I know the path to salvation is through Christ.(its a fact for me)But I'm having a hard time understanding-

Question

How his death on the cross paid our debt to god for our countless sins. To sin is to own god a debt, jesus died on the cross to pay that debt for anyone who would turn from sin and be born agin.
I hope i'm just being dumb about this and one day I will truly get it, but I would be a lier if I said I did.
Love god with all your heart and mind and soul.
I love him with all my heart and soul, but my mind rebels.
I can't logicly make sinse of it.
Is it an extention of offering sacrfices to him as in the old tesoment? He sacrficed him self-ok good.
But how did it work in the old tesoment?
Give up somthing important to us to show god we are sorry.
how could he do it for us?
Help.

Answer 1

In a nutshell: LOVE.
In an enlongated explanation:
Jesus DID NOT have to die for us to have salvation. God is all-powerful. He could have brought about salvation in any way that He wanted to. He could have snapped his figures. He could have taken sacrificial lambs (hey--sounds like the Old Testament, doesn't it?). He could have arbitraliary decided to save only those with red hair. He could have done it all.
God CHOOSE to send Jesus down as man--knowing full well how we humans would react i.e. we'd kill him--because he loves us and that is the ultimate act of love. "No greater love is there than this: to lay down one's life for a friend." It was an awe-inspiringly, insurmountable, unbelieveable, all-incompassing, unconditional love for us that God sent His only son to die for our salvation.
As for the prevailing belief that "each one will stand on his own merit," I think God recognized that NONE of us stands on his own "merit." We're all sinners. We are require redemption. We can never do or say enough to "deserve" heaven, it has to be given to us as a grace--a gift from God as He sees fit to give it. I once heard someone preach that even if Mother Teresa met God and He asked her why she should be saved, if she said "Because I deserve it," she'd lose her salvation. It's God work, not ours. It's His love, not ours. It's His will, not ours.

I hope that you find this helpful! Thanks for reading! God Bless!

Answer 2

The Bible teaches that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." The Old Testament sacrifices served as a reminder to the children of Israel of God's holiness and man's sinfulness. Those sacrifices only "covered" the sin for a time, though. Jesus was the final sacrifice, once for all sin. Because Jesus was fully God, He was able to live a sin-free sacrifice (and be the "spotless" lamb) and rise from the dead. Because Jesus was also fully man, he was able to be the sacrifice that we needed.

I don't think it's possible for us to fully understand how this all works or why a sacrifice is needed for the forgiveness of sins. Can we ever truly comprehend God's holiness?

Every Christian experiences that tug between what we know God wants from us and what we desire for ourselves. Paul writes about that battle in Romans 7:15-25.

It would be a good idea for you to look for a Bible study group to join to study the book of Romans and also Hebrews, since both deal greatly with our sin and Christ's sacrifice.

God Bless.

Answer 3

Interesting question. In the old testament God set up a system by which believers sacrificed animals to cover their sins (called the sacrificial system). The animal (whether a calf, bull, sheep, lamb or dove) would need to be a "unblemished" animal that had not been used for anything (labor, milk, mating). This animal would be put on an alter and before it is killed, the believer would put their hands on it, symbolizing that sin was transferred to that animal. But the blood of this animal would only "cover sin" for a time period and the believer would need to continue to make sacrifices to have their sins continually covered. Jesus' death is an extension of this system but in greater scope. Jesus' sacrifice was a one time, payment for the sins of all people in the world. So, when a person puts their faith in Jesus, it's like they are putting their hands on Jesus and tranferring their sins to him(which he has already paid for). It is through the sacrifice of Jesus that our sins are not just covered, but forgiven forever. This is why there is no sacrificial system in Christianity because Jesus paid the price one and for all. So, it is only through faith in Jesus that a person can have forgiveness. Hope this helps. Email me if you have more questions.

Answer 4

I'm not clear! What is your question? You do not have to give God anything but your whole life. The Old Testament sacrifices were an example of the price Jesus Christ would have to pay to redeem mankind from their sins looking forward to His coming death. The shedding of His blood was a sacrifice big enough to cover the sins of the whole world. No further blood sacrifice from you is necessary. All you have to do is give Him your heart/life to Him and let Him live in your life the rest of your life.

Answer 5

What!? You say that tour mind rebels!? Whoa!! You are SO going to hell!

Hi there, I'm Stevo, professional sinner.. pleased to meet you. With that kind of logic, we're all doomed to hell... Luckily though, Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. I'll explain.

In the Old Testament, God forgave His people when they made a sacrifice to Him. When people would sacrifice, they wouldn't just kill. The meaning of the word sacrifice is basically to give up something you don't want to give up. And that's just what the Jews did. They would find the cleanest, most perfect animal they own and sacrifice it to God to purge them of their sins. After the sacrifice, they would pray for forgiveness. By sacrificing something they really wanted, it was a way of saying "Whoa.. I really messed up back there.. I'm really sorry.. I offer up this thing that I really, really like. Hope you'll forgive me."

In the New Testament, Jesus is introduced. Jesus is called the 'Son of God,' 'God in the flesh,' or simply put, the incarnation of God in a mortal man. Since Jesus willingly (or, to a point, unwillingly) gave Himself to be killed by the people, Jesus is what is known as the Perfect Sacrifice. Since He was the perfect sacrifice (and no other sacrifice could amount to His perfection), there was no longer a need for sacrifices. Nothing could amount to Jesus. Not even if you sacrifice a million (willing) people, you cannot amount to Jesus' sacrifice because Jesus is God. And as we all know, God has no equal. Now that Jesus sacrificed Himself, all you need to do is pray for forgiveness.

