One Man’s Death

John 11:51-52

Caiaphas’s words reveal a second perspective on Jesus’s death. God planned Caiaphas’s words to serve his own purpose. They held greater meaning than Caiaphas had planned. Caiaphas’s intention was evil, but God had ordained the death of Jesus. Peter makes this point clearly during his sermon on the Day of Pentecost: “Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him” (Acts 2:23).

God decided for Jesus to die. His death was not an accidental tragedy. It fulfilled God’s eternal plan. But that doesn’t get Caiaphas off the hook. He was not an unwilling puppet. We shouldn’t look at him as a spiritual dummy with God’s hand up his back moving his mouth. Once again we see the interplay between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. As John MacArthur wrote, “God sovereignly turned his wicked, blasphemous words into truth” (John, 484). The death of Jesus Christ may have been politically expedient for the leadership of Israel, but it accomplished more important purposes.

There’s a key word that’s easy to overlook both in Caiaphas’s prophecy (John 11:50) and John’s interpretation of it (vv. 51-52): for. You understand the significance a little more if you substitute the words “in place of” or “on behalf of.” Jesus was dying in place of someone else. This is the language of temple sacrifice. The Gospel of John constantly points us to the Passover Festival, when lambs would be brought into Jerusalem and sacrificed in the temple. In chapter 1 John the Baptist twice introduced Jesus by saying, “Here is the Lamb of God” (vv. 29, 36). Beginning in chapter 12, the rest of the Gospel takes place during the Passover Festival. To understand this prophecy, we need to understand what took place at Passover.

The first Passover is recorded in Exodus 12. God had just brought nine plagues on the Egyptians, warning Pharaoh to let the people of God go. Pharaoh wouldn’t, so one final plague was coming: the killing of the firstborn. However, God made a provision so that his people would not have to suffer the death of their firstborn sons. They needed to take an unblemished lamb, kill it, and put some of its blood on the doorposts of their house. When God saw the blood, he would pass over them, and their sons would be safe. To save the life of their son, each family had to take the life of a lamb.

Another significant time on the Jewish calendar focused on a sacrifice. It was called the Day of Atonement. On that day two goats were brought to the priest. One of them was sacrificed to the Lord, and the other was released into the wilderness as the scapegoat. It’s a beautiful picture of what was necessary to atone for the sins of man. The goat that was released pictured expiation: the removing or covering of sin. The goat that was slaughtered pictured propitiation: pacifying the just wrath of God. One goat would not have been enough. God could not just place the sin of the people on the back of the scapegoat and send it away. His holiness and justice demands blood be shed for the forgiveness of sin. Whenever sin is forgiven, someone must pay. If I get angry and smash your windshield and you forgive me, someone still pays. We sometimes view God’s forgiveness as him sending our sin away into oblivion, but the reality is that our sin is still counted, just not against us. Sacrifice is necessary because of our guilt (Isa 53:6).

When Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus would die for or on behalf of the children of God, he reminds us that someone must satisfy the debt of sin. Only a perfect Lamb could do that and only by shedding his blood. Jesus was not a helpless child; he was a willing Savior. This sacrifice was not contrary to love; it was the ultimate expression of it. Through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, the just wrath of God has been removed, and forgiveness can be offered and fellowship restored between Creator and creature. John Piper says it clearly:

There was only one hope for me—that the infinite wisdom of God might make a way for the love of God to satisfy the wrath of God so that I might become a son of God. (“Foreword,” 14)

As John interprets Caiaphas’s words, he adds a note of great certainty. The death of Jesus Christ “was going to” accomplish what God intended. It was going to save those it was intended to save, and it was going to gather them into one people. The certainty is unmistakable. The death of Jesus Christ did not secure the possibility of salvation. It actually secured salvation for those whom God had chosen—those referred to as the “children of God.”

Sometimes Christians talk like the death of Christ simply made atonement for sins possible. That’s not what the Bible teaches. The death of Christ actually atoned for the sins of those, both Jew and Gentile, who were the children of God. Who are the children of God? Those who were chosen by God and who responded by believing on the name of Jesus (1:12-13). In the classic book Redemption Accomplished and Applied, John Murray helps us better understand what was accomplished on the cross:

Did Christ come to make the salvation of all men possible, to remove obstacles that stood in the way of salvation, and merely to make provision for salvation? Or did he come to save his people? Did he come to put all men in a salvable state? Or did he come to secure the salvation of all those who are ordained to eternal life? Did he come to make men redeemable? Or did he come effectually and infallibly to redeem? . . .

What is offered to men in the gospel? It is not the possibility of salvation, not simply the opportunity of salvation. What is offered is salvation. To be more specific, it is Christ himself in all the glory of his person and in all the perfection of his finished work who is offered. And he is offered as the one who made expiation for sin and wrought redemption. He could not be offered as Savior and as the one who embodies in himself salvation full and free if he had simply made the salvation of all men possible or merely had made provision for the salvation of all. It is the very doctrine that Christ procured and secured redemption that invests the free offer of the gospel with richness and power. It is that doctrine alone that allows for a presentation of Christ that will be worthy of the glory of his accomplishment and of his person. It is because Christ procured and secured redemption that he is an all-sufficient and suitable Savior. (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 63, 65).

The death of Christ would gather all of his sheep into one fold with one shepherd. None would be lost. None would be forgotten. All would, by the power of the shepherd and through the offering of his life, be brought safely into the flock of God. We sing and preach and meditate on the death of Jesus, not to bask in the gory details but to celebrate the glorious victory. “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood; sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior!” (Philip Bliss, “Hallelujah! What a Savior!”).