What Was Behind Jesus' Death
Tom Shrader walks through the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus, showing that His death was not accidental but part of God's predetermined plan. Drawing on John 18 and supporting passages, Shrader explains three theological terms — propitiation, redemption, and justification — to describe what Christ accomplished on the cross on behalf of sinners. He closes with a direct call for personal faith in Christ alone, arguing that sincerity without truth cannot save, and that Jesus is the only sufficient Savior.
“Jesus was not a loser. Jesus was victorious. He was not one who failed in the mission. He's the one who succeeded in the mission.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How to Know (2006)
Recorded: 2006 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 39 min
Themes: cross, salvation, sin, forgiveness, faith, sacrifice, jesus, redemption, seeking salvation, new believer, young adult, questioning faith, spiritually lost, first time churchgoer, doubting the gospel, raised without religion
Scripture: Luke 22:66, John 10, John 18:28-38, Mark 14, Acts 2, Colossians 2:14, 1 Peter 2, Hebrews 10:10, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10, John 17, Luke 23:46
Theological Themes: propitiation, atonement, justification, redemption, substitutionary atonement, imputed righteousness, sinners need saving, christ's sufficiency
Full Transcript
Welcome and Series Overview
We are glad you are here. If you are here for the first time, a special welcome to you. This is the most important series we will ever do. There is nothing we could talk about that is more important than this. If you do not get this right, then nothing else matters. We can talk about how to be a good citizen, a good spouse, a good kid, a good friend, or a good employee, but none of that matters if you do not get this right. If you miss this, the rest is good advice, but it will not do you any good once you die.
Catching Up: Weeks One and Two
Let us get everybody on the same page. In week one, we talked about the fact that you and I are sinners. So much of this is difficult, especially for younger people. When I was a student, we pretty much understood we were sinners, and everybody told us that, which made it even easier. Now you live at a time when most of your teachers, and much of the world around you, says you are basically good. But you do not buy that for a second. You are a sinner. Sin is universal — we are all sinners by nature, by choice, and by action. Our sin has separated us from God, and there is nothing we can do about that. You may feel helpless and hopeless, and that is an honest and accurate response.
In week two, we asked this question: 14 billion people have occupied this planet since God created it — what was so special and unique about Jesus? We said a couple of things. Number one, He was born of a virgin. Number two, His mother Mary and Joseph were told before He was born that Mary would bear a son — a virgin — but He would be a special son. His name would be Jesus, and He would save His people from their sin.
Jesus also did miracles. On one occasion He came upon a paralytic and said to the man, "Your sins are forgiven — get up and walk." The Jewish leaders went nuts, because they said only God can forgive sin. So Jesus said, "What is easier to say — 'Your sins are forgiven,' or 'Get up and walk'?" It is easier to say your sins are forgiven, because we cannot verify that with our eyes. So Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven — get up and walk," and the man stood up and walked. He claimed to be God, and only God can forgive sin, and Jesus forgave sin.
We also said last week that what makes Jesus unique is not merely that He predicted His death, but that He predicted His resurrection — and then He rose from the dead. Jesus is who He said He was. Here is a phrase I love, though it did not get a great reaction last week, so something is either wrong with me, the way I presented it, or — most likely — something is wrong with you. The resurrection is God's amen to Jesus' words, "It is finished." Jesus said, "It is finished," and three days later He came blowing out of that tomb. That is God saying amen.
The Focus for Today: What Was Behind Jesus' Death
Today we are talking about what is behind the death of Jesus. The fact that Jesus died is not special in and of itself, because we all die. And yet we consider His death to be the most important event in the history of mankind. We have put it this way: it is the epicenter of human history. Everything before it points toward it, and everything since looks back on it. So what makes it so special? Following the pattern of the last two weeks, we are going to work through ten questions.
Question One: Why Was Jesus Betrayed, Arrested, and Tried?
Luke tells us this in chapter 22, verse 66. Jesus has already been arrested, and the Jews have already conducted their own trial — an illegal trial, because it took place at night. Now they are taking Him to the civil authorities in Rome. Luke records that the chief priests and the scribes lead Jesus before the council, and they say to Him, "If you are the Christ, if you are the Messiah, tell us." Jesus replied, "If I tell you, you will not believe. If I ask you a question, you will not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God." They all said, "Are you the Son of God then?" And Jesus said, "Yes, I am." They replied, "What further need do we have of testimony? We have heard it ourselves from his own mouth."
