Why did Christ have to suffer and die? These and other questions come at 9:00 AM Sunday School, and really make you think.

OK, put that brain in gear, I know this one. Well, God is a God of justice. Sin demands a penalty, and if Christ didn’t die, then how could our sins be forgiven? Sure, the Jews could have accepted Christ as their Messiah, crowned him King, skipped several thousand years of history, and human kind would be all set right? But what about our sin? Would God just magically wipe it away? No, Christ’s suffering and death on the cross were necessary in order to pay for that sin. Anyway, if you claim that it wasn’t God’s plan for Christ to die on the cross, then you’re saying that his death was God’s backup plan. What does that say about your God?

Question answered, brain disengaged. But does it really end there? And when do you engage the heart in all this? Because I think it needs to be engaged. The plan all along was for Christ to die on the cross. He knew that. From the creation of the world he knew that. Yet he did it anyway. Engage the heart, boggle the mind.

Why is it that I can engage my mind with Christianity for the Sunday School answer, but it isn’t until my heart weighs the question that it truly impacts my life?