Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed Him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.
Acts 2:23 You who are Israelites, hear these words. Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, (the God) of Isaac, and (the God) of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence, when he had decided to release him.
To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore He establishes His eternal plan of "predestination", He includes in it each person's free response to His grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place." (Acts 4:27-28) For the sake of accomplishing His plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.
Psalm 2:1-2 Why do the nations protest and the peoples conspire in vain? Kings on earth rise up and princes plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one.
Matthew 26:54 But then how would the scriptures be fulfilled which say that it must come to pass in this way?
John 18:36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here."
John 19:11 Jesus answered (him), "You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin."
Acts 3:17-18 Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did; but God has thus brought to fulfillment what He had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. "He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures"
The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin. Citing a confession of faith that he himself had "received", St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures." In particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfills Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Servant. Indeed Jesus Himself explained the meaning of His life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant. After His Resurrection He gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.
Isaiah 53:11 Because of His affliction He shall see the light in fullness of days; Through His suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt He shall bear.
Isaiah 53:12 Therefore I will give Him His portion among the great, and He shall divide the spoils with the mighty, Because He surrendered Himself to death and was counted among the wicked; And He shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses.
John 8:34-36 Jesus answered them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains. So if a son frees you, then you will truly be free.
Acts 3:14 You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.
1 Corinthian 15:3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
Acts 3:18 but God has thus brought to fulfillment what He had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that His Messiah would suffer
.
Acts 7:52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.
Acts 13:29 and when they had accomplished all that was written about Him, they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb.
Acts 26:22-23 But I have enjoyed God's help to this very day, and so I stand here testifying to small and great alike, saying nothing different from what the prophets and Moses foretold, that the Messiah must suffer and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles."
Isaiah 53:7-8 Though He was harshly treated, He submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, He was silent and opened not His mouth. Oppressed and condemned, He was taken away, and who would have thought any more of His destiny? When He was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people,
Acts 8:32-35 This was the scripture passage he was reading: "Like a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not his mouth. In (his) humiliation justice was denied Him. Who will tell of His posterity? For His life is taken from the earth." Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, "I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?" Then Philip opened His mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage, He proclaimed Jesus to him.
Matthew 20:28 Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many."
Luke 24:25-27 And He said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into His glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.
Luke 24:44-45 He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.
"For our sake God made him to be sin"
Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake." Man's sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death. By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
1 Peter 1:18-20 You were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb. He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned.
1 Corinthian 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake He made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Philippians 2:7 Rather, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance.
Romans 8:3 For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.
Jesus did not experience reprobation as if He Himself had sinned. But in the redeeming love that always united Him to the Father, He assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin, to the point that He could say in our name from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Having thus established Him in solidarity with us sinners, God "did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all", so that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son".
John 8:46 Can any of you charge me with sin? If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me?
Mark 15:34 And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Psalm 22:2 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why so far from my call for help, from my cries of anguish?
John 8:29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him."
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for us all, how will He not also give us everything else along with him?
Romans 5:10 Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by His life.
God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love.
By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that His plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that H loved us and sent His Son to be the expiation for our sins." God "shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
1 John 4:10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
1 John 4:19We love because He first loved us.
Romans 5::81 But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
Romans 5::81 But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He affirms that He came "to give His life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands Himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."
Matthew 18:14 In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.
Matthew 20:28 Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many."
Romans 5:18-1 In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.
2 Corinthians 5:15 He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.
1 John 2:2 He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.