This should sound familiar from what we looked at last week in John 10. The Jews came to Jesus and said, "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Do not hide it — tell us." Jesus said, "I have told you, but you do not believe. You do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, they follow me, I will give them eternal life. No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand." And then Jesus said this: "I and the Father are one." The Jews picked up stones to stone Him. Jesus said, "I have done many good works — which good work is it for which you are going to stone me?" And they said, "Not for the good works, but because you claim to be God."
So Jesus was arrested and tried by the Jewish leaders because He said He was God.
Question Two: Why Did the Jewish Leaders Put Jesus on Trial?
The cause they were looking for was that He claimed to be God, but what they actually wanted was to kill Him. Mark writes this: "The chief priests and the whole council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put him to death, and they were not finding any."
The Sham Trial
Many were giving false testimony against Him, and yet their testimony was inconsistent. Here is what was going on. The Jews had a defendant — Jesus. They had a verdict — guilty. They wanted a sentence — death. They had the trifecta. They had a defendant, a verdict, and a sentence. Here was the problem: they needed testimony. Somehow they had to make this legitimate. But as testimony came in, it was inconsistent. Why? Because it wasn't true. They put Him on trial because they had already decided He was guilty and they wanted to kill Him, and they needed the trial for that.
What Pilate Concluded About Jesus' Guilt
The third question is: what did Pilate conclude about Jesus' guilt? Turn to John chapter 18. I want to hang here a bit and make sure we understand what John is writing and telling us. There is something really practical and important here, and we are going to spend some time with it.
Look at verse 28. "They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was early. They themselves did not enter the Praetorium in order that they might not be defiled but might eat the Passover." Pilate is at the Praetorium. Pilate represents Rome — the governing authority that had conquered Israel. Pilate's headquarters would normally be in Caesarea, over on the coast. But during the festivals and sacred times, to make certain the Jews would not get out of control, the governor would come to Jerusalem. When he was in Jerusalem, he stayed at the Praetorium.
The Jews came to the Praetorium but they would not go in. Their oral tradition said that if a Jew entered a Gentile house, it would defile them. For ceremonial purposes, they would be unclean. Here they are, wanting to keep themselves pure for the religious ceremonies, at the very same time they are performing the most hideous task that has ever been performed on this earth. That is the backdrop.
The Accusation Before Pilate
Because they would not come in, verse 29 says Pilate went out to them. He said, "What are your accusations against this man?" And they said, "If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you." What did he do? He's guilty. It's a little like being called for jury duty and, when asked if you have any comments, saying, "Obviously he's guilty or we wouldn't be here." You get the rest of the day off.
Verse 31: "Pilate said to them, then take him yourselves, judge him according to your law. The Jews said to him, we are not permitted to put anyone to death" — to fulfill the word of Jesus which He had spoken, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die. Here is what Pilate says: you take him. And they said: we cannot put anyone to death. In 6 AD, Rome had removed the authority of the Jews to execute capital punishment. So they are saying: we have a defendant — Jesus; we have a verdict — guilty; we have a sentence — death; and we cannot carry it out.
This Was God's Plan All Along
Jesus, by the way, had talked about suffering and dying 800 years before crucifixion was even invented. The prophet said that the Messiah would hang on a tree. Here is why this is important. I do not want you for a second to think that Jesus was some radical, revolutionary figure who just got out too far in front, who out-punted his coverage, who got out there without anyone to protect Him, whose plan was to take over politically but who had misspoken and so the plan went awry. No.
Let me read to you Peter's first sermon in Acts chapter 2, speaking to a predominantly, if not exclusively, Jewish audience. Peter says this: "Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God through miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourself know — this man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God." This was not something that went off course. I can understand how, humanly speaking, someone watching these events unfold might be thinking: this isn't what we expected, this wasn't the plan, I've given three years to this and it's going south fast, they're going to kill Him, what's going to happen now? But it was all part of God's plan. God was in control. God is in control of everything, and He is still in control. Not one thing is going to happen in your life that God has not either caused or allowed. And if that is not true, He is not God.
God Is in Control
God is in control — so what are you worried about? What do you care about? God's in control, and here is what He wants you to do. It is not too tough to figure out: be obedient. Those of you who are Christians, who say you are followers of Christ, this is simple. It should change the way you do business, change the way you live, change the kind of students you are. God's in control. That is the whole point.
Jesus Before Pilate
Now Jesus and Pilate have this dialogue. Pilate entered again into the Praetorium and said, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?" Pilate said, "I am not a Jew. Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me. What have You done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world."
Jesus continued: "If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." Pilate then said, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." Jesus confirmed that He is a king, and that when He comes again He will reign — but He made clear that His kingdom is not something flowing from the earthly system.
