The death of Jesus was not a failure

From a comment to the article “The origin of the munist movement (church of unification)“:

The purpose for which Jesus came to earth was nothing more than to restore the fall. If Jesus, who came as the second Adam, had not lost his life on the cross, he would have restored God’s original bloodline, which has nothing to do with the fall, and repaired the failure of the first Adam, creating the true family as the savior of mankind and would have founded on earth the original homeland of men – the Kingdom of the world which would have embodied the ideal of peace, in other words the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. That was the purpose of his coming to earth, and it remains God’s ultimate purpose for mankind. Biblical support (Luke 1: 31-33, Isa. 9: 6-7, Matt. 4:17). However, the disciples, the Jewish leaders, failed to acknowledge Christ, and their unbelief caused Jesus to end His life in such a tragic and pathetic way. 

I was amazed at the careless and irresponsible way in which these lines were written. I cannot imagine how a person who claims to be a Christian can speak in this way about the Lord Jesus Christ. 

But let’s get back to the topic. Proponents of the Moonist Movement claim that Jesus, because of his death, did not complete the work entrusted to him by God, and therefore asked Moon to complete this work. Let’s see what the Scriptures say about the death of Jesus. 

The death of Jesus was not a failure, but:

… it was the choice of the Lord Jesus:

For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it back. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back. This commandment I received from My Father.” (John 10:17-18 NASB)

… it was God’s plan:

The Old Covenant or the Law Covenant has only the shadow of future goods, not the true appearance of things. (Hebrews 10:1 NASB). Through all the ordinances of the Old Covenant, God wanted to show the people of Israel the work He would do through Jesus Christ in the New Covenant. All the sacrifices according to the Old Covenant were meant to blot out people’s sins. And yet no one was made perfect by the Covenant of the Law, because these sacrifices were not able to cleanse the minds of men from the evil thoughts that led them to sin.

 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “You have not desired sacrifice and offering, but You have prepared a body for Me; you have not taken pleasure in whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (It is written of Me in the scroll of the book) to do Your will, O God.’” After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. (Hebrews 10:5-10 NASB)

From this text we see clearly that God’s will for the Lord Jesus was for Him to be offered as a sacrifice for our sanctification. 

… it was proclaimed by the prophets long before the birth of the Lord Jesus

Psalm 22 describes in detail the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. This psalm was written about 900 years before Christ, at a time when mankind did not know the method of punishment by crucifixion. Crucifixion was introduced as a method of death penalty during the Roman Empire. Here are some verses from this Psalm:

But I am a worm and not a person, a disgrace of mankind and despised by the people. All who see me deride me; they sneer, they shake their heads, saying, Turn him over to the Lord; let Him save him; let Him rescue him, because He delights in him. Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb; you made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts. I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a piece of pottery, and my tongue clings to my jaws; and You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; they divide my garments among them, and they cast lots for my clothing.(Psalms 22:6-9, 14-18 NASB)

Daniel in his book writes about the things to come and the “time of the end.” In chapter 9, Daniel prays for his people and for Jerusalem. It was in the first year of Darius the Mede’s reign. It had been 70 years since the fall of Jerusalem and from the books, from the prophecies of Jeremiah, he had learned that God had decided these 70 years for Jerusalem. While Daniel was praying, Gabriel came to him (Daniel 9:21) and told him God’s plan for Jerusalem and the people of Israel:

“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.” (Daniel 9:24-27 NASB)

We see that after 69 determined weeks for Israel and Jerusalem, the Anointed One would be wiped out. This was God’s plan for the salvation of all mankind, not just the Jews, as it is written in Romans 11:11, “By their wrongdoing (of the Jews), salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.”

Translated by Liza Bîrlădeanu