GOSPEL NUGGET #573

Was Christ's Death On The Cross A Suicide?

There are those who say that if Christ actively and voluntarily died on the cross then the whole thing was a suicide, and suicides are wrong.

Reply:

The death of Christ on the cross was a sacrifice, not a suicide. Know the difference:

Suicides are selfish. It has self as its motivation. Here's a man who has been having a very hard, difficult and painful life. He can't take it anymore. He wants to end it all to end his misery. And so, he takes his own life --- that's suicide.

Christ's death on the cross was never like that. It had others as its motivation. He sacrificed Himself for others. A soldier who gives his life fighting for his country is not suicide. A policeman who gives his life to protect the people he is serving is not suicide. A mother who risks her life and losses it in the process to save her baby is not a suicide. In all these examples, no suicide has been committed. Rather, each example is a picture of someone sacrificing his or her own life for the good of others.

The Bible never described Christ's death as a suicide. Rather, it is portrayed as a sacrifice.

Ga 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME

1Co 15:3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ DIED FOR OUR SINS according to the Scriptures,

The verb "died" here is in the active voice. In other words, the verse is saying that Christ actively and voluntarily died for others. The Bible is God's Word and God could never be wrong. He is never wrong in His usage of words and expressions in the Bible. What does God's Word say here? Christ DIED for our sins.

Yes, in one sense Christ was killed (Acts 2:22-23) but in another sense, He (the Lord Jesus Christ) voluntarily died for us too. You see, the reason why those nails penetrated his body, the reason why blood came out of Him was that He allowed it to take place. All the nails in the world would have been used up, the world would run out of nails if He did not allow those nails to penetrate Him. The Lord Jesus could have, in one word, decreed "No!" and those nails, by His miraculous power, would never enter His body.  But He allowed it to take place because He sacrificed and gave His life for our sins.

My friend, Christ sacrificed His life for you. Have you entrusted the salvation of your soul to Him?