WHY?

Why came God’s Son in human form
To live on this sin-stained earth?
Why was He born in a lowly stable?
Why not a most noble birth?
Why came He to earth in just that age?
Why not in Israel’s prime?
What was the reason for His coming just then?
What had it to do with the time?
Why did He die at the behest of a mob
And why on a cruel Roman cross?
Could all of these questions have answers related
To the soul of each one who is lost?
What are the answers to these questions I’ve posed?
Are there good reasons for all?
Are each of these questions and answers important
To redeeming lost man from the Fall?
The Lord Jesus Christ was a man born to die -
‘Twas for that very reason He came -
To die to redeem a lost world from sin;
To save all who will believe on His Name.
To that end He was born in a harsh Roman world
Where the cross was the instrument of death;
The cruelest, most tortuous, death-dealing device
E’er devised by a man who draws breath
For the cross was reserved for the enemies of Rome -
The vilest and basest of those;
No Roman citizen could be condemned to a cross,
Just those whom it conquered as foes.
Paul the Apostle, as a citizen of Rome,
Had his head removed by a sword.
Because of his birth he was unable to share
In the manner of death of his Lord.
On a cross Jesus died to redeem a lost world,
For the cross, with its anguish and pain,
Is a symbol of death of the most horrible kind,
“An emblem of suffering and shame.”
Despised and rejected, Jesus went to that cross
And suffered and bled for my sin;
The perfect and blameless and pure Lamb of God
Did in shame my freedom to win.
It was what God demanded in payment for sin,
Sacrifice He alone could have made.
God Himself came to die on a cruel Roman cross -
The great price for sin has been paid.

a. franklin staples

April 3, 1990

Copyright © 1990 by Allison F. Staples