When did Jesus die?
We will be looking at several passages to answer that, but the simple answer to this question is…He died at the APPOINTED TIME. Though men hated Jesus and plotted His death, they could not seize Him until the APPOINTED TIME that God the Father had determined He should die. We see this truth in Peter’s first message to his Jewish brethren on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2:23, “Him (Jesus), being DELIVERED BY THE DETERMINATE PURPOSE AND FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (NKJV). Again, men tried to put Him to death on several occasions. In John 7:30 we read, “Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because HIS HOUR HAD NOT YET COME.” God had appointed an exact hour when He would allow wicked men to crucify Him, but until that hour came, they were powerless to lay a hand on Him. We will now look at 4 passages which bring out clearly that it was God who APPOINTED THE TIME OF HIS DEATH and we will see why God sent His Son into the world to die.
1) In 1st Peter 1:19-20 we learn that we were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these LAST TIMES for you.” We learn here that God pre-determined that His Son would be the Lamb of God who would die for sinners in order to redeem them. His plan of salvation for man was determined BEFORE TIME began but it was fulfilled in these LAST TIMES for us. God knew that Adam would sin in the garden of Eden and plunge humanity into sin. He knew that sin would expose them to death and eternal judgment. Yet in love for us He designed a plan where His Son would take man’s place in death and judgment as the Lamb of God. The Son submitted to His Father’s plan and in God’s time He came and laid His life down on the cross and shed His blood so believing sinners could be redeemed. What is meant by “these last times?” We shall seek to answer that in the next 3 passages.
2) In Galatians 4:4-5 we read, “But when the FULLNESS OF TIME had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” One has said that “the fullness of time speaks of the END of an APPOINTED period.” The death of Jesus was by Divine appointment but there was a period that led up to His death that had to run its course. I believe that up until the “hour of Jesus’ death,” God was testing mankind “under the law” to prove that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Law proved that “there is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10) and that if men were to be saved, they would need a sinless Savior to take their place in death and judgment to pay the penalty for their sins.
3) In Romans 5:6 we read, “For when we were still without strength, in DUE TIME Christ died for the ungodly.” Again, these words “in due time,” show that Christ’s death was by Divine Appointment. God had to prove, in the time leading up to Christ’s death, that all men were powerless to save themselves. Paul calls us “ungodly” and he goes on in verses 8 and 10 to call us “sinners” and “enemies.” The truth is we loved sin and hated God. Our love of sin and hatred of God joined together to show that we were indeed “without strength” and we needed a Savior who would love us and die for us.
4) In Hebrews 9:26 we read, “He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at THE END OF THE AGES, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” I believe this phrase “the end of the ages” confirms what we have already seen. There were “ages of time” before Christ died where God was testing mankind to prove to them that they were ungodly sinners who had no desire or strength to redeem themselves from the penalty of sin. After it was proven, that men were hopelessly lost, Christ “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
In closing, I would add that the EXACT TIME that Christ would die was prophesied in Daniel’s prophecy of “Seventy Weeks.” In Daniel 9:25-26 we read, “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks….and after sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off.” The words “Messiah shall be CUT OFF” refer to His death on the cross. Sir Robert Anderson, in his book “The Coming Prince,” gave detailed calculations of these “sixty-nine weeks” and he proved that Christ was indeed “cut off in death” at the end of this period of time. (DO) (582.5)