On page 51 of its book What Does the Bible Really Teach?, the Watchtower asks, “The Bible describes in detail the suffering that Jesus endured before his death. He was whipped and nailed to the torture stake, suffering an agonizing death. (citations omitted). Why was it necessary for Jesus to suffer so much?”

How does the Watchtower answer its own question, and is it the Bible’s answer?

The Watchtower’s answer

The Watchtower portrays all of this life as a constant loyalty and endurance test:

Why was it necessary for Jesus to suffer so much? In a later chapter of this book, we will see that Satan has questioned whether Jehovah has any human servants who would remain faithful under trial. By enduring faithfully in spite of great suffering, Jesus gave the best possible answer to Satan’s challenge. Jesus proved that a perfect man possessing free will could keep perfect integrity to God no matter what the Devil did. (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 51)

According to this Watchtower quotation, then, Jesus suffered so greatly in order to answer Satan’s challenge “whether Jehovah has any human servants who would remain faithful under trial.”

What point did he suffer so much to prove?

“Jesus proved that a perfect man possessing free will could keep perfect integrity to God no matter what the Devil did.”

When did Satan ask the question Jesus supposedly was answering?

The Watchtower elaborates:

After Adam and Eve sinned and as the earth began to be filled with their offspring, Satan questioned the motive of all humans. “People do not serve God because they love him,” Satan charged. “Give me a chance, and I can turn anyone against God.” The account of the man named Job shows that this is what Satan believed. Who was Job, and how was he involved with Satan’s challenge? (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, pp. 116-117)

Moving to a discussion of Job, the Watchtower states, “Satan questioned Job’s motive for serving God… Since the issue involved Job’s motive, Jehovah allowed Satan to test Job. In this way, Job’s love for God—or lack of it—would be clearly shown…” (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 116)

The Watchtower summarizes Job’s loyalty and endurance test and its outcome this way:

Satan did not give up. He must have thought that although Job could endure the loss of his possessions, servants, and children, he would turn against God if he became sick. Jehovah let Satan strike Job with a disgusting, painful disease. But even this did not cause Job to lose faith in God. Rather, he firmly said: “Until I die, I will not renounce my integrity!”… Job was not aware that Satan was the cause of his troubles. Not knowing the details about the Devil’s challenge of Jehovah’s sovereignty, Job feared that God was the source of his problems. Still, he kept his integrity to Jehovah. And Satan’s claim that Job served God for selfish reasons was proved false by Job’s faithful course! (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 119)

My question to Jehovah’s Witnesses would be, “If Job maintained his integrity, thereby proving that an imperfect man with free will could keep perfect integrity to God no matter what the Devil did, why would it be necessary for Jesus to suffer so greatly to prove that a perfect man could do so as well?”

The Bible’s answer

What is the Bible’s answer to the Watchtower’s question, “Why was it necessary for Jesus to suffer so much?”

The atonement.

Jesus was paying the penalty we deserved.

1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his own body on the stake, so that we might die to sins and live to righteousness. And ‘by his wounds you were healed.’” (Watchtower translation)

This verse is quoting from the more extensive Messianic passage of Isaiah 53:4-5: “He was despised and was avoided by men, a man who was meant for pains and was familiar with sickness. It was as if his face were hidden from us. He was despised, and we held him as of no account. Truly he himself carried our sicknesses, and he bore our pains. But we considered him as plagued, stricken by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgression; he was crushed for our errors.

He bore the punishment for our peace, and because of his wounds we were healed.” (Watchtower translation)

Summarizing the importance of the different answers

In discussing these issues with Jehovah’s Witnesses, you might say something like this:

If the Watchtower’s view is correct, Jehovah required Jesus to prove his loyalty and integrity as a further answer to Satan’s accusations against Job. In order to pass this test, Jesus had to endure terrible suffering and death in order to prove worthy to be our Savior. But if my understanding is correct, then Jesus always was worthy and he came, not to answer Satan’s questioning of man’s motives from the days of Job, but to save us from our sins because of his great love for us.