The Nugget:
On the “Islam and Christianity Debate Group” the question was asked about Jesus Christ, “What is the purpose of his death?”
That may well be one of the most important questions to seek the answer to, for knowing the answer may well lead to the kind of faith in Jesus Christ required for salvation.
To fully answer that question would take a whole series of posts on just that subject. I gave only the starting point toward answering the question posed. In fact, whole books are written on the subject. To go further using the Bible itself, read through carefully the cross references available for 2 Corinthians 5:15 and 1 John 2:2.
My Answer:
I’m glad you asked such a very good question. According to the Bible, at 2 Corinthians 5:15, “and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised”(ESV, English Standard Version).
Another verse tells us this: “and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world” (NET Bible, 1 John 2:2).
In brief, Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, was sent to be our Savior, by being both our priest and our sacrifice as an atonement for our sin, with the express purpose to take away our sin. This is a vast subject, but is most important to understand.
By reading the New Testament, and the Bible as a whole, we can come to better understand these things.
The best and easiest way to come to an understanding of the purpose of the death of Christ is to read all the related verses in the Bible that pertain to this subject. This is what can be called a topical study of the Bible.
I have just finished completing my vast project to create a Bible study resource which gives at any verse in the Bible a listing of the other verses which are on the same subject mentioned in the verse.
I had to place it into Bible software myself. That took two full months for me to do. I just finished last Friday, May 27, 2016. I submitted my completed project in software format to the Bible software publisher/distributor on Saturday, May 28, 2016. I do not know how long it will take to complete the publishing process, so I can’t say when it will be available, but it should be soon, unless there is more to do to prepare the software for general use than I know how to do. If that happens, I hope they can do the rest at their end.
In any case, I will be pleased to answer any further questions you may have about the purpose of the death of Christ by sharing more of what the Bible itself has to say. Feel free to ask more of your very good questions!
Dig deeper into this important Bible theme by reading the following cross references:
2 Corinthians 5:15
- he died. Ep 5:2. for all. Many imagine that, because Christ has died for all, all shall be saved; but redemption is by no means so extensive as the curse (Charles Simeon on Ga 3:13). ver. +*2 Cor 5:14 n. +*Ro 5:18. 1 Cor 1:13. %*Ga 2:20. 1 Th 5:10. +*1 Tim 2:6. +*He 2:9. that they. 2 Cor 3:6. Dt 32:6. Ezk 16:6. 37:9, 14. Hab 2:4. Zc 10:9. Lk 15:24. Jn 3:15, 16. **Jn 5:23, 24. 6:57. Ro 6:2, 11, 12. 8:2, 6, 10. *+Ro 14:7, 8. **1 Cor 6:19, 20. *Ga 2:20. 5:24, 25. 6:14. Ep 5:14. Col 2:12. *Col 3:1, 2, 3. 1 P 4:6. 1 J 4:9. 5:18. which live. or, the living. 1 Cor 4:11. Col 2:13. *1 J 5:12, 13. henceforth. ver. 16 (2 Cor 5:16). 2 K 5:17. Ro 6:6. Ep 4:17. 1 P 1:14, 15. *1 P 4:2, 3, 4. live unto themselves. Dt 32:6. 1 S 12:10. *Mt 25:40. Lk 1:74. Ro 6:2, 13. 12:1. 14:7, 8, 9, 13. 1 Cor 6:20. 10:33. Ga 2:19. 6:14. Phil 1:20, 21. 2:21. Col 3:17, 23. 1 Th 5:10. 1 Tim 5:6. 2 Tim 3:2. Titus 2:14. He 13:20, 21. Re 1:18. but unto him. 2 Cor 4:5. 8:5. 12:10. +*Ge 49:10. Ex 21:5. Dt 6:5. Ps 26:3. 116:12. Pr 23:26. Zc 7:5. Mt 10:37. 25:40. Mk 12:17. Lk 4:39. *Jn 12:32. 13:17. 14:15, 21. 21:15. Ro 14:8. 1 Cor 6:13. *Ga 2:20. Ep 3:21. Phil 2:21. 3:7, 8. 1 Th 1:3. 2 Th 2:1. He 13:13. 1 P 1:8. 1 J 4:19. which died for them. Dt 32:6. 1 Cor 1:13. rose again. Jn 14:19. *+Ro 4:25. 6:10. 1 Cor 15:17. Phil 3:10.
