" (Luke
23:22-24) Thus the civil power yielded to the importunities of
ecclesiasticism, and Jesus was led away and crucified on Calvary's hill.
And Pilate, more righteous than the clerics, posted over his cross the
sign: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews".
[226]Thus died the Son of God, the great antitypical "Lamb ... which
taketh away the sin of the world". (John 1:29) In the eyes of those that
stood by he died as a sinner, crucified between two thieves, under the
charge of disloyalty to the constituted powers, yet wholly innocent,
harmless, and without sin.
[227]Here he fulfilled that which the Prophet of God had foretold of
him long in advance, in that he "poured out his soul unto death, and he
was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many".
--Isaiah 53:12.
WHY MUST HE DIE?
[228]But why should the great, the good, the pure, the sinless Man die
in such an ignominious manner as this? Was there no other means whereby
man could live? The Scriptures answer that there is no other way whereby
man could get life. Divine justice demanded the life of the perfect man
Adam and took that life. Divine justice could receive nothing as a
substitute for Adam except the life of a perfect human being. Adam was
put to death because he was a sinner. The one who would redeem Adam
must die _as_ a sinner, yet without sin.
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