Based on Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19.

As you can imagine, many people loved Jesus, but the religious leaders of the day were angry with Him for upsetting their power over the people. They arranged for Him to be arrested and killed. In those days, the worst sorts of criminals were killed by hanging them on a cross. It was the most difficult and most shameful kind of torture, done publicly,and the criminals often suffered for many hours before they died. Jesus’ mother, Mary, and many of the other women close to Him watched as the soldiers nailed Jesus’ hands and feet to the cross. Later, they stabbed him in the side with a sword to prove that He was already dead. Jesus’ blood flowed from all these wounds. That evening, two of his followers took down his body and laid it in a tomb…

Have you heard other stories about Jesus and His power? If you have, do you think someone could force Jesus to die? No. He gave His life. When the religious leaders and soldiers came to arrest Him, Jesus knew the time was right for Him to die, and He let the soldiers take him.

Why did Jesus do this? You see, Jesus knew there was only one way to make up for the honor we strip from God with our sin: a perfect blood sacrifice. For the entire time that He lived on earth, Jesus never sinned. He is the only one who ever lived a perfect life.
Therefore, only Jesus can completely cover your sin and your shame.

Jesus stayed in the tomb until the third day after his death. Then God resurrected Him. In the next forty days, He was seen not only by his close friends—men and women—and his disciples but also by over 500 people. Finally, God took Him back to paradise.

Every one of us deserves to die. We have shamed God in countless ways, but God continues to love us. He wants us to be honorable and special, to be close to Him, worshipping him forever. But how do we get close to Him? How do we receive His covering for our shame?

The Scriptures say, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). This means that you must agree with God that Jesus is the One to follow while you are here on earth, and you must sincerely believe that God allowed Him to die then resurrected Him so that you could have a guaranteed place in paradise. To “be saved” means to restore your relationship with God—the relationship that Eve broke way back in the garden. If you do this, you will know for sure that God has already accepted you into paradise, and He will give you His perfect peace.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  -2 Corinthians 5:21