This is John a Bible project.

Jesus' death and resurrection is the climax of the biblical story.

And as a modern Western Christian, my main understanding of Jesus' death is this.

I've personally failed and God requires I pay for my failure.

Jesus took the place of my failure on the cross for me.

This is beautiful.

And it is a real result of Jesus' death and resurrection that I personally can be saved.

But this explanation of Jesus' death is not how the gospels talk about it.

There's actually a larger storyline taking place that my salvation will fit into.

That is the storyline of the entire Bible so far.

And it's this.

God has made Israel as a nation to be His covenant partners to bring blessing to the world,

but Israel has failed.

So here we are to the heart of the logic of the biblical story.

God has in His justice handed Israel over to death.

He rescued them, they betrayed Him over and over again.

As Paul the Apostle will summarize that Hebrew Bible message, the wages of sin is death.

So the story of Jesus is the story of the God of Israel coming among His people to enter death on their behalf

because precisely He's the only one that can reverse the power in overcoming.

God's anger against Israel's covenant betrayal is not a new idea.

The prophet Isaiah talks about their horrific exile of Babylon as a consequence of their failure.

He calls it drinking the cup of God's wrath.

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