Why the Cross?

DEFENSE

God could have chosen another way to bring about the salvation of the world. According to the common view, he could simply have forgiven our sins and saved us without any earthly sacrifice. But there are reasons why he chose the Crucifixion.

By using the Crucifixion to accomplish the redemption, God drew on a theme that first-century Jews would have understood: sacrifice. In fact, this was something everybody in the ancient world understood. The impulse to sacrifice is found in cultures all over the world and is innate to human nature, providing a way for people everywhere to understand what Christ did for us.

In a sacrifice, people would bring a gift—often an animal—and of- fer it on an altar. The sacrifice could be a gesture of apology for having sinned or an act of thanks or reverence. Whatever its specific intent, it was meant in a general way to cultivate good relations with heaven.

In the Crucifixion, Jesus presented himself as a sacrifice on our be- half. Indeed, he was the sacrifice to which all other Jewish sin offerings pointed, “for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” (Heb. 10:4).

More fundamentally, God communicated important lessons to us. One is just how serious our sins are—given that it took the death of the Son of God to atone for them. He also showed us just how much he loves us in spite of our sins. “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8; cf. CCC 604).

God also drew on a theme that had special meaning for Jews: Pass- over. At the founding of their nation, God led them out of slavery in Egypt through the sacrifice of the Passover lambs, when God’s wrath passed over the Israelites. Now Jesus, “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29, 36), was sacrificed at Passover (John 19:14–16), so that God’s wrath might pass over us and we might be led out of slavery to sin. Thus Paul can say, “Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7).