©Wendy Anne Clark, 2025

How do we know that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and not just as a man who was executed by the Roman government?

First of all, God promised a Messiah and gave many prophecies about this Messiah. It was prophesied that the Messiah would suffer for the sins of all people. Other prophecies about the Messiah say that He will establish a kingdom and rule justly over all the world. 

One thing to understand about Old Testament prophecy is that it has a dual nature to it. Some parts have already been fulfilled, and some parts are yet to be fulfilled. Sometimes we see it fulfilled at more than one place in history. So it is legitimate to say that Jesus came and fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Messiah as a Suffering Servant, and that He will come again to fulfill the prophecies of a king coming to rule and to reign, as prophesied to John in His vision on Patmos that we know as “Revelation,” the last book in the Bible.

Messiah as a Suffering Servant 

Until about 1100 A.D. Jewish rabbis believed and taught that the Suffering Servant, the individual spoken about in Isaiah 53, was the prophesied Messiah. In the mid 1100s A.D., a French rabbi named Rashi taught that the Suffering Servant described by the prophet Isaiah is not a person, but the nation of Israel or the Jewish people as a collective. Since then, this has become the common teaching of rabbis for the meaning of Isaiah 53, but sometime later, most rabbis stopped reading it aloud in synagogue or teaching on it at all because it raises so many questions.

Today, the majority of Jewish people will never hear a teaching on Isaiah 53, and if they ask their rabbi about it, they are likely to be told that it is not something they would understand. This is the testimony of many Jewish people who decide that Jesus is the Messiah after they read and pray over Isaiah 53, which is sometimes called “the forbidden chapter.”

Messianic Jews are Jews who believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah and fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament.  When they share the Gospel with Jews, they often choose to begin with Isaiah 53 and establish that the rabbis taught this passage as being about the Messiah until only relatively recently in history. They then point out that prophecy states that the Messiah will come before the destruction of the second temple, which occurred in 70 A.D. 

They point out that we can conclude that the Messiah already came and they ask, who lived before 70 A.D. that could possibly have been the Messiah? Who could Isaiah 53 be describing? And very often Jewish people can come to that answer on their own. Jesus seems the obvious answer.

How do the rabbis explain why they believe the prophecy was not fulfilled and that God did not send the Messiah before the destruction of the temple as He promised? How can they still be waiting for the Messiah to come? They say because the people weren’t ready to receive Him, God had to delay His promise and did not send the Messiah when He had said He would come. That explanation doesn’t really work because the prophecies describe exactly that many of His own people will not be ready and will not receive Him. And the Bible is clear that God always keeps His promises.

Numbers 23:19
“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”

John the Baptist

Old Testament prophecy says that there will be a messenger who will come to prepare the way of the Messiah. John the Baptist points to himself as the messenger and to Jesus as the Messiah. The word “Christ” means “Messiah” or “Anointed One”:

John 3:26-28
And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

John the Baptist points back to the prophecy of Isaiah:

John 1:23
He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (Isaiah 40:3)

Matthew, the disciple of Jesus, also points back to the prophet Isaiah when he describes John the Baptist:

Matthew 3:1-3
“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” 

Isaiah 53 is so important because it says that the Messiah will suffer before He comes into His kingdom and rules and reigns. After Jesus died and rose from the dead, the disciples remembered this and understood, but the Jewish people for centuries focused not on the Messiah who would suffer, but on the time when He would come into power and rule over the whole world, and this is why many Jewish people rejected Jesus because He did not overthrow the Roman oppressors.

Let’s take a look at the prophecies in Isaiah 52 and 53 that relate to the Messiah. Notice the words that point to sin and him dying for our sin like “transgressions” (rebellion against God and general rebellion and the guilt and punishment that it carries), “iniquity” (depravity and the guilt and punishment that it carries), “chastisement” (discipline or correction for error or going the wrong way), “an offering for guilt” (a sin offering), “he bore the sin of many” (the sins and the punishment and guilt that they carry)

Isaiah 52:13-15
“Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.”

Isaiah 53
“Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken,     smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

“Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 

“Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

Job referred to God as his “Redeemer.” (Job 19: 25) This was the idea that someone would come and pay a price that would set another free. The Apostle Paul refers back to this idea and uses it as an analogy for slavery to sin and the salvation from sin that comes through Jesus.

Paul’s Letter to the Romans

Russel Brand in a recent discussion of the death of Charlie Kirk, said that he told Charlie that he was reading and studying Romans, and Charlie told him that Romans is the Christian equivalent to the U.S. Constitution, that it lays down all of the foundational tenants and beliefs for the Christian faith. In his letter to the Romans, Paul explains sin and salvation and how the blood of Jesus was a blood sacrifice that pays for our sin and redeems us from the just punishment that is coming for all sin. He explains grace and how it is a gift that we do not deserve, freely given to us.

