问题24：为什么救赎主基督必须受死？
答：因为罪的工价乃是死。为了救我们脱离罪的权势和刑罚，并带我们归回神，基督甘愿替我们受死。通过祂的代赎之死，祂独自将我们从地狱中救赎出来，并为我们赢得了罪的赦免、公义和永生。
儿童版：基督甘愿替我们受死，为了救我们脱离罪的权势和刑罚，并带我们归回神。

Question 24: Why Was it Necessary for Christ, the Redeemer, to Die?
Answer: Since death is the punishment for sin, Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to God. By his substitutionary atoning death, he alone redeems us from hell and gains for us forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and everlasting life.
For Kids: Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to God.


歌谱 Lead Sheet

经文

《歌罗西书》1 章21 节至22 节：

　　你们从前与神隔绝，因着恶行，心里与祂为敌。但如今祂藉着基督的肉身受死，叫你们与自己和好，都成了圣洁，没有瑕疵，无可责备，把你们引到自己面前。

注解

亚祂那修

　　耶稣取了与我们一样可朽坏的身体，把它交给了死，替所有人献给了父。祂如此行是出于对我们纯粹的爱，这样，众人与祂同死，从而就废掉了死的律，因为死的使命既已在肉身中完成了，从此也就失去了在人身上的权势。祂通过自己肉身的死和复活，让败坏中的人成为圣洁并因此而活着。祂由此将死从他们身上彻底除去，就像火中的稻草一样。

默想

狄马可

　　为什么救赎主基督必须死？这是个沉重的话题，我不知道还有没有比这更加沉重的话题了。基督的一生是完美的一生，是你我应该效法的榜样。祂生活在爱和服侍中，祂一生都信靠祂的天父，这令人惊叹。这样的耶稣为什么必须死？为什么从道德上来说祂必须死？

　　祂不是为自己而死，如果我们只考虑耶稣自己，祂就不用上十字架了。祂死是因为要成为救赎主，祂这样做是自愿的，是祂天父的旨意，也是祂自己的意思，是为了救赎我们。祂甘愿舍去生命，祂情愿牺牲自己，死在十字架上，为要拯救我们脱离我们应得的刑罚。神是良善的，祂必会惩罚罪。你我在暗中所行的错事，就算是没人知道的那些，神都知道。神是真实的，神不是一个概念，不是我们心中的幻像，这位神是非分明，每一项罪都会受到神的惩罚。耶稣因此而来，祂定意要成为我们的救赎主，这也是天父的旨意。耶稣献上自己为祭，为了要代替我们。「代替」这个词经常用来表示「作为替代物」，被放在你我的位置上。只要我们悔改离开罪恶，信靠祂，耶稣就代替我们。

　　所以这位救赎主为什么必须死？因为这是你我唯一得生命的方法。

祷告

　　为我们赎罪的救主，谢谢祢没有改变心意，而是忍受了一切，直至死在十字架上。因为祢的死，我们可以永远活着。求祢帮助我们既知道了这些，就以勇气、信心和盼望来面对我们自己的死亡。阿们。

Scripture

COLOSSIANS 1:21–22

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

Commentary

ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA

Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished because, having fulfilled in His body that for which it was appointed, it was thereafter voided of its power for men. This He did that He might turn again to incorruption men who had turned back to corruption, and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection. Thus He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire.

Devotional

MARK DEVER

Why was it necessary for Christ, the Redeemer, to die? This is a heavy question. I don’t know if questions get much heavier than this. Christ lived a perfect life, the life you and I should have lived. He lived a life of love, of service. He lived an amazing life of trust in his heavenly Father. So the question is a pressing one. Why should one like that die? Why was it morally necessary?

Well, he didn’t have to die for his own sake. If we were thinking just about Jesus, there would be no necessity for the cross. No, he died because he would be the Redeemer. It was his will, and also his heavenly Father’s will, to redeem us. It was his will to lay down his life, to sacrifice himself by dying on the cross in order to rescue us from the penalty that we deserved. You see, because God is good, he will punish sin. That wrong thing that you or I have done in secret— God knows about it. God’s real. He’s not just an idea. He’s not just a figment of our imagination. And this God is so thoroughly committed to what is good and right that every sin will be punished. And this is where Jesus comes in. Jesus determined to be our Redeemer. It was the will of his heavenly Father that he give himself as a sacrifice in substitution. That’s a word that’s often used—as a substitute, in the place of, instead of you and me. Jesus is our substitute if we repent of our sins, turn from them and trust in him.

So why did the Redeemer need to die? Because that’s the only way you and I would live.

Prayer

Atoning Savior, thank you that you didn’t turn back, but endured all the way to death on the cross, and beyond. Because of your death, we can live eternally. With this knowledge, help us face our own deaths with courage, faith, and hope. Amen.