Lord’s Day 16
Q40. Why did Christ have to suffer death?
Because God's justice and truth demand it: only the death of God's Son could pay for our sin.
Scripture Proofs — King James Version
Genesis 2:17
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Romans 8:3–4
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Philippians 2:8
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Hebrews 2:9, 14–15
“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
Modernized Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
Up to this point in our discussion of the second part of the Creed, we have spoken only of the person of the Mediator. We will now turn to His office, which is addressed in the remaining portion of the Creed's second division, the section dealing with God the Son and our redemption. We will begin with the humiliation of Christ, which is the first aspect of His office and is covered in the fourth Article: Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell. The passion and suffering of Christ is placed immediately after His conception and birth for two reasons.
1. Because our entire salvation rests on His suffering and death.
2. Because His whole life was one unbroken experience of suffering and deprivation. There is also much that can and should be profitably observed in the account of Christ's earthly life as written by those who witnessed firsthand the events they describe. This account not only confirms Him as the promised Messiah, since every prophetic prediction converges and finds its fulfillment in Him, but it also gives us a window into the humiliation and obedience He rendered to His Father.