Why did God choose death on the cross by Jesus as the means of erasing the scourge of sin, which leads to death? He could have chosen to have Jesus die by less violent and painful ways. Why Crucifixion? The vilest of citizens of the Roman empire died on the cross--murderers, rapists, rebellious slaves--not poor, lowly evangelists. The Roman empire had no interest in local religions. In fact, at that time, they allowed each country they conquered to continue practicing its particular religious persuasion.

Every citizen of that time understood the significance of a crucifixion. In fact, they were spectacles , witnessed by hordes of people. Everyone in that period of history knew that when one was put on the cross, he was NOT escaping death, and a horrible death reserved for the most repugnant of its population.

Death on the cross represented the ultimate degradation and was always preceded by a flogging with chains and whips that left its recipient barely conscious.

So, that was the death Jesus endured to ultimately reveal that He could overcome the worst that Satan could imagine for Him and subdue and conquer it.

It was so horrible that God had to turn His back on mankind and His son to allow it to happen. Remember Jesus crying from the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

When Eve allowed herself to be deceived by the serpent and Adam disobeyed as well, God cursed the human race with death. Remember the passage, "the wages of sin is death." It means that our fleshly bodies will lie either in the sea or the earth decaying, rotting, being devoured for all eternity by insects, bugs and sea creatures until they are gone for all time. Or perhaps blown to bits in war or other catastrophic events.

Man also has a spiritual body, which never dies; but our earthly bodies all will die, because we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, sharing in their sin.

But since He stilled loved man, his child, God set in motion at that moment a means of defeating Satan and Satin's weapon--sin, which leads to death.

Try, if you can, to visualize the power Satan wields over man with his weapon--sin. Sin is filthy; it is vile; it is powerful; it is pleasant; it is degrading; it is secret; it is fun; it is intoxicating--in short, it is the most tempting of all things.

No man before or after Christ has ever been able to resist the power of Satan and sin.

But through God's grace and love, He gave us back our eternal life. Christ took upon his shoulders that dark day the sins of the world. Through his death, we now have our sins forgotten so long as we follow God's son, Christ and live for Him.

Our sins are nailed to the cross, and we are no longer held accountable for them. We have the assurance of knowing that our bodies will not rot and disappear but will transformed and risen on that day that Christ returns. Those who do not live for Christ will not be risen but left to rot forever.

Our souls no longer must wait in Hades but will be in Heaven one moment after we die. For the unrepentant, their souls will remain in Hades, a dark, dreary, painful, mournful place where they will be able to see Heaven and cry out for mercy until Judgment Day. On that day they will again beg Christ, who will judge the world, before he casts them into the Lake of Fire, where they will spend eternity in agony.

On this Dark Friday, commemorating this moment in history, every person needs to watch this video to be reminded of just what Christ had to do to overcome death and sin and give man back the gift of eternal life. Those who are not moved by this do not have love, compassion, nor pity within them.



Tomorrow: What Happened As Christ's earthly body lay in the tomb.