What Is Truth?
Pilate said to Him in verse 38, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no guilt in Him." Remember our question: what did Pilate conclude about Jesus' guilt? He concludes here, and two other times, that Jesus is innocent — that He is not guilty.
I want to pause right there and focus on verse 38. Circle it, mark it, make a note of it — John 18:38 — because you will want to come back to this verse again and again. And the younger you are, the more important this is going to be as we unpack it.
Pilate asks, "What is truth?" I wish we had a recording so we could hear his inflection. Was he being cynical — "What is truth?" — or was he genuinely asking, "What is the truth? I want to know." We can guess, but it does not matter. What does matter is that he asked a question that resonates through all of mankind, and it has never been more connected to us than it is now. You have teachers, authority figures, and a culture that says there is no such thing as truth, that there are no absolutes, and that even if there is something called truth, you cannot know what it is.
Sincerity Is Not Enough
Even when we get to religion, faith, or spiritual things, the world says truth is not the most important thing. Is that not what your friends say? "It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere. As long as you really believe it, it doesn't matter what it is. You found that Christian thing and it works for you? Fine. It doesn't matter what you believe, just that you're sincere." And the way you demonstrate your sincerity is to be obedient to whatever this thing is that you think is true.
Here are two examples of that — one you will remember easily, the other perhaps not. Years ago — I would say eight or ten years ago — there was a group called Heaven's Gate. Some of you will remember them. There were 39 people based in San Diego, and the leader of this group formed a cult in which he demanded obedience and ultimately tried to convince his followers that they would be taken away in a spaceship and united with God.
Now, there were some requirements along the way. If you were a man and part of this group, you had to be castrated. That cut down on membership a little bit. If someone told you that you were welcome to join the group and then explained what was required of you, you would likely conclude you were going to sit this one out.
Here is how it ended. For the spaceship to come and take them to be united with their deity, their creator, they had to kill themselves. And so one day, all 39 of them — including the leader — did exactly that.
Sincerity Is Not Enough
Here is the deal. That's commitment. That's sincerity. If all that matters is that you're sincere, you can't get any more sincere than dying for what you believe. I would love to have 39 people — not 390, but 39 people — that committed to what we're doing at East Valley Bible Church. That's sincerity, that's obedience, that's commitment. These people went to sleep thinking the next face they saw would be God, and when they woke up they saw Satan and they were in hell. But they were sincere. Do you see that? That's the lie — that it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere.
Let me give you another illustration: the 9-11 hijackers. I have thought about this a billion times. It was the first thought I had when I began to unpack this, and I think about it every time I think about 9-11 and every time I see those twin towers. What must it have been like to be the pilot of that plane? You're flying this thing, you're at the front of the plane, and way in the distance you see that tower, and your mission is to put that plane into that tower. When you do, your life is over, but you're convinced that when you execute this mission you'll be in heaven. Your heart has got to be pounding and pounding and pounding, and then — boom.
Now, how sincere is that? That's very sincere. They believed that was the truth. Do you expect to see the 9-11 hijackers in heaven? No. But they were sincere. And that's what we esteem — the idea that it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere.
No. In a sense, you're better off having very little faith in the right thing than having a whole lot of faith in the wrong thing. The ideal, of course, is to have great faith in the truth. Jesus said, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life." Is there truth? You bet. Jesus Christ is the truth.
Here is the point. The object you are trusting needs to be able to perform the function you are asking it to perform. If you're climbing aboard the Titanic thinking you're getting from Europe to America, you've put your faith and trust in that vessel, haven't you? Bon voyage. But the captain and the ship couldn't perform the task you were counting on them to do. You had better be trusting your life to the Creator God of the universe and His plan, because He says this is the truth and He can do it. If you're believing anything other than what Christ teaches — no matter how sincere you are, no matter how honestly obedient you are to what you believe — if it's anything other than biblical Christianity, you're going to crash and burn. When life is over, you'll be separated from God. You need a Savior, and the only Savior is Jesus Christ.
The Crime Posted on the Cross
What was the crime posted on Jesus' cross? The inscription read: "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." We have a somewhat distorted view of crucifixion because we think that since Jesus was crucified, all crucifixion was like His. Not at all. Crucifixion was designed to last as long as the executor wanted it to. You could crucify someone and they'd live days or even weeks on that cross.
Crucifixion was also a deterrent, which is why they posted the crime. If you were considering stealing a chariot on a long walk, and you came across a man hanging on a cross with birds starting to eat his eyes, and above him it read "Bob — chariot thief," you might reconsider. That was the purpose of posting the crime.
