Believers often say something like this: “Jesus died for our sins,” or, “Jesus died for us.” Perhaps an explanation would be helpful. The word “for” is the key. That word appears frequently in the Bible’s description of Jesus’s saving work.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (I Corinthians 15:3)

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:4)

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (Galatians 3:13)

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2)

Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (I Thessalonians 5:10)

Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:14)

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (I Peter 3:18)

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (I John 2:2)

I’m afraid many take that word “for” in a purely sentimental sense like it is used in a love song: “Everything I do, I do it for you.” We romanticize the death of Jesus so that in our thinking, His death serves merely to demonstrate His strong feelings toward us. But Jesus wasn’t expressing His warm affection when He said,

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:11, 15)

What does the Bible mean by this word “for?” [1] The Bible makes four statements that together capture the entire meaning of the word “for.” First, Jesus died for us, meaning that His death was a benefit to us. Second, He died for us “that He might bring us to God.” The ultimate benefit to us is that His death made it possible for sinners to be reconciled to God. Third, Jesus died “for our sins.” Our sin is the obstacle that keeps us from being able to enjoy God or be in a relationship with Him. That obstacle had to be removed, and the death of Jesus removed it so that we could be reconciled to God. Fourth, Jesus died our death. That is the central point of the gospel, how our sins are removed so that we might be reconciled to God. Our sins incurred God’s wrath and demands for justice. Those righteous demands could only be satisfied by death – either the death of the sinner or a qualified substitute.[2] God provided a sacrifice that would satisfy His righteous claim against us without resulting in our destruction. Jesus became our substitute when He died on the cross. Thus, Jesus took the penalty for sins He did not commit so that we could escape that penalty and escaping it, could be reconciled to God. That is the benefit to us, the reason Jesus died for us.[3]

Jesus thought of His death this way. The final scenes in the last twenty-four hours of His life show us what Jesus thought of what He was about to do. Three scenes dominate that last day: the upper room, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the cross. Consider what these three events tell us Jesus believed He was doing.

First, in the upper room, Jesus shows us how He wanted His disciples to understand His death. In a sense, Jesus planned His own memorial service, a memorial service He intended should be celebrated from the time of His death until the time of His return. In that memorial service, Jesus taught us to commemorate not only His death, but the point of His death. When He broke the bread and gave it to His disciples, He explained the point:

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. (Luke 22:19-20)

Paul testified that the Lord Jesus personally taught him the meaning and significance of this Supper.

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. (I Corinthians 11:23-25)

In the upper room, Jesus didn’t point His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane as if that were the central event of the night. He pointed to the cross, the place where His body was broken, and His blood was shed by the hands of sinners. He declared that His crucifixion would be vicarious (“broken for you”). But He also claimed that the cup commemorates the new testament (literally, the new covenant) in His blood.

Here is Jesus’ view of his death. It is the divinely appointed sacrifice by which the new covenant with its promise of forgiveness will be ratified. He is going to die in order to bring his people into a new covenant relationship with God. [4]

Take note: salvation doesn’t rest on your making a covenant with God, but on His Son making a covenant with God on your behalf and applying His blood to you so that you can be included in that covenant.

Second, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was consumed with the cross, not with His sweating as it were great drops of blood. Christ’s agony in the garden was not the agony of atoning for us. His agony in the garden was caused by His understanding of the cross. We know this because when Jesus was in this agony, He was not thinking of what He was doing at that moment. He was thinking of what He would be called to do shortly.

Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:38-39)

Two things that this agony tells us about the cross. First, this must have been an extraordinary thing, for Jesus shrank from it. Surely, death itself didn’t cause this visceral response; death is the end of all men, common to us all. How could it not be craven weakness for Jesus to respond to His death this way, if His death was merely natural and not penal? Jesus knew that the cup He was called to drink was not the same cup every other man is called to drink. His was unique, and only He could drink it. And in that cup was poured all the wine of God’s wrath. Jesus was about to take upon Himself the sins of humanity and, as a result, to experience both the alienation from God that sin causes and the wrath of God that sin deserves.

Christ’s agony tells us that He was about to face something worse than death – the wrath of God. But it also tells us that Jesus couldn’t do anything but drink that cup. For more than once, Jesus prayed that that cup would pass from Him if possible. It was not possible. Jesus must die as the sin-bearer, not only because this was God’s plan for our salvation but also because God determined to bring salvation to sinners through the death of His Son.

