Critics in the First Century were saying that Jesus couldn't be the Messiah since he was executed as a criminal. The Gospel stories responded by showing that he demonstrated his Messianic greatness by his silently accepting every abuse thrown at him.
In Chapter Six of his "Letter to the Romans" Paul said a key thing about the death by which Jesus saved us. In verse ten of that chapter Paul wrote, "His death was a death to sin."
Paul, by saying Jesus died to sin meant that Jesus, by withstanding every temptation to sin, proved himself to be so impervious to temptation, that Paul could say Jesus was dead to sin.
Do you remember the pop song "Oh, the devil sat down and cried?" It went like this:
A
sinful man was set to go, the devil was waiting down below.
Then,
something happened just before he died. He had a vision,
Saw
the light. He told the devil, go fly a kite,
And
so, the devil sat down and cried.
Pardon me for being irreverent, but Jesus did something like
the man in the song.
He was led into the desert where for forty days he withstood every temptation the devil could throw at him. Then, through three years of public life, and through three hours on the cross he resisted every temptation to back out of the challenge the Father had set before him. Jesus saved us by that death.
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