Why was it so great that Jesus "died for our sins"? He was tortured on the cross for awhile, just like hundreds of other people. He knew that no one could truly kill him and that he would live forever anyway. And if God is all powerful, why couldn't he just forgive humanity on his own? Why did Jesus have to die? None of it makes any sense.
2007-01-07 09:56:32 · 17 answers · asked by wsxuyhb;iyfoutf 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
If you had been perfect in life and lived without sin and all that, and you had a chance to experience 24 hours of pain in exchange for eternal life, of course you would take that chance. Oh and by the way, humanity gets to be forgiven too.
No one has answered the question I asked above about why God had to make Jesus die to forgive us. He's God! Can't he do whatever he wants?
2007-01-07 10:07:03 · update #1
How did Jesus suffer so much more than anyone else? HUNDREDS of people were crucified and beaten... Crucifiction may not even be the worst form of torture that exists. Why was Jesus more special than all the others who died on a cross?
2007-01-07 10:20:01 · update #2
Very simple.
Jesus was more special than anyone else who died on a cross because He was the Son of God, not just another human like all of the other people who died on crosses.
You should realize that the Christian doctrine of the importance of Jesus' death and resurrection has not been fully understood or explained by even the best and most renowned scholars and theologians in Christian history, because Jesus' death and resurrection are a mystery, called the Pascal Mystery.
Here's the main reasons Jesus had to die because of our sins and for our salvation.
2007-01-07 10:34:29 · answer #1 · answered by STILL standing 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because God was saying, "look, this is what I have done. Now, you make a choice."
When I saw this question, it reminded me of the story In Numbers, Chapter 21, in the Old Testament. God punished the people of Israel with a plague of poisonous serpents after they sinned against Him. God told Moses to raise a fiery serpent of brass and place it upon a pole for the people to see. All those that had been bitten would live, but only if they looked up at the fiery serpent of brass.
This was symbolic of the future Christ and His death and hanging upon the cross. He showed us in the Jewish Law that without the shedding of blood (the life is in the blood), there is no remission of sin. God does not save without us making a choice and following through with it.
As for being God and doing what He wants, God also lives by His own rules, and that means punishing sin and not overlooking it. If He did overlook sin, He would not be a righteous God.
His death was different and more intense, because He underwent the torment of taking the sins of the world upon Himself and the Father turning away. This would have been worse than the pain of the cross.
2007-01-07 10:10:15 · answer #2 · answered by paulsamuel33 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sacrifice is one of the ultimate acts of true love. God sacrificed his son for you. Yes, Jesus knew he would live again, but he still felt every ounce of pain. He went through that pain because of your sin and my sin. Yes, other people in history were crucified and tortured, but that was because of their own personal sin or crimes. Jesus lived a perfect and pure life even though he was tempted do to otherwise. He made holy choices and one of those choices was to pay for the sin of man. Sin separates us from God. Picture the grand canyon. You are on one side, and God is on the other. The canyon itself is sin. There is no way to get to God on your own. The Jesus' Death on the Cross is basically the bridge across the canyon. It reconnects us to God. If you accept Christ into your heart you can be with God for eternity.
2007-01-07 10:03:49 · answer #3 · answered by oldrallychick 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Only when and if you open your heart to receive His infinite love and mercy will you know the answer to your question.
To know Him is to love Him. And to love Him is to do His will.
Jesus is God. He is God the Son made flesh. Because He is God in the flesh, His sacrifice is the perfect and ultimate eternal sacrifice for our sins.
Dying on the cross, He nailed our sins there and showed us the ugliness of sin and how we need to repent of our sins because sin leads to death.
But rising from the dead, He proved to all the people who witnessed it that He is God and that He can give us the gift of eternal life in Heaven if we only accept His gift. Read the Bible for the rest of why Jesus is so great.
Edit:
I think I answered the question when I said that Jesus had to show us the ugliness of sin by letting sinful men do what they did to Him. Satan tries to deceive people into thinking that sin isn't a bad thing. One sin leads to another and before we know it we are rationalizing killing someone who we know is innocent. In the movie "The Passion of the Christ", it was very ugly to see someone innocent get murdered in such a brutal way wasn't it? That is the true nature of sin. Sin is very ugly and it leads to death.
Jesus went through what we deserve to go through, but He did it in our place. You are right that because He is God He didn't have to do it for us. He could have just let everyone lose their way while Satan laughs at us. But God is love, so He made the ultimate sacrifice to prove that His love is the most radical kind of love. His love is the purest kind of love, the kind that is heroic and self-sacrificing.
Jesus is God. That's what makes Him special.
.
2007-01-07 10:00:15 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
God himself paid for the sin of man. Not one of hundreds of other people, not a man who didn't feel pain, or who was a superhuman. He was human being, just like you and me, and when he died he experienced much more than all of the pain ever felt by all human beings combined as all the penalty of all of the cause of that pain was laid on him. The thing that people don't understand is that even if they could decide to do that for all mankind, they wouldn't have the strength or the will to because of the sin in their own lives. Jesus did that because as a sinless human being he could, and as a sinless human being who died for us, when we feel the burden of our sin it is him calling us to repentance and forgivness.
2007-01-07 10:08:04 · answer #5 · answered by hisgloryisgreat 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Jesus sacrificed himself willingly. Could you? Could you be tortured on the cross for doing nothing wrong? There needed to be a holy sacrifice so you and I didn't have to pay for our sins by DEATH.
I couldn't die for all humanity. He did forgive all humanity. It goes back to the original sin. Humans didn't know right from wrong. God tried to destroy us himself with the flood b/c we turned from him. He created us. We didn't obey. He found favor with Noah and has found favor with others. He sent his son b/c he loves us and didn't want Satan to win all our souls, he gave us a "way out". Just believe him, accept him in your heart and repent. That's it . . . . . not as hard as everyone thinks. Amazing how different you will feel.
God Bless
2007-01-07 10:03:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Its a little complicated, but ill try to explain. We cant get to Heaven unless we are perfect, right? Jesus was perfect. However, he had to die and then suffer through the worst levels of Hell so he can "clean our slate" if you will. I guess true forgiveness doesnt come cheap.
2007-01-07 10:01:43 · answer #7 · answered by Daniel 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
He suffered 100 times of what we have ever suffered. Anything you have ever been through, he suffered 100 times worse. They beat him until he was unrecognizable as a human. He chose to be on that cross for all of us. Have a little respect.
2007-01-07 10:11:15 · answer #8 · answered by suzy-Q 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To lay down ones life for a friend.
Agape Love, the greatest form of Love.
2007-01-07 09:58:46 · answer #9 · answered by Lives7 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He is the son of God and the only perfect one to walk the earth. Its quite an honor to have the creators son doe for you , so you can go to heaven.
2007-01-07 10:00:06 · answer #10 · answered by ? 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