Why a Cross?
It’s a legit question.
Why couldn’t we just believe Jesus was the Son of God without all this business of blood and suffering and death? Look at his miracles and healings. He even raised people from the dead! Isn’t that sufficient evidence?
Is a cross really necessary?
We are not the first to ask this question. If we dial back to the 1st century, we’ll find the Apostle Paul trying to explain it to the early Christians in Corinth.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (NIV)
The Power of God
What power is there in a man hanging on a cross dying a gruesome and horrific death?
It’s the power of justice and love working together.
You may have heard of the teenage girl caught speeding. She was brought before the judge, and he gave her the full penalty of the law – a $500 fine.
Of course, she didn’t have it. So, he took off his judicial robe, came down beside her and paid it himself. Because he was not just the judge. He was her father.
A Just Judge
In the same way, God is just. When an offense is committed against God, God can’t simply wink at it and turn the other way. God must confront it head on and give a just punishment for the offense committed. It’s what we would expect any good referee to do in a NCAA tournament. We want an impartial judge who will rule fairly.
But God’s dilemma is one every parent recognizes instantly. What do you do when the person who needs to be punished is your own child whom you love dearly?
A Price Too High
To exile his precious children to eternal separation was simply a price too high, so God devises a plan from the very beginning.
I will treat sin as it should be dealt with. I will punish it to the full extent necessary – all the way to death.
But I will pay the penalty myself. I will become one of them through my Son. He will model what it is like to live a life in total obedience to his Father’s will. Then he can freely choose to die in their place.
Scripture describes it this way.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NIV)
What is a wage? It’s what we earn for what we have done.
How many of us have ever, at any time, said or done something hurtful or mean, something that was selfish and opposed to God’s ways? (I’ve done more than my share.)
When we commit sin, what we earn for that is death – a physical and spiritual separation from God who is life.
Ultimately, either we can die as a consequence of our selfish choices, or someone can die for us, in our place, as a sin substitute.
So Compelling
That is precisely what Jesus determined to do. Since Jesus did not sin, he did not come under the law of sin that results in death. That’s what makes what he did so compelling.
Although he did not have to do this, Jesus, the sinless Son of God, chose to die on the cross in your place and in mine.
He died for us…to take our eternal capital punishment on himself, so that we could receive forgiveness of our selfish choices and be reconciled to God forever.
A Four-Letter Word
What could drive a person to do something like this? To lay down his life for people he didn’t even know?
Be careful. It is a four-letter word: LOVE.
Have you ever known someone who gave up something very important to them for your sake?
My wife, Leanne, did this for me. When we got married, she gave up her job, her friends, her church, and her life in Peoria to become a pastor’s wife in Melvin, IL, population 466.
At the time, she didn’t know we would be moving to Champaign a year later. No one knew. As far as she knew, we could have spent the next 20 years sentenced, I mean, serving in Melvin.
Love Is Something You Do
She even gave up her last name and took on mine. The sacrifices she made for me were great. They proved her love for me. Love is measured by sacrifice. It’s something you do.
It’s like the boyfriend who said, “Oh, Sweetheart. I love you so much, I’d die for you.”
His girlfriend replied, “Oh, you are always saying that, but you never do it.”
She knew. Love is an action.
Why a cross? Because Jesus’ act of love is the only way that a just judge, who is also a loving Father, could deal with the problem that separated his precious children from himself. Peter put it this way:
Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24
Dear friends, we never need to doubt if we are loved. When by our selfish choices, we owed a debt we couldn’t pay, he paid a debt he didn’t owe.
Love is not measured by feelings, but by sacrifice. Love is what Jesus did when he gave himself up on a cross for you and me. It proves that each of us is loved beyond anything we could imagine.
New Release!
Kinda Christian: From Curious to Serious About Jesus, United Methodist Edition, released January 27, 2026. Same content as the original version with additional reflections from six United Methodist Bishops on the six marks of a deeply devoted disciple.
Catch more on this recent episode of Compass.
https://www.umc.org/en/content/beyond-spiritual-neutral-compass-175
Available on Amazon, Walmart, or Barnes & Noble. Bulk order discounts for groups or churches available at Invite Ministries here.