“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18a).
Consider four important things this verse tells us about Jesus’ death.
1. “Christ died for sins.” The gospel message is not just that a man was crucified; in the Roman era, that happened all the time. What the New Testament affirms is that Jesus’ death on the cross was God’s appointed sacrifice to take away sins, the heart of His plan for redeeming mankind. He “bore the sin of many and…