Here is how Paul begins his letter to the Romans. (I chose to use the New Living Translation here because Paul deals with some complicated ideas, and the NLT makes things easier to understand. I also have left out verse numbers, so that it’s easier to read this as the people first received it. Chapters and verses were added much later to make it easier for us all to look things up.)

Romans 1:1-5
“This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.”

Remember that the word “Christ” means “Messiah” or “Anointed One.” “Good News” is what the term “Gospel” means. This is what we are told to go and preach in order to make disciples. Paul establishes what that “Good News” is in this letter to the Romans. It’s a very important letter, and that may be why there are people who say they do not pay attention to the teachings of Paul. If you do, it’s impossible to argue that one can be saved by his own efforts and “good works.” But here’s what Peter says about the teachings of Paul:

2 Peter 3:15-16
“And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.”

So those who toss out the teachings of Paul must also reject the teachings of Peter because Peter affirms Paul and his teachings.

In the rest of Romans 1, Paul establishes that all people everywhere have had the truth of God’s existence revealed to them through Creation, through everything that God has made, and this truth hasn’t been hidden from anyone in the world, throughout all of human history.

In Romans 2, Paul introduces the idea that to not obey the laws of God is to sin and that the only way to not be a sinner is to obey all of the laws of God perfectly. He says that no one is able to do that and that we will be judged for our sin, according to the law.

Paul continues this teaching in Romans 3, establishing that all people are sinners, Jews and Gentiles. No one escapes the requirements of the law. He says that everyone is under the power of sin, and he refers back to Psalm 14 and Psalm 53:

Romans 3:10-18
As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”

“Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies. Snake venom drips from their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. They rush to commit murder. Destruction and misery always follow them. They don’t know where to find peace. They have no fear of God at all.”

Paul explains the purpose of the law:

Romans 3:19-20

“Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”

Then he repeats that every human being is a sinner and that Jesus came as a sacrifice for our sin:

Romans 3:23-25
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood . . .”

Paul makes it clear that we cannot save ourselves by obeying the law.

Romans 3:27-28
“Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”

In Romans 4, Paul talks more about faith, and he uses Abraham as an example. Even though Abraham lived before Jesus, he lived with the understanding that it was God who would provide a sacrifice for his sin and save him. Looking back, we are able to see this as the meaning behind the event where God asked him to sacrifice Isaac and then provided a sacrifice instead.

Romans 4:20-25
“Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.”

In Romans 5, Paul says this about Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins:

Romans 5:6-9
“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.”

In Romans 6, Paul talks about how the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross sets us free from the power of sin and death.

Romans 6:12-14
“Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.”

Romans 6:20-23
“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In Romans 7, Paul talks about the sin struggle and the reality that though we are no longer slaves to sin it hasn’t left us entirely. In Romans 8, he tells us that we are not condemned when we are in Christ and still fail and sin, that this sin does not lead to spiritual death, but we are guaranteed eternal life because Jesus already paid for our sin: past, present, and future.

Romans 8:1-2
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”

Romans 8:9-11
“But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”

There is so much more that the Apostle Paul teaches about sin and salvation and faith and grace, but this is enough to see that yes, Jesus died specifically for our sins, to save us, to redeem us, to take on the punishment that we deserved for our sin and to make us righteous before God.

This is what Paul says is the most important teaching to know and understand:

1 Corinthians 15:3-6
“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.”

The Teaching of John

This is what John, the Apostle, says about who Jesus is and why He came to earth:

John 1:10-14
“He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”

The Teaching of Peter

This is what Peter, the Apostle, says about Jesus dying on the cross:

I Peter 2:24
“He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.”

I Peter 3:18
“Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.”

But what did Jesus say about Himself in regards to why He died and the significance of His death?

At His last Passover dinner before He was crucified, Jesus picked up a cup known as “the cup of redemption.” He held it up, and He used it to point to Himself. The disciples would have recognized that Jesus took a cup that had always been used to remember their redemption from slavery in Egypt when God provided Moses as a deliverer, and He gave that cup a new significance.

Matthew 26:27-28
And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”

What was this covenant that Jesus refers to and that the disciples knew well? It was a blood covenant, a spotless lamb sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins. John the Baptist refers to this covenant when he points to Jesus and says this: “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Jesus, referring to Himself as “the Son of Man,” says this:

Mark 10:45
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The Bible absolutely teaches that Jesus died on the cross in our place to take the punishment for our sins. This teaching is central to what it means to be a Christian. Though it is through the Apostle Paul that we get most of the detailed and specific teaching about the cross, we also understand that He died for our sins by reading the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah, what John the Baptist said about himself and about Jesus, and what Matthew, Peter, and John wrote about Jesus. And we also know it from what Jesus said about Himself and His death on the cross.

There are people throughout all of history who rejected Jesus as dying for our sins on the cross and yet still referred to themselves as “Christians.” But Christians, those who are disciples of Jesus or “little Christs,” believe what the Bible teaches about who Jesus is and why He came.