Third, the cross itself tells us what Jesus was doing. I urge you, friend, to ask why the cross is virtually ignored in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Bible magnifies the cross, but the LDS church minimizes it. If you read the accounts of the crucifixion, you cannot possibly miss the fact that what Jesus suffered there, He suffered for your sins. Consider that moment when the sky went black at noon, and Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Everything in that event tells us that the feeling of being abandoned by God wasn’t a case of Jesus being hyper-sensitive. Jesus didn’t mistakenly feel forsaken: God forsook Him. God made His soul – the soul of Jesus – an offering for sin. Therefore, God turned His back on His Son so that in His very soul, Jesus experienced the alienation caused by sin.

The cross makes three indisputable claims, which we must not ignore. First, the cross is a stern reminder that our sin is “exceeding sinful” (Romans 7:13). God displayed His wrath against our sin at the cross. Nor can we understand the brutality of the cross apart from this truth. Our sin is not a small thing, a mistake, an “oops!” an imperfection, or a shortcoming. Sin assaults the holiness of God, abuses His goodness, despises His commandments, dishonors Him, insults Him, and incurs His righteous wrath. If you took a moment even now to dwell on the fact that Jesus writhed in agony on the cross because you are full of lust and envy and malice and pride and self, you would come away with a better sense of how terrible your sin really is.

For if there was no way by which the righteous God could righteously forgive our unrighteouusness, except that he should bear it himself in Christ, it must be serious indeed. It is only when we see this that, stripped of our self-righteousness and self-satisfaction, we are ready to put our trust in Jesus Christ as the Savior we urgently need. [5]

Second, at the cross, God shouts His love for sinners.

Amazing love! How can it be! That thou my God shouldst die for me!

God’s love for sinners is something beyond the pale of normal human experience. The Apostle Paul invites us to consider the love of God in light of the common ways of human love:

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8)

We might think we understand God’s love because we see the good things He does for us in providing our needs and cheering our hearts. And we agree that He demonstrates His lovingkindness in the good things of this life and the abundant provision of this world. But in light of Jesus dying on the cross, bleeding, suffering, and tormented to make a way so we could be forgiven and reconciled to God, we know this is something extraordinary. In the cross of Christ, we see love displayed on a level that we can’t comprehend. We have no experience of this love anywhere else. How could we look at the cross of Christ and not be deeply moved, not only by the display of love there but also by its offer to us?

Third, the cross insists that the sinner has nothing left to pay. Jesus paid it all. In pouring out His life-blood on the cross, Jesus satisfied God’s demands for justice. Jesus propitiated our sins. Jesus purchased our pardon with His blood. Jesus did what the Father required. Jesus justifies us freely with His blood. Jesus reconciles us to God. Jesus finished the work God sent Him to do. He declared it so on the cross in His triumphant shout: “It is finished.” God demonstrated that the bloody sacrifice Jesus made on the cross satisfied His demands by raising Jesus from the dead.[6]

I did all the sinning; Jesus does all the saving. That is the point of the gospel. The suggestion that individuals “cannot receive unconditional salvation simply by declaring a belief in Christ” is simply false, a denial of the saving power of Jesus Christ in the gospel. Faith doesn’t save us as a matter of merit or credit. Faith saves us because by faith we receive, on a personal level, the work Christ has done to grant us pardon and forgiveness. Faith saves because faith rests in that work as being alone sufficient to reconcile me to God. By faith, I lay my sin on Jesus. And in exchange for that terrible sin, Jesus lays His righteousness on me.

The LDS church has labored over many years and written volumes of books in order to dissuade you from receiving Jesus and resting exclusively in His work for your sake. But God anticipated that this sort of thing would happen. Many false prophets have risen and have deceived many. The gospel calls you to leave that, to “turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” False beliefs, false religion, false doctrine must be discarded in light of the glorious sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Don’t you think it is time to come to the real Jesus, to see the real work He has really done for you, and to claim that work – the grace of the gospel – as your own? Isn’t it time you set aside all your efforts to perform at a “worthy” level and rest in Jesus as the only one who can save you from sin?

My friend, you must turn from the false gospel promoted by the LDS church and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus died for your sins. Repent of your false belief and receive Jesus as your Savior!

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[1] Of the verses listed above, the Greek word hyper is used in all but Romans 4:25 and I John 2:2. Hyper is a term for substitution. It means “in our place” or “for our sake.”

[2] See Ezekiel 18:4, Romans 6:23

[3] My debts for this and the following sections are to John Stott in The Cross of Christ, especially the third chapter: “Looking Below the Surface,” pp. 66-86.

[4] Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 72.

[5] Stott, p. 85

[6] Acts 2:22-24