Just hours away from death, Jesus goes off with three of his closest friends to pray. He knows the coming hours will bring immeasurable pain, agony, and loneliness. The agony of just knowing what is going to happen is enough to cause anyone else to collapse under such weight. Now more than ever He needs His companions to stay alert and vigilant, He needs to know, at least right now He is not alone. He knows that in a few hours the union between the Godhead, which had never been severed from before time, was about to be broken. The Father who stated at the beginning of His earthly ministry “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him, I am well pleased” will soon be the one exacting His righteous wrath and turning away from the one He loves. So many moving parts, so much happening in Heaven and on Earth and Jesus prays.

Anyone who spent any time in church will answer the question “why did Jesus die on the cross” will more than likely answer with “to forgive me of my sin”. We are taught that our salvation from sin is rooted in His death and resurrection. Many people, even preachers, will then falsely state that the main or whole reason Jesus gave his life was for us, to free us from our sin and the prison it creates. Does one truly believe that the whole reason Jesus willingly let Himself die in one of the most shameful and painful ways humans ever thought of was for us? To me, this seems a bit shallow at best and egocentric at worst. This kind of thinking, where we are the primary reason for Jesus’s death, sets ourselves up as idols. Granted those who have placed their faith in Him benefit from His death. They will receive their new bodies at the resurrection of the saints and will live forever in the newness and restoration Christ has given to those who believe in Him. But making His love for us the primary reason why He died goes against what the rest of The Bible teaches.

Think about this. Why did God command Joshua to march around the walls of Jericho? Because if God had the armies of Israel march in like any other army the lines of who the victory and glory belonged to would be blurred at best. Was it the might of the Isreali army that won the victory? Was it clever planning by Joshua? or was it God who provided the victory? No one would be able to say for sure. However, by having the army march around the city (unconventional warfare) it would be no doubt who provided the victory. As soon as the armies of Israel began shouting their praises to God in complete worship that is when the walls were knocked down and Israel was able to overcome the inhabitants of Jericho. Who benefited from this victory? Israel but who got the glory? YHWH! See the difference here? The primary reason God had the armies march around Jericho was so He would get the glory. In doing what God commanded, Israel benefited from what God had done.

There are more stories like this throughout the Bible where God’s primary reason for doing anything is for His glory and in return, those who call on Him and follow Him and worship Him are the beneficiaries of what He does. So why then do we turn the focal point of our salvation from sin as a narrative that revolves around us? If true, we are missing something in the Bible and I think it involves that prayer Jesus prayed to His father just a few hours before His betrayal and eventual death. The following is from John 17:1-5

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Before Christ ever prayed for His disciples or those who would come after (later Christians) He prayed first and foremost that His Father would be glorified. In return when God would be glorified Jesus would, in turn, be glorified for being faithful in accomplishing the reason He came.

Before His own safety, His disciples, the multitude that would later believe, He first prayed God would be glorified above all things. We may sing “like a rose trampled on the ground, you thought of me above all” but this is just an example of how we have gotten it wrong in the church. Jesus did not go to the cross thinking of us above all. He went to the cross looking to glorify God. We just happen to be the benefactors of this act. To think we are the center of the story is to assume that there is something good, redeemable, and worthy, within us that God would be moved to act because of who we are. To say Jesus endured the cross to free us from our sin as if this was the primary reason is to place our needs, wants, desires, and well-being, above God. By this we say in our hearts “we will ascend to the Heavens, we will raise our throne above the stars of God (read Isaiah 14:12-13). We end up committing the very sin that got Satan kicked out of Heaven. If we ever hear anything that does not first give glory to God the message will always be man-centered. God will not compete with this arrogance.

We believe that Christ died for us, which is true and verified in several verses but when we ask “why did he die for us” many will say because He loved us. Granted again true but this can not be the primary reason. Why? Because we are not the center of the universe and This assumes there is something good within us that would move God to act on our behalf. We believe that we are so great that God HAS to move to salvage the good parts of us so the bad parts can finally melt away. But To assume that God would give up His only son for a created being who is absolutely disgusting, immoral, judgemental, and takes more after the father of lies than God himself is nothing short of arrogant. Yet we continue to believe we are good, maybe we have fed the poor or clothed the orphans. Maybe we have provided shelter to the homeless or gone on a few mission trips. We think “we aren’t as bad as________. But to God, we are all guilty and even the things we do that we think are good are nothing but “filthy rags” to God. This illustration of filthy rags is the equivalent of used female hygiene products. To God, our good deeds are nothing more than a used liner. We are disgusting, our very lives, even in our best moments, are nothing but garbage to God. To think there is something good that God can use is like saying “maybe this old bloody feminine hygiene product is still useful”. This should drive us to our knees! We need to see that we are depraved and have nothing holy within us. When we stand before a holy God we should tremble with fear and cry out “have mercy on me a sinner“! Please do not believe for one second that there is some good in you that demands the sacrifice of God Himself. Do not think that you are somehow good enough for God to look on you and say “yeah you meet my requirements. You still have some black spots. I will take care of those by allowing my Son to die for you” This cheapens His sacrifice and downplays how serious sin really is! Paul Washer sums it up like this. Our Holy God is a lion and we have become so arrogant in our sin, we continue sinning and say to God “what are you gonna do about it”. We arrogantly walk up to God, the lion, and smack Him in the face and DARE Him to not do something about it!

However, God would allow His Son die if He were the one to receive glory from it! Jesus allowed Himself to be crushed by His own Father (Isaiah 53:10). By doing so His righteousness would be given to those who would believe in Him. Once those who put their faith In Jesus are made righteous their worship and good deeds are acceptable to God. He accepts their praises and is glorified because of them. But none of that would not be possible without Jesus’ sacrifice. God gets the glory from all saints because of Jesus willingly offering His life. We are made righteous so that way we can worship God and our worship would be acceptable to Him.

If you ever hear “Christ died for you” remember this is true but it is not primary. Jesus died for the glory of His father. Our worldview and who we are is dependent on how we view God. Do we truly believe everything that has happened and ever will happen revolves around God or us? Did Jesus die for us or for God? If everything that ever was and ever will be rests solely on His shoulders than it makes sense to say Christ died for God and His glory. Our whole understanding of this affects how we understand the preeminent event in all of world history! John Piper says this:

“Is the basic riddle of the universe how to preserve man’s rights and solve his problems (say, the right of self-determination, and the problem of suffering)? Or is the basic riddle of the universe how an infinitely worthy God in complete freedom can display the full range of His perfections – what Paul calls “the riches of His glory” (Romans 9:23) – His holiness and power and wisdom and justice and wrath and goodness and truth and grace?”

Please do not miss the reason Christ died. He died for the Glory of the Father and in turn, He would also be glorified. In order for this glory to happen, we had to be saved from our depravity so that true and acceptable worship could be given to a Holy God. He gets the worship and glory of all creation, we are the benefactors of Christ’s death but not the reason.