Jesus came to die from his book The Passion of Jesus Christ.

37. To call us to follow His example of lowliness and costly love (Phil 2:5-8; Heb 12:3-4; I Pet 2:19-21) – Salvation in Jesus Christ brings imitation of Him. Justification precedes us emulating Him in all things. We never take His place, for we cannot perfectly follow after Him or “re-sacrifice” ourselves on the cross. However, the spirit of His life and death is worthy and able to be followed. We have the power to do such a thing.

38. To create a band of crucified followers (Matt 10:38; Luke 9:23) – Much like reason #37, Christ died to create a group of disciples that would follow after Him. Piper writes, It is not “that Jesus must die again today. but that we must. When he bids us to take up our cross, he means come and die. … So today the words are sobering. They mean at least that when I follow Jesus as my Savior and Lord, the old self-determining, self-absorbed me must be crucified. I must every day reckon myself dead to sin and alive to God” (pg. 95).