So what crime did God post on the cross? This is where it gets important. The crime God posted was that Jesus paid our debt. Colossians 2:14 says He canceled out our certificate of debt. What man posted was "King of the Jews." What God declared was that in this moment, Jesus died and paid the price.
Three Questions About the Cross
I want to go through three questions quickly and then tie them together. First: whose place did Jesus take on the cross? Peter writes that He Himself bore — and note the pronoun — our sins. Ours. Peter is speaking about the elect, the church, those who would believe in Him. When Jesus said "It is finished," what had happened in that sacred transaction was that Jesus Christ bore our sins.
Second: was all sin paid for by Jesus on the cross? Hebrews 10:10 answers that clearly: "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Jesus died. He bore the price, took our place, bore our sin, and paid for our sin — once for all.
Third: what happened to Jesus when He was crucified? Second Corinthians 5:21 tells us: "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf." Christ took upon Himself the guilt of the sin of His people. Jesus was treated on the cross as though He were guilty of your sin.
Three Essential Words
Now I want to give you three words — three really important words. The first is justification. The second is redemption. The third, and I've saved it for last because it is the weightiest of the three, is propitiation — P-R-O-P-I-T-I-A-T-I-O-N.
Propitiation: Satisfying the Wrath of God
The word "propitiation" appears four times in the New Testament: Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, and 1 John 4:10. Propitiation means to satisfy — in this case, to satisfy the wrath of God. If you went out and asked students on the street to describe God, here is what you would hear: "He's awesome. He's really cool. God is love — that's all He is." And there is real truth in that. But the moment someone says God would never send anybody to hell because He is a God of love, a serious problem emerges.
When you talk about God's love, you have to talk about the whole character of God. Is God a God of love? Absolutely. But because He is a God of love, He must also hate. If all you talk about is God's love, you have a distorted view of God. Think of it this way: if all you knew about a man was that he is a husband, you would know something true about him, but you would have missed everything else — that he is also a father, a grandfather, and much more.
When we say God is a God of love, that is absolutely true. But He is also a God who must hate sin and judge it. God is angry — not in a capricious way, but angry at sin. He is angry at what sin does to people. He is angry at anything that is not holy and pure, and it must be judged. When Jesus dies on the cross, He takes your place, takes your guilt, and satisfies God's anger toward you. God is not angry at His people.
Redemption and Justification
Redemption means to loosen or to buy back. Imagine you find yourself short on cash, so you take a guitar to the pawn shop and get a ticket and a little money. A couple of weeks later, you get enough money together, you go back, you hand over the ticket and the money, and you buy the guitar back. You redeem it. That is the picture of what Christ has done for us.
Justification is a legal term. It means that a holy God declares a sinful person righteous on the basis of what Christ did on the cross. Now consider how all of this fits together. From Jesus to the Father flows propitiation — He satisfies the wrath of God. From God the Father, once propitiation has taken place, He declares you righteous. From Jesus to you and me, sinners, we are redeemed, bought back. We do not do anything to earn any of this.
This is why we said in the first week: your sin has put you in a situation you got yourself into, but you cannot get yourself out of it. There is nothing you can do because what is required is a perfect sacrifice, and the only perfect sacrifice is Jesus Himself. Your sacrifice is no longer of any value. That is all religion is — a sinful person trying to make a holy God pleased and happy. You cannot do it, because you are a sinner and He demands a perfect sacrifice.
Behold the Lamb of God
This is why when John the Baptist sees Jesus, he says, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." The Jews understood that imagery deeply, because they had been killing lambs for generations. At Passover alone they would sacrifice as many as 250,000 sheep and lambs, trying to satisfy God's wrath against them. It was symbolic. But now comes Jesus — behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Through Him, sinners are brought into relationship with God.
What This Means for Those Who Follow Christ
If you are a follower of Christ, here is what this means. God really loves you. He loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. He initiated the relationship. He established the relationship. If you are a Christian, you are as certain of heaven as the saints who are already there. You are in union with Him now. He wants to communicate with you. He loves you, and He wants you to love Him back. He wants to open the doors of communication.
Consider what it looks like when a marriage deepens over many years. After 28 years together, the real growth in love comes through communication — talking, and more importantly, listening. Trust builds over time until you reach a place where you cannot imagine any set of circumstances under which that person would betray you. That is the depth of relationship God wants to have with you, that same level of trust. So you communicate with Him through prayer, and He communicates with you through His Word.
