Lesson 27
How Can Jesus’ Death Save Us?
We sin, suffer, and die because the first human couple, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God.
But our situation is not hopeless. Jehovah has provided a way for us to be delivered from the curse of sin and death by means of his Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that by his death, Jesus provided a ransom. A ransom is the price paid to release someone. The price Jesus paid was the value of his perfect human life.
Read Matthew 20.28: Just as the Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his life as a ransom in exchange for many.”
When Jesus willingly surrendered his right to everlasting life on earth, he opened the way for us to regain all that Adam and Eve had lost. Jesus also revealed how much he and Jehovah love us. This lesson will help deepen your appreciation for Jesus’ death.
1. How can we benefit from Jesus’ death today?
Because we are sinners, we do many things that displease Jehovah. However, if we are truly sorry for our sins and ask Jehovah through Jesus Christ to forgive us and if we do our best not to repeat those mistakes, we can enjoy a close bond of friendship with God.
The Bible says: “Christ died once for all time for sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, in order to lead you to God.”
2. In the future, how can we benefit from Jesus’ death?
Jehovah sent Jesus to offer his perfect human life “so that everyone exercising faith in [Jesus] might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.”
Thanks to what Jesus did, Jehovah will soon undo all the bad things caused by Adam’s disobedience. This means that if we exercise faith in Jesus’ sacrifice, we will have the opportunity to enjoy life forever on a paradise earth!
DIG DEEPER
Deepen your understanding of why Jesus gave up his life, and consider how you benefit.
3. Jesus’ death frees us from sin and death
Play the VIDEO, and then discuss the question that follows.
AD))) Video Title: Why Did Jesus Die?—Part 1 (with Audio Description and Transcript) (Duration: 2:02).
What opportunity did Adam lose when he disobeyed God?
Read Romans 5.12: That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned—.
Discuss this question:
How has Adam’s sin affected your life?
Read John 3.16: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.
Discuss this question:
Why did Jehovah send his Son to the earth?
4. Jesus’ death can benefit all people
Play the VIDEO, and then discuss the question that follows.
AD))) Video Title: Why Did Jesus Die?—Part 2 (with Audio Description and Transcript) (Duration: 2:00).
How could the death of one man benefit all people?
Read 1 Timothy 2.5, 6: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all—this is what is to be witnessed to in its own due time.
Discuss this question:
Adam was a perfect man who put humans on a path to sin and death. Jesus was also a perfect man. In what way did he provide “a corresponding ransom”?
5. The ransom is Jehovah’s gift to you
Jehovah’s friends view the ransom as a personal gift. For example,
Read Galatians 2.20: I am nailed to the stake along with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who is living in union with me. Indeed, the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and handed himself over for me.
Discuss this question:
How did the apostle Paul indicate that he viewed the ransom as a personal gift?
When Adam sinned, he and all his descendants were condemned to death. But Jehovah sent his Son to die so that you can have the opportunity to enjoy everlasting life.
As you read the following verses, imagine how Jehovah must have felt while his Son suffered.
Read John 19.1-7: Pilate then took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head and clothed him with a purple robe, and they kept coming up to him and saying: “Greetings, you King of the Jews!” They also kept slapping him in the face. Pilate went outside again and said to them: “See! I bring him outside to you in order for you to know that I find no fault in him.” So Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them: “Look! The man!” However, when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted: “To the stake with him! To the stake with him!” Pilate said to them: “Take him yourselves and execute him, for I do not find any fault in him.” The Jews answered him: “We have a law, and according to the law he ought to die, because he made himself God’s son.”
Read John 19.16-18: Then he handed him over to them to be executed on the stake. So they took charge of Jesus. Bearing the torture stake for himself, he went out to the so-called Skull Place, which is called Golgotha in Hebrew. There they nailed him to the stake alongside two other men, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle.
Discuss this question:
How do you feel about what Jehovah and Jesus did for you?
SOMEONE MAY ASK: “How could one man die for all people?”
How would you answer?
SUMMARY
Jesus’ death provides the basis for Jehovah to forgive our sins, and it gives us the opportunity to enjoy life forever.
Review
Why did Jesus die?
In what way was Jesus’ perfect human life a corresponding ransom?
How can Jesus’ death benefit you?
Lesson completed on:
Goal
When you pray, regularly thank Jehovah for the gift of his Son.
Other: Memorizing Bible scriptures is vital for blind individuals to defend the truth using the Bible, build faith, provide comfort during difficult times, and keep God’s principles firm in heart and mind.
From lesson 27, memorize John 3:16: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.
EXPLORE
1. Learn why Jesus’ perfect human life is called a ransom.
“How Is Jesus’ Sacrifice ‘a Ransom for Many’?” (Web article) Open explore 1 in new page
2. Find out what we need to do to be saved.
“Jesus Saves—How?” (Web article) Open explore 2 in new page
3. Can Jehovah forgive even serious sins?
“Bible Questions Answered” (The Watchtower, May 1, 2013) Open explore 3 in new page
4. See how learning about Christ’s sacrifice helped a man to transform his personality.
“I Am No Longer a Slave of Violence” (Web article) Open explore 4 in new page
[End of lesson 27.]