WHY THE CROSS WAS NECESSARY
Christ died to atone for our sins. The cross of Christ is the only basis on which God can forgive us. That much stands at the center of the Christian faith—solid, unmovable, nonnegotiable. Yet the critic asks a question that has sounded through the centuries: Why? Why should forgiveness depend on Christ’s death? Why does God not simply forgive us without the necessity of the cross?
At first glance, the question sounds reasonable. After all, God is love (1 John 4:8). Could He not simply overlook sin, dismiss it with divine mercy, and move on? But the Bible reveals something deeper—something weightier. God is not only loving; He is also holy and just. Love that ignores justice becomes sentimentality. Justice without love becomes cruelty. The cross is where both meet without compromise.
Sin is not merely a mistake; it is a rupture. It fractures our relationship with God and distorts the moral order of His creation. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). God does not impose this arbitrarily—it is the natural consequence of turning from the Source of life. For God to simply “forgive” without addressing sin would be to deny His own righteousness and trivialize the damage sin causes.
The cross answers this tension. In Christ, God does not forgive by ignoring sin—He forgives by dealing with it fully. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Justice is satisfied, not by our punishment, but by Christ’s self-giving love. Mercy flows, not by bypassing righteousness, but by fulfilling it.
At the cross, God Himself bears the cost of forgiveness. That is the scandal and the glory of the gospel. Forgiveness is never free—it is simply paid for by someone else. In Jesus, God absorbs the debt we could never repay. “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The cross also tells us something profound about our worth. If forgiveness required nothing, we might assume sin does not matter—or that we do not matter. But the price paid reveals both the seriousness of sin and the immeasurable value of the sinner. We are loved enough for God to give Himself for us. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
God does forgive freely—but never cheaply. The cross is not a barrier to forgiveness; it is the doorway. It is the place where holiness and mercy embrace, where justice is satisfied and grace overflows. There is no other ground on which forgiveness can stand, and no greater proof that God is both just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26).
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Lord Jesus, thank You for the cross—where my sin was answered and Your love was revealed. Teach me to rest not in my own goodness, but in Your finished work. Keep me humble, grateful, and anchored in the grace You purchased for me. Amen.
BDD
