Jesus came to earth to die.

It is not quite as simple as that: He came to earth to die for our sins so that we could be saved. He came to fulfill the law and to live the sinless, perfect life that we cannot lead. He came to teach us about living our lives for God. He taught us about faith, hope, and love. He taught us about God’s love for us. He taught us about the Kingdom. He warned us about Hell. He came to earth to become our advocate to the Father when it is time for us to be judged. He came so that we would follow him. He came to be the one final sacrifice that didn’t only cover our sins, but removed them.

But in order to do all this he had to die, and this is what he came to do.

Who was Responsible for Killing Jesus

Over the years there has been debate over who was responsible for killing Jesus. Was it the Romans, or was it the Jews, was it a combination of the two? Who bears the most blame? Judas? Pilate? Caiaphas? The Jewish mob?

They all played a role, but for all of the discussion the point that is sometimes missed is that nobody took Jesus’ life from him, he gave up his life willingly.

Jesus Gave His Life Willingly

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”¹

To me, this is one of the most powerful truths in all of the Bible. The fact that Jesus willingly gave up his life for sinners. Jesus said there is no greater love than to give up one’s life for his friends,² but Jesus went way beyond that.

He did not give up his life just for his friends. He also gave up his life for those he did not know, and for those who were yet to be born. He even gave up his life for those who rejected him, those who condemned him, those who nailed him to the cross, and for those who still reject him today.

Did Jesus Want To Die?

At his trial Jesus offered no defense, almost as if he was reconciled to his fate. First, to the high priest:

⁶⁰ And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?”³

And then to Pilate, this confused Pilate, who asked him:

So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” ⁴

Jesus only answer was that Pilate’s authority came from God, nothing in his own defense. It must have looked like Jesus wanted to die as he remained silent and did not defend himself in obedience to the Father’s will, and also out of his great love for us.

This does not mean that Jesus was not afraid to give his life, and it does not mean that Jesus wanted to die. He knew what lie ahead for him; he knew the pain, agony, torture, scorn, ridicule, humiliation, the separation from God, and the disconnect from Heaven he was about to endure.

We must remember that because he was fully human he had the same fears and felt the same pain we all do. He did not want to go through the agony and he did not want to die, but at the same time he had a mission to accomplish and he wanted to obey the will of the Father to accomplish the mission.

There must have been an internal conflict between wanting to avoid the suffering he knew he had the power to avoid, the desire to obey the Father, and his love for us that we simply will never understand.

²⁷ “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.⁵

And yet after saying this, while struggling with his fate Jesus did ask the Father to remove the cup from his lips. We see this internal conflict play out fully in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus went out to pray shortly before his arrest.

Jesus came to earth to die, but he did not want to die.

In the Garden

Jesus prayed three times to have the cup removed from his lips before deferring to the Father’s will. His despair was so great that an angel came down from heaven and comforted him.

Being willing to die for a cause and wanting to die for a cause are not the same. Jesus asked for another way, he prayed for another way, but there was no other way, so he reconciled his fate and met it head on.

When his disciples finally woke up, realized what was happening, and came to his defense Jesus told them to stand down, saying if he willed it he could call upon his Father in Heaven to send down legions of angels to protect him.

⁵³ Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴ But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”⁶

Obedience Even Unto Death on a Cross

The internal conflict was real. And yet, even knowing he had the power to call down legions of angels to protect him he did not use it.

though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.⁷

Why did he do all this? I wrote about some of the reasons why above, but nobody could possibly say it better than Jesus himself:

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”⁸

Our Obedience to God

Just as Jesus was obedient to the Father, we as Christians are also called to obedience. Sure, we might not be called to die for him, but Jesus did say that if we are his friends we will obey his commands.

¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you.⁹

We must be obedient to Jesus as Jesus was obedient to the Father. Being obedient to Jesus means to follow the example he set and follow the commandments he laid down for us. We are to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses and follow him, even if it means losing everything but our salvation.¹⁰

Yes, Jesus came to earth to die. He came to earth to die so that we might live. Knowing this truth should make us long to be obedient to the one who sacrificed so much for us. We might not always want to be obedient, but Jesus taught us that we should always strive to be obedient no matter what our circumstance.

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1. John 10:18 ESV ↩︎
2. John 15:13 ↩︎
3. Mark 14:60 ESV ↩︎
4. John 19:10 ESV ↩︎
5. John 12:27 ESV ↩︎
6. Matthew 26:53,54 ESV ↩︎
7. Philippians 2:6-8 ESV ↩︎
8. Mark 10:45 ESV ↩︎
9. John 15:14 ↩︎
10. See Matthew 16:24-26 ↩︎