God’s plan included the cross because only Jesus could save us from sin.
Why Did God's Plan Include the Crucifixion of His Own Son?
Pastor, Author, and Founder of Leading The Way
Updated
Apr 05, 2025
Why has humanity been unable to solve our biggest problems—wars, genocides, conflicts, and the like? The answer comes to us screaming from the pages of Scripture: Because of man’s sin! Politicians, diplomats, scientists, and educators are constantly talking around the problem, trying to offer solutions while doing everything possible to avoid dealing with the very heart of all brokenness: the reality of sin.
Sin stains our thinking and taints our decision-making. Sin impacts our words, actions, emotions, and will. It cannot be eradicated by diplomacy, politics, education, nor science—great as they may be. Only the cross of Jesus Christ is the true answer to humanity’s desperate need.
The Necessity of Blood to Atone for Sin
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, their transgression against the infinite, holy God was so great that they introduced death and brokenness into the world. They had mistrusted their good, loving Creator, believing instead Satan’s distortion of the Truth. But in His mercy, God shed the blood of an innocent animal and covered Adam and Eve’s shame. He did this to impress upon them the enormity of their sin.
The Bible teaches that life is in the blood, so for a life to be redeemed, there must be life for life, blood for blood (see Leviticus 17:11, 14; Hebrews 9:22). To Adam and Eve and every subsequent generation, God was instituting a sacrificial system—a reminder that sin has consequences, that there can be no atonement without substitution. However, these animal sacrifices were only a temporary covering for sin. They could never permanently atone for our sin and its consequences (see Hebrews 10:4, 11). With this first sacrifice, God pointed to a promised Redeemer whose blood alone could permanently and completely atone for the sins of all who would come to Him (see Hebrews 10:12-14). So the innocent lamb that died for the sins of Adam and Eve foreshadows “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
The Only Blood That Can Atone
When God brought His people out of Egypt using a series of plagues, the final plague was a clear picture of His redemption plan. To escape judgment and death, the Israelites had to take shelter under the blood of the sacrificial lamb, staying inside their homes marked with blood (see Exodus 12:1-30). On Calvary’s cross, Jesus poured out His blood as the perfect Lamb, the ultimate and final fulfillment of Passover. Like the Israelites who obeyed His instructions, God delivers all who have taken cover under the blood of His Son as their only hope for heaven.
It is not enough to agree that the Christian faith is true. You have to accept the shed blood of Jesus Christ as your personal redemption for all your sins past, present, and future. At the cross, the Lamb of God secured permanent forgiveness and eternal salvation—and that’s why He died on the very day of the Passover in Jerusalem.
The Offense of the Cross
Throughout history, the cross of Christ has offended people. Jews were appalled at the idea that the Messiah could have hung on a tree, for Scripture says such a person is cursed (see Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13). They did not understand that Jesus took upon Himself the curse of our sin to save us. Instead, they were offended by the cross, and so were the Gentiles. The Romans, for whom the cross represented defeat, held it in utter contempt. Similarly, the Greeks believed in the “ideal man,” who would never submit to a cross. The cross was, is, and always will be an offense to the natural man.
The natural man considers it utterly foolish that someone dying on a piece of wood could determine the destiny of every human being who has ever lived on the face of the earth. It deals a blow to our pride. Even Peter saw the cross as offensive. When Jesus began to tell His disciples about the cross, Peter rebuked Jesus and tried to stop Him (see Matthew 16:22). Peter’s understanding of the Messiah and His Kingdom had no place for the cross. Jesus responded to His chief apostle, “Get behind me, Satan!” (v. 23). Only after the resurrection did Peter understand the power of the cross. Only then could he say, “‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed’” (1 Peter 2:24).
The Danger of Rejecting the Cross
Muslims reject the cross because they say it represents injustice. Humanists reject the cross because they say it is intellectually contemptible and morally outrageous. Evolutionists reject the cross because it does not fit their theory of survival of the fittest. And today, many Westerners reject the cross because they prefer to rely on themselves for salvation—should salvation even be necessary? But for those who are being saved, the cross is the only means of reconciliation with a holy God.
Rejecting the cross is like someone drowning in the middle of the ocean rejecting the offer of life, saying, “I don’t like your method of rescuing me!” Or perhaps the person says, “I don’t trust whether you really can get me to shore or not.” Another, “I want to try it my way, on my own.” Still another might say, “It’s a sign of weakness to be rescued by someone else,” or perhaps, “I won’t admit that someone else is stronger or more perfect than I.” Someone might say, “I don’t want to feel indebted to someone for rescuing me.” Everyone who rejects the cross as the only way to heaven is basically responding to the Gospel in one of these ways, just like the drowning person.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Who is really the fool? The one who is drowning and refusing the rescue boat! It’s not the lifeline that is foolish but the person who refuses it. The Bible makes it very clear, whether we recognize it or not: The very moment we are born, we are drowning, and there’s only one person who can carry us to safety and eternal security.
Your Salvation Is His Work
Jesus is the only one who can impute His perfection to you—who can eradicate your past, heal your present, and assure you of a bright future. Only when you acknowledge the cross as the perfect and only means of salvation will you have peace with God, peace with others, and peace with yourself, for the message of the cross is the power of God, not your power. It has nothing to do with arrogance, nothing to do with you. When you come to Christ, He makes you a new creature (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Only the cross of Jesus Christ can give hope to the hopeless, bring light to darkness, and strengthen the weak. Only the cross of Jesus Christ can bring relief from the pain of sin, forgiveness to the guilty conscience, and joy to the desperate. The cross of Jesus Christ alone can bring life out of death.
Hanging on the cross on Calvary’s Hill, Jesus uttered seven powerful statements that reveal His heart for and ministry to us. Each individual statement carries the full weight of the Gospel, but together they are a concise portrait of God’s eternal plan of salvation. Download your FREE digital copy of Seven Statements from the Cross and reflect on the love of Jesus that led Him to lay His life down for sinners.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Serhii Ivashchuk
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