How much does He love you? He gave you His Word, and then He sent the Holy Spirit to live in your life to open your eyes to see this truth.
Did Jesus Really Die on the Cross?
That question may sound unnecessary, but it is genuinely important. Luke tells us that at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit," and having said that —
The Death of Jesus Confirmed
John tells us in his gospel that the soldiers came — the executioners. They broke the legs of the criminals who were with Him. Remember this? We talked about crucifixion. Part of crucifixion is that you would hang on that cross and the weight of your body, as it began to sag, would cause you to suffocate. What you would do is push up, and that would allow you to breathe. But if your legs were broken, you would just hang. You would slump forward, the pressure would crush your lungs, and you couldn't breathe. That is why, when the soldiers came, they broke the legs of the thieves.
But John tells us that when they came to Jesus, they saw that He was already dead. One of the soldiers shoved a spear into His side, and out of the wound came blood and water separated, which would indicate that death had already taken place. The professional executioner — someone who would have signed off on thousands of these executions, an absolute professional — confirmed that yes, Jesus was dead.
Did He Accomplish His Purpose?
Why is that important? It brings us to the tenth question: did He accomplish His purpose on earth? Yes, He did. He came to seek and save the lost. He came to give His life so that we would have life. He will save His people from their sin. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."
The night before He died, Jesus prays in John 17, "Father, I have done the work that you sent me to do." Jesus was not a loser. Jesus was victorious. He was not one who failed in the mission. He is the one who succeeded in the mission.
The Decision Before You
You and I come into this world separated from God by our sin. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He was the perfect sacrifice. When He said "It is finished," He paid the price for all of the sin and all of the guilt of all the people who would ever believe in Him. Now — do you believe in Him?
I was at the Connect One class today, and there is always a question-and-answer period that I love. At least half the time I will get this question: how come you don't do altar calls? What people mean is, how come you don't have people come forward, pray a prayer, make a proclamation? The reason is that is one way to do it, but lots of people have walked altars and aisles and are in hell. Lots of people have prayed prayers. You don't need us. This is not about us. This is not about you needing us to get to God.
Jesus died so you don't need a priest anymore. You don't need a go-between. We are in the way. Here is what we say to you: if you are sitting there tonight and maybe for the very first time this becomes clear to you, then you need to cry out right there, right now. You need to acknowledge that you are a sinner — and I cannot imagine that is difficult to do, because that is obvious. You confess that Christ died, you confess Him as Lord, you believe that God raised Him from the dead, and you are trusting Him and Him alone for your salvation. There is no other way.
A Sobering Story
Susan served for a while as a volunteer chaplain at the hospital so she could get in to see the women — not just women from our church, but women who were sick. She came home one day and I had never seen her like that. She was really distressed. I said, "What's the problem?" She said, "I went and saw a lady today — an old lady. Tom, she was the coolest, sweetest lady. She was the nicest lady. She's going to die in the next two or three days." Susan said, "I asked her, 'Are you afraid to die?' and she said no. I asked her, 'Are you going to heaven?' and she said yes. I asked her why, and she said, 'Because I'm a good person.'"
There were grandkids around Nana, there were her kids, all these people around her. By human standards she was, I'm sure, an incredible woman. But she was not a good person by God's standards. God said no one is good — no, not one. Here was a woman who looked around and said, "I'm better than most. I've done the best I can. Sure, I've failed." Stop right there. The moment you failed is called sin, and sin has separated you from God. At that moment you need a Savior. You cannot save yourself.
Listen — it does not matter how sincere you are. This was a sincere lady. Susan went to see her three times in twenty-four hours to love her, to beg her to repent. She never did. She never saw it. She didn't think she needed it. She would go it alone. It doesn't matter how sincere you are if you are trusting something that cannot perform the task you want it to do. If you are sincerely and obediently following the wrong teaching, the wrong faith, it will not save you.
Come and Talk to Someone
So here is what I would say to you. If this is new to you tonight and you have questions, when you are done you need to come up and talk. The band will be up here — come and talk to them. Jen will be over here — talk to Jen. Call us at the church. Student ministries can connect you with someone on staff. You may be an adult, a business person, not a student, and you want to talk to somebody — call us at the church. Talk to the person who invited you. We exist for this. This is the most important issue you will ever have to deal with, and now that truth is out there, you have to respond to it.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for the truth. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for that perfect, sinless life, for His death on the cross, for the grace and mercy that we find in Him and Him alone. Father, we pray that You would touch hearts, that You would open eyes. We pray to You in Jesus' name.