If God is merciful, why didn't he just forgive. Why was it necessary for the son to die?

Question

The idea of atonement for original required the suffering and death of Jesus. If God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them?.

A lot of your answers seem to be referring to repentance requiring a sacrifice.

My apologies, i should have been more clear. I am aware of the fact that sacrifice was important to atone the sin of Adam and Eve.

Now, I just thought that God is very loving, forgiving and merciful. He is omnipotent and can do anything he wishes. In my opinion, he could have just forgiven. But may be that is just me.

I apologize if I am being to critical.

Answer 1

God is a very complex subject, really.

The Judeo Hebraic Messianic Faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are founded on simplistic "Answers" to the most common questions. Let's take a look around, shall we?

Who was around to know that "In the Beginning, all was dark and void..."? It's obviously a lie, made up to answer the common question as to where did Man come from.

If Adam and Eve had really existed, then [a] weren't they and all their progeny guilty of incest? [b] Who, then was the ancestor of the *******, the Caucasoid and the Mongoloid races? [c] What about the Americas and Australia and Oceania? Obviously, this was another piece of fiction made up to answer the question of Origin.

How can a "Religion" that was just 6,000 years old, presume to know the origins of Mankind? [That's the age of the Torah, aka Old Testament.]

At 2006 year age, Christianity cannot have the Answers to everything, either and even more so, Islam which is just 1,400 years old.

The various Testaments do indicate that a man named Jesus Christ did exist and the major events in His life did take place. However, let us not forget that they are Testaments, or written eye witness accounts, each having the perspective of the Author.

The life of Mohammad is far from "inspiring" and he was an illiterate till his death, which is borne out by the Koran itself, which also describes his death, which was made into an ascension, later on, by others, to deify him.

According to Mohammad, Jesus used His Magic to convert Judas into his like and it was Judas who died on the Cross while Jesus ascended to Heaven. Now, this seems very far fetched to me.

However, to return to the Question at hand, if God were truly Omniscient, Omnipotent and truly Benevolent, then most of the things in the Scriptures of all three Faiths wouldn't exist.

This is but one of the many contradictions of these Faiths.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Answer 2

There is no such thing as Original Sin. We are all born with a tendancy to sin. God is not angry with anyone. He didn't take revenge out on His son.

Jesus is God, and was God and has always been God. Christ had to die so he could go to Hades and set the captives free. Which he did by the way. He empties Hades. He is timeless, so I ponder if He empties Hades for all time or just that time. I am thinking for all time.

Check out what the Eastern Orthodox Christians believe about God, Sin, The Fall, and Why Christ had to die. It is really about Love for us that He did die. You will be surprised at the answers.

Christ is Risen!

Answer 3

You are asking us to explain in one paragraph what it takes the whole bible to explain. God is perfect, He can not look at sin, There is no sin in Heaven and there never will be. Man fell from grace. This caused a great riff between God and man, man no longer could reach God. Because a man fell from grace, due to sin. A man had to fulfil the requirements God demands,that is perfection. Who is perfect, God. God reached out to man in his sinful state by sending Jesus to be the perfect human man that Adam should have been but failed. Christ took the sins of all mankind upon himself. He that did not sin became sin on the cross. All sins are on the cross, and the penalty was paid in full by Jesus. When you accept Jesus, you are covered by what He did for you, so you who are sinful have a way to the Father, through the Son.

Answer 4

Let me try to answer this. So when Adam and Eve fell by eatng the fruit, we all inherit the DNA. So we all inherit the sin nature. Satan also became the God of this world by tempting our first parents, and allowing sin to enter the world. God wanted it back. he only way to get it back since we are all sinners was to send a perfect person who could die for our sins. We cannot die for our sins because we would spend eternity paying for our sins, and one sin, makes us a sinner, so he cannot send a man. God came up with a great plan. he would send Jesus, fully man/fully God. he would have Adams, DNA, thru Mary, but since he was from God or the virgin birth part then he could be perfect and die for our sins. he could walk on the Earth a perfect person and live a perfect life and still count on his imperfect creation to crucify his son to complete the process, so Jesus would pay for our sins and we could accept or deny Salvation, thus stealing the kingdom of the Earth back away from Satan. He told eve that one day she will crush the head of Satan and with Mary's help jesus did. Gen 3:15

Answer 5

He didn't wanted us to go to hell. He wanted us to know about his TRUE law, and not what the jews were teaching. He wanted us to know that He is a God of love and Jesus could teach that perfectly. In order to forgive all the sins from past, present and future (when we ask for forgivness and we repent) , a holy and pure being were supposed to sacrifice and "clean" humanity with its blood. What other being could be holier and more pure than Jesus, the son of God? When he died, the barrier between God and Humans broke and we have acces to God throught Jesus. this barrier broke when Jesus blood were in contact with the arch. (archeologically)

Answer 6

In order to put things in Human perspective I would guess. God could have simply said I forgive you but man would have been asking why they had been giving sacrifices for so long. God sent His son to show how honest a forgiveness he was willing to give to the world because he loved us so much.

Answer 7

The price of eating the fruit in the Garden of Eden was death. Christ died and took that punishment for us. Something had to take the punishment away from us. God could not just pardon Adam & Eve's act.
God works in ways we do not understand because God is not like us. He isn't human.

I'm guessing this was one of His many ways of showing that He loves us. If He just forgave us, we wouldn't respect Him and fear Him and need Him the same way.

Answer 8

Sacraments are based with tangible objects, he has always forgiven our sins, but he needed us to see that he was serious this time because our stubbornness he gave us HIS SON, and even with CHRIST's death there are many who do not believe. CHRIST's death and Resurrection is a sign of GOD's love for us. Words come and go but such a historical event as this will endure forever.

Answer 9

There would be no incentive to have a need of Him, which is what He wants. It makes Him seem prideful, but He has given us everything we have. And...there can be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood, so hence Old Testament forgivenss and the need of Christ, and why we can, i nthis day and age, just ask for forgiveness and have it.

Answer 10

it was required that a final, perfect sacrifice be made. God couldnt have just forgiven, he is not able to go back on his word and all throughout the old testament he required a perfect, blemish free lamb to sacrifice to attone for sins.