How
do you explain the necessity of Jesus' death to a nonbeliever?
(Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page
1387).
It
was necessary for Jesus to die (and for his crucifixion to remain
relevant today) because he was a kind, considerate, compassionate man
with one or two unfortunate traits. One of these traits was that he
told the truth. Another was that he did not compromise the truth (as
is commonly done) to gain security—social acceptance, wealth,
prestige, or power. He believed that his needs would be taken care
of as the birds of the air or the flowers in the field have their
needs addressed. Since mankind is endlessly making compromises to
gain a sense of social security, it lethally resented this man who
did not play by the rules but in fact effectively employed freedom of
speech and freedom of action with no shadings of calculation or fear.
That is, his mere presence came to have a deeply chilling effect on
the game of life (which game had become the ultimate end of life) as
it had come to be accepted and assiduously played. It was a piece of
cake for his ethically sold-out and fear-motivated contemporaries to
devise various rationales to justify the death of this one truly free
man. He was so singularly exceptional that some came to believe that
he was indeed the Son of God.
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