What did Jesus sacrifice? We all die. Many are tortured. He came back...?

Question

What really is the extent of Jesus' sacrifice, relative to the rest of us? Tell you one thing, I don't get to be God's right hand or get to look forward to it my whole life.

Answer 1

Here is the long answer.

Sin is a crime against God for which there is only one penalty - death (Romans 6:23). The Bible calls this penalty "the second death", which is eternal separation from God in hell (Revelation 21:8). Every person has sinned against God and, therefore, must pay the penalty (Romans 5:12). This is why the sinful go to hell upon physical death.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humbled Himself to become human. He emptied Himself of much of His divinity to become like us (Philippians 2:5-8). He lived a perfectly sinless life and sacrified Himself as a substitute for mankind. He paid the penalty we owed. As a sinless, eternal being, He was able to pay for all sin, past, present and future (1 John 2:2). On the cross, all the sins of mankind were placed upon Him and, because God cannot allow sin in His presence, God had to turn away from His Son (which is why Jesus cried out "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!") separating the Godhead for the first time in eternity (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus suffered physical death and separation from God for the sins of mankind.

The resurrection was God's way of accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That sacrifice is now offered to all men as a gift if we will accept it in faith (Romans 6:23).

What did Jesus sacrifice? His heavenly home for a time, His divinity for a time, His unbroken bond with the Father, His earthly life. He sacrified everything He was to save us from our sins.

Answer 2

The word, "sacrifice", has a strong association with sin and atonement in the bible. Jesus, offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. Jesus's father in heaven had told the Jews nearly fifteen centuries earlier that they must SACRIFICE bulls, sheep goats and doves for their sins on the Day of Atonement. The perfect life that Jesus sacrificed was an exchange for the perfect life that Adam gave up which complied with the law that stated, "A life for a life".

Answer 3

The extent was that Jesus was the only one who could take away our sins. Only He can be at God's right hand, but if you believe in Him and follow what He teaches, you can look forward to Heaven. I think thats WAY better than this world.

Answer 4

Jesus died and we all die so what's the whole point of salvation right? Check this: God at the
beginning of time sets up laws, scientific laws, gravity,
etc. He also sets up a basic law of obedience: love God and
love your neighbor. Man broke these two laws (the core of
the Ten Commandments). All of us break these laws. God has
already said if you don't follow these laws you will be put
to death. But since He loves His creation, He doesn't want
to destroy them. He wants a way to save them. But how?
Sacrifice. Executing the consequence but on someone else.
But who could be worthy enough to be sacrified for billions
of people since the beginning of time? God. So He went to
earth, and died for the sins of man.

All He asks now is for you to accept that. That is
salvation. He doesn't want you to pull up a list of things
so you can be 'Christian'. He just wants you to accept that
He died for you and that your sins are forgiven when you ask
of it to be.

Now how about attitudes and following laws and
regulations and all this jazz. You have to see God as a
friend rather than a cop. Just for an example, if you
hang out with friends that smoke all the time, you are
influenced to do so yourself and might take up smoking.
In the same way, if you hang out with God and people that
believe in Him, you will be influenced to live that kind of
life. The change is progressive, and to some people
instant. But it all starts out with befriending God.

Get the book "Kippur - the Final Judgment" by Dr. Diego Sausa
[isbn 0978834615] -- Learn about what historical facts the
Bible predicted correctly in history and who Jesus truly is
and when He is coming back.

Answer 5

How many of us are able to carry the sins of the world on our shoulders and nail them to a cross? That was His sacrifice. He had more burdens on His back that day than any of us will ever have in a lifetime. Our sins were what nailed Him to the cross and He was our sin payment to keep us from having to face God without a Saviour. None of us could ever do what He did. His coming to earth in the first place was a sacrifice in itself.

Answer 6

His real sacrifice was to live. In heaven, with all the security (immorality, no suffering, etc) he does not taste what it is like to be a human, but by being a human, by feeling pain when he is punched, by experiencing the death of a loved one, he knows what it is like to be us. Often we think God is someone who just watches everything but doesn