In a nutshell, you're going to mess up. Words will slip out on the highway, fights will break out, and people may even get hurt because of you. That's life. There's nothing you can do about that. However, if it is forgiveness that you seek, all you need to do is pray for it. But when you do pray for forgiveness, mean every word of it. God will know that you mean every word because He knows you. After all, He knew you before you were born--how would He not know that you're being sincere?

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. If I don't have the answer, I'll find one.

Oh, and on a side note, if and when you do pray, don't forget to thank God for your blessings (or the good stuff that has happened). And don't be afraid to just talk to Him. I know it sounds crazy, but I (personally) don't just pray, I talk with God. He always seems to find some way to get back to me...

Answer 6

Blood has to be shed in order for sin to be forgiven that's why there was all of the sacraficing in the old testament. but Jesus was nailed to cross and the ultimate blood was shed for everyone and if you are a beleiver then now God only sees Jesus blood and not your sin because Jesus blood covers up your sin. Satan keeps you thinking of old sins but those sins are forgiven. It's just a trick of his to make you feel guilty.

Hope this helps.
God Bless

Answer 7

You are confused. If the devil knew what God was up to when he created Jesus, he would have never crucified him ! God trumped the devil using Jesus as his card. Get it ? Look at a website called The Way Internartional, it will either astound you, or scare the hell out of you, because you will truly learn some things you thought not possible. Things like what the Spinx really is, once you are born again, no matter what you do, you will go to heaven......ask to take their class in your area. Be prepared to get your mind blown !!! GUARANTEED. Kim Allen

Answer 8

Jesus did sacrifice himself as an offering for our sins. This is why he is referred to as 'the Lamb'.
The Bible has many examples of sacrificial offerings, and people offered many types of things. God even asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Sacrifice has been the path to salvation from the beginning of our time, and Jesus was 'the ultimate sacrifice'. A spotless (sinless) man sent by God to be our lamb.

Your mind will rebel, and so will your flesh. You are human and can only strive to be like Jesus, and to follow his teachings.

On the note of Jesus doing it for us, we have to accept His offer of payment in order to be clean. He died for everyone's sins, but unless you acknowledge the fact and repent of your sins you will not be forgiven.

Sacrifice works like this,
You get the thing you will sacrifice for payment, then you slaughter it. You atone for your sins and accept God's forgiveness.

Jesus put Himself on the altar, all that is left is to accept God's forgiveness and to walk in the Light of God.

Answer 9

The crucifixtion is about the Blood. We are saved by the Blood of Jesus. Sacrifices in the Old Testament were about the Blood.
Blood represents Life.

Answer 10

In order to answer your question, it might be helpful and informative for you to understand the history of your question. Here is a quotation from J.M. Roberts on the subject.

"Pagan Christs by J.M Roberts, page 52.

What about the man Jesus then? Was he divine? Did he exist? Is/was he the Savior?

Most, if not all, of the Christian Belief System is Pagan in origin. It is indeed hard to force oneself to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God when such titles were readily copied from Pagan doctrine. Perhaps the only item not borrowed from Pagan sources was the Messiah concept. That, of course, was taken from the Jewish hysteria of the time. In the siege of Jerusalem in 72 CE there were some 18 Messiahs inside Jerusalem alone. Neither the God man Jesus nor the self proclaimed militant messiahs saved Jerusalem. Such was the measure of hysterical superstition upon the nation of Israel.

"There is not a conception associated with Christ that is not common to some or all of the Savior cults of antiquity. The title Savior was given in Judaism to Yahweh; among the Greeks to Zeus, Heilos, Artemis, Dionysus, Hercales, the Dioscurui, Ceybele and Aesculapius. It is the essential conception of Osiris. So, too, Osiris taketh away sin, is the judge of the dead and of the last judgment. Dionysus, the Lord of the UnderWorld and primarily a god of feasting ('the Son of Man commeth eating and drinking'), comes to be conceived as the Soul of the World and the inspirer of chastity and self purification. [J. M. Robertson may be referring to Attis here.] From the Mysteries of Dionysus and Isis comes the proclamation of the easy 'yoke'. Christ not only works the Dionysiac miracle, but calls himself the 'true vine.'"

"Like Christ, and like Adonis and Attis, Osiris and Dionysus also suffer and die and rise again. To become one with them is the mystical passion of their worshippers. They are all alike in that their mysteries give immortality. From Mithraism Christ takes the symbolic keys of heaven and hell and assumes the function of the virgin-born Saoshyant, the destroyer of the Evil One. Like Mithra, Merodach, and the Egyptian Khousu, he is the Mediator; like Khousu, Horus and Merodach, he is one of a trinity, like Horus he is grouped with a Divine Mother; like Khousu he is joined to the Logos; and like Merodach he is associated with the Holy Spirit, one of whose symbols is fire."

"In fundamentals, therefore, Christism is but paganism reshaped. It is only the economic and doctrinal evolution of the system-the first determined by Jewish practice and Roman environment, the second by Greek thought-that constitutes new phenomena in religious history."

In short, Jesus was far from the first sacrifice for sin.