1 John 2:2
- he is. He himself in his own person, both priest and sacrifice (A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures). 1 J 1:7. *1 J 4:10. +*Nu 19:19n. Zc 13:7. Mt 1:21. *Ro 3:25, 26. 1 Cor 1:30. *2 Cor 5:18, 19, 21. Ga 3:13. Ep 1:7. 2:18. Col 1:14, 20. 3:4. He 7:25. *He 9:14. 1 P 1:19. 2:24. 3:18. Re 5:9. the propitiation. or, atonement. Gr. hilasmos (S#2434g, only here and 1 J 4:10). The scriptural conception of hilaskesthai is not that of appeasing one who is angry, with a personal feeling, against the offender; but of altering the character of that which from without occasions a necessary alienation, and interposes an inevitable obstacle to fellowship. Such phrases as ‘propitiating God’ and God ‘being reconciled’ are foreign to the language of the NT. Man is reconciled (2 Cor 5:18, 19, 20; Ro 5:10, 11). There is a ‘propitiation’ in the matter of the sin or of the sinner. The love of God is the same throughout; but he ‘cannot’ in virtue of His very Nature welcome the impenitent and sinful: and more than this, He ‘cannot’ treat sin as if it were not sin (see Westcott, p. 87). Atonement translates hilasmos, normally translated propitiation, but “…this involves a wrong interpretation of the term…in the NT God is never the object of propitiation since he is already on the side of the people” (Louw and Nida, § 40.12). Propitiation or appeasement is neither Old Testament or Christian; it is paganism coming to Protestantism through Roman Catholicism and the Reformation (cf. Ro 3:25; 8:3; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13; Heb 2:17; 7:27; 9:5 and notes). Note that hilasmos, Atonement, is in the predicate nominative position; the linking verb estin, is, expresses a state of being, not action. The significance of this powerful construction is that it emphatically links the Person and His work, i.e., He and Atonement are the same—Person and Atonement. Thus Christ is the Atonement and the Atonement is He. The double nominative He and Himself emphasize the Person of Christ in Atonement. The predicate nominative construction is the Divine declarative that Christ is the All-Sufficient One. It means that Atonement is Who Christ is, and what He is—the Priest and the Offering. Atonement is not what was done to Christ, it is what He did as Priest and Sacrifice when He offered Himself (cf. Jn 10:17, 18; Eph 5:2; He 7:27; 9:14; 10:12). This is intrinsic Atonement—Atonement in Christ. Atonement then is Priestly-Sacrificial in nature, and is uniquely wrought by Christ in the transcendent sufficiency of Himself. This sufficiency is so centrally of God that all external means of extrinsic atonement theories can but contaminate the Divine plan; thus, penal satisfaction, punishment, wrath, vengeance, etc. are excluded. The Remedy is so Self-sufficient and Personal that no further contribution can be made whatsoever. Here the Person of the Priest-Sacrifice consists in a sufficiency in which all other atonement theories are laid aside (LNT, fn p). +Ge 8:21. Ge 32:20g. Ex 25:17. Ex 29:36g. Ex 30:10g. Ex 32:14, 30. 37:6. 40:20. Le 1:4. +Le 4:20, 35. 5:10, 16. 6:7. 14:29. **Le 16:10, 13, 15, 16, 17. *Le 17:11. 23:27g, Le 23:28g. Le 25:9g. Nu 5:8g. Nu 15:25. 16:46. 25:13. 29:11g. 2 K 5:18. 1 Ch 28:20g. Ps 25:11. 78:38. 106:30g. Ps 130:4g. Je 31:34. La 3:42. Ezk 43:23. 44:27g. Ezk 45:19g. Da 9:9g, Da 9:19, 24. Am 8:14g. Zc 7:2g. Zc 8:22g. *Ml 1:9g. Mt 16:25g. Mt 20:28. 26:28. Lk 18:13g. Ro 3:25g. Col 1:20. He 2:17. 8:12g. He 9:5g. for our sins. Jn 10:15. 13:10. Ro 4:25. 14:15. +*1 Cor 15:3. Ga 1:4. 2:16. 3:13. He 8:12. and not. FS69B, +Pr 6:16. for our’s. Gr. hēmeteros (S#2251g, Ac 2:11). Emphatic. A special possessive pronoun used of that which is peculiarly ours as distinct from that which belongs to others. 1 J 1:3. Ac 2:11. 24:6. 26:5. Ro 15:4. 2 Tim 4:15. Titus 3:14. but. Gr. alla. ver. 1 J 2:7, 16, 19 (twice), 1 J 2:21, 27; 1 J 3:18; 4:1, 10, 18; 5:6, 18. also. =Le 16:10. the sins of. FS63I1A, +Ex 12:4. Ac 13:38. the whole. The construction holou tou kosmou means the world as a whole, whole, entire, complete; “(1) used with a noun to indicate its totality” (Friberg). John also uses this construction in 1 J 5:19 where the word order is ho kosmos holos, “the whole world lies in the sphere of the wicked one.” John’s usage of whole, holos, cannot be evaded. Christ died for the world as a whole, the entire world! Accordingly, the Atonement is co-extensive with the Fall. Note that but also, alla kai, is an emphatic construction which adds emphasis or contrast, and so not only ours…but also the world, thus emphatically Atonement is for Adam’s fallen race! (Cf. Jn 3:16; 12:32; 2 Cor 5:14; Eph 2:14; 1 Tim 2:4) [LNT, fn q]. 1 J 4:14. 5:19. Mt 26:28. Lk 14:22. +*Jn 1:9, 29. 3:17. 4:42. 6:51. 11:51, 52. 12:32. Ro 5:15. 2 Cor 5:14, 18, 19, 20, 21. +*1 Tim 2:6. **1 Tim 4:10. +*He 2:9. 2 P 2:1. Re 12:9. world. Gr. kosmos, +Mt 4:8. *FS121J8, +Jn 3:16. 1 J 4:14. +Jn 1:29. 3:16, 17. 6:51. 12:19. 17:9, 22, 23. Ro 5:18, 19. **2 Cor 5:14, 15, 19, 20, 21.