People have asked a valid question, ‘Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?’ How can His death 2000 years ago make a difference in my life? God operates exclusively through His word, in that everything He says literally defines Him, making it “impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6-18). He previously said to Adam in Gen 2-17, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Once Adam ate of it, sin now causes death and this statement cannot be overturned. The Bible teaches that the sinful nature of man has since been woven into the fabric of our bodies, making us sinners. It is the law of sin and death that states: "All have sinned" (Rom 3:23) and "The wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). If people have sinned and it caused them to die, then a man must come without sin and die for the people to break that law of sin over them and reverse the power of death. Without question, Jesus’ greatest miracle was that He lived a sinless life for 33 years, so when Jesus died on the cross, He broke the power of death. God in a predicament with man solved the problem by sending His son, born of the Virgin Mary. By the virgin birth He was completely human, but since He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He was also completely God, "holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens" (Heb 7-26). By reason of His divinity Jesus overcame His sinful nature, having never yielded to it, being tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15). While murdered by sinners, God nailed the sin of the world to Jesus’ dying body, and by virtue of His sinless life broke the law of sin and death. 1Pet 2:24 says, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness," and again, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2Cor 5:21). The blood of Jesus atoning for the sin of the world is the basis of God’s forgiveness. When the Father went to judge His Son, He found that none of His sin was His own, so He forgave His Son for our sin and raised Him from the dead. His righteousness became our life. In His very death He destroyed the power of sin, which is death, by maintaining the righteousness of God in the members of His earthly body. There is nothing we can do to demonstrate to God that we are truly sorry for our sin, except to believe in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice and live as He would have us. Our faith in the cross is all God needs from us to fully cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and walking in a life of faith is how we show our appreciation for His grace. Now that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, He has made it illegal for sin to have jurisdiction over anyone who would believe in Him for eternal life.  

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Jesus died for sinners (1Cor 15-3). The question is, are you a sinner? How can anyone answer that without altering his life? If we say “no”, then supposedly Jesus didn’t die for us, but now we have a gaping hole in our conscience. Why does the gospel evoke an open sore at the mention of Jesus Christ as the savior of the world? His name elicits the notion of being a sinner. Jesus said in Jn 6-53, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” Everybody who gets saved must admit to himself and to God that he is partly responsible for the brutal murder of His Son, for Jesus sacrificed Himself in order to save sinners. That shouldn’t bother the unbeliever, for just the opposite is true with him; he didn’t receive the benefit of the cross, so theoretically he is not responsible for his death; however, he makes his sacrifice null and void, so to him Christ died in vain, which is actually worse. Now he must face eternity without Christ, unless he repents of his unbelief and turns to Christ for salvation.

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                           The Simple Gospel

1) God loves you  Jn 3-16
2) Because you love Jesus   Jn 16-27
3) By keeping His commandments   Jn 14-15  

        which are:
                 a) Love God and be born again, and   Jn 3-3
                 b) Love one another   Jn 15-12
4) This purifies your heart and open your eyes   Mat 5-8
5) To the vision that God has for your life   Eph 1,15-23

6) Which is to do the works that God has prepared for us   Eph 2-10

Verses:

1. Jn 3-16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

2. Jn 16-27 “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
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3. Jn 14-15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

Jn 15-12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you” (this pertains to your immediate family first, the Church second and the world third)

Jn 3-3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”
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4. Mat 5-8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

5. Eph 1,15-23 “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all..”

6. Eph 2-10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”