...justice

"I understand Jesus died for our sins. I believe it but I just can't understand why he had to do it. Didn't God have power over everything? I have looked for the answer to this question for a long time. Please help."

Many people struggle with this same issue. Because God is a God of infinite justice, he cannot forgive sin without justice being served. Otherwise he wouldn't be God. This means that all sin must be judged according to the moral law of God and the universe. We can no more defy this law and live than we can defy the law of gravity by jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. The end result will be death unless—unless we apply another law, the law of aerodynamics. This law makes it possible for an airplane to fly and a parachute to lower us to the earth gradually and thereby save us.

There is another universal law that we cannot defy and live. It is "the law of sin and death," which means that the judgment and penalty of all sin is death and eternal separation from God. That is, unless we apply a higher law which is "the law of the Spirit of Life," which is a God-given "spiritual parachute" to save us from eternal death. God provided this law through the death of Jesus who died in our place to pay the penalty for our sin.

Because God is also a God of absolute holiness, no sin or unforgiven sinners can survive in his presence. As some bacteria are not able to survive in the light and die if they are exposed to it, so it is with us. In our sinful state if we were exposed to God and his incredible light, we would be destroyed instantaneously. And herein lies our dilemma.

God's answer to our dilemma lies in the fact that God is not only a God of infinite justice and absolute holiness, but also a God of eternal love. Because of his love, God gave his very own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for our sins to meet the automatic demands of his (God's) justice and holiness. Christ's death made possible God's "law of the Spirit of Life"—our God-given "spiritual parachute"—to save us from eternal death.

-dick innes