Jesus Was Not Killed

This question "Why did they kill Jesus?"  baffles me.  For so long, we have tried to justify why they kill Jesus. 

The basic answer is that he was killed for our sins. Do you know however that the actual truth is that Jesus was not killed? I believe that the death of Jesus was a sacrifice. It is a sacrifice supposed to be carried out willingly and not unwillingly. We, therefore, heard the voice that calls “Whom shall I send, and who shall go?” Jesus willingly says; I shall go.

This shows that Jesus knows the purpose for which He came to earth, and to carry out that mission, it needs to be from the whole of His heart. He, therefore, says in Luke 24:7 “The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rises again”. He did not say He will be killed but crucified. He must be delivered into the hands of sinful men because He is the lamb of sacrifice for the sinful men. In the Old Testament, it is the “man with sin” that leads the “lamb for sacrifice” to the altar to be sacrificed. Jesus, therefore being that lamb supposed to be sacrificed for the whole world was delivered into the hands of these sinful men so that they can sacrifice Him for their sins on the basis that if only they believe in Him, their sins will be forever forgiven. Jesus does this willingly knowing very well that He will surely rise again.

The question now is why Jesus allows Himself to be this lamb of sacrifice. What exactly is He trying to achieve? Is it only for our sins or there are other things involved?

There is one particular thing worthy of note if we wish to critically look into this sacrifice. This is exposed in Hebrews 9:16 “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 

17  For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the testator lives”.

This implies that the sacrifice of Jesus was necessary to seal the new covenant. The old covenant was sealed with the blood of animals, but that of the new is sealed with the blood of Jesus. This again implies that the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), are not qualified to be New Testament books because as at the time of the happenings in those books, Jesus was still alive. He did not die then, and so does not enforce it. It is just like a will. The will is read through and enforced only after the writer dies. For this reason, even though Jesus has fulfilled all the laws of Moses thereby putting an end to them, we still see instances of the law at work even in the life of Jesus in the synoptic gospels. No wonder bible says “He was born under the law to redeem those under the law”. If care is not taken, many might mistake this, thinking it is a New Testament practice and so adhere to it even though it is not. Truly enough, there are people sacrificing doves and other animals today in the church thinking they are doing it just as Jesus did. Jesus actually went through that in order to cancel it for our enjoyment.

If Jesus was not killed, what then did He do? We need to get an answer to this question in John 10:11 which reads “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep”.

I think this is awesome. If Jesus was to be killed, it might imply that His life is taken unwillingly. This will distract the whole concept of the wilful sacrifice that Jesus is. God, in His bid to make known how willingly Jesus gives up His life, compares Him to a lamb that was slain. Why did He not compare Him to a goat? When a goat is driven for sacrifice, it struggles all the way, but a lamb utters not a word. This is revealed in Isaiah 53:7 which states “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opens not his mouth”. Jesus knowing well that it is a need to seal the new covenant with His blood, and also save the world with His blood, willingly accepts His fate knowing the good outcome it will bring out.

It is worthy of note that, Gamaliel the High priest also said this one time in relation to the saving work of Jesus. We see this in John 11:50 when he says “Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nations perish not. 

51 And this spoke he not of himself: but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation”.

The Holy Spirit prophesied concerning the task ahead of Jesus even before He accomplished it. It is likely that the people at that time did not fully understand the prophecy. They only sought the more to put Him to death. In spite of all this, little did they know that they were only carrying out the plan of God unknowingly. 

Jesus at a point in time says “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. Is it really true that they know not what they do? The people actually knew what they were doing. They knew very well that they were going to crucify Him; but does that statement make Jesus a liar? Not at all, because He talks about something else that they knew not of.

In 1Corinthians 2:7, scripture reveals that “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 

8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”. 

This is wonderful. This scripture tells us that God has hidden a particular wisdom before the world was made solely “unto our glory”. In other words, this wisdom was hidden to give us glory. No one else can give out this glory except the Lord of glory. In this sense, we realise that what Jesus actually meant by saying “they know not what they do” is that they know not that His crucifixion will give us the glory of God”. This is further illustrated in John 17:22 when Jesus states “And the glory which you give me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one”. 

This means that the purpose of God is to give us back the glory that we had, even a better glory than the one we had in the Garden of Eden, by the fleshly death of Jesus. In order to accomplish this task fast enough, He did not wait for His bones to be broken before He carries out the task. Bible states in Matthew 27:50 that “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost”. He gave up the ghost Himself. He could refuse to give it up. He actually has the power to, but rather, He decided to release our glory to us by giving up the ghost.

PROOF THAT JESUS COULD SAVE HIMSELF

In actual fact, if not for the sacrificial work that Jesus came to do, He could save Himself.

Let us look at what happens when they came to arrest Him to be crucified. In Matthew26:52 He says when Peter cut off one of the ears of the guard “Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all, they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. 

53  Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? 

This proves that Jesus can actually be saved by angels, but decided not to seek their indulgence at that time. Let us not forget the legions of angels that Elisha made Gehazi to see when the Assyrian soldiers were drawing towards them. Elijah also called fire to consume fifty soldiers and their captains. Jesus will not do that by virtue of His assignment.

Again, let’s look at Luke 4:28 “And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 

29  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. 

30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way”.

We realise that this crowd was actually holding Jesus to throw him down headlong but since His time to give up His life does not come, He escapes their tragic plan. Let us not forget also that Jesus escapes so many plans of the Israelites to stone Him. All these happen because nobody was supposed to kill Him, but rather, He must give up His life for the sake of the world.

Shall we also see how His death preparation was made step by step as we see in John12:3 “Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. 

4  Then says one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, 

5  Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? 

6  This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. 

7  Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this”. 

This shows that Jesus knew that the day of His burial draws near. According to Jewish tradition, the dead must be anointed with incense, oil etcetera before burial; Jesus will not have the privilege to go through such a process and so did it beforehand by the hands of Mary who was moved by the spirit of God to do so.

Not all, Jesus organised a feast of wine and bread representing His body and His blood as explained in 1Corinthians 11:24  “And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 

25  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 

26  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he comes”. 

All these prove without a doubt that Jesus was well aware of the task ahead of Him, and so did everything in order to fulfil it. He actually gave up His life in order to meet the devil in Colossians 2:15 “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it”. 

He has conquered them to our glory. Hallelujah

This is the glorious work that Jesus did for us. It is only for precious people that a precious person will give up His life for. For yet we are still sinners, Christ died for us. He is now calling you and me; everyone in the whole world to accept this message and be justified by His grace alone.

Glory to Jesus for His marvellous grace which He accomplished by giving up His life for us. Amen.

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