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Jesus' dying on the Cross was part of God's plan to save us!

One of the most important messages repeated by Jesus' first followers was that Jesus' death on the Cross wasn't an accident or a tragic surprise. In Old Testament times, God demanded many different kinds of sacrifices to be offered by His people to show their sorrow for their sins.† None of these sacrifices, however, could completely deal with the human problems with sin and the stain that this sin left in the lives of God's people.† God sent Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins.† Jesus' sacrifice was part of God's plan that reached back even before the beginning of time as part of God's plan.†

One of the most vivid and powerful glimpses of God's plan to use His Son as the suffering servant to deal with our sins can be found in Isaiah 53. The prophet proclaims that what happens is God's will!† Jesus accepted this role for His life and told His apostles that this would happen.† One of Jesus' clearest and most powerful statements about this role for His life is found in Mark 10:45.

The apostles were simply not in a place to fully understand Jesus' message until after The Passion and Jesus' resurrection.† The resurrected Jesus explained to them how the Old Testament prophets had spoken about this role for the Messiah.† The apostles later declared this same truth as they reasoned with others who had great difficulty understanding the message of a crucified Messiah.† Jesus died for us at just the right time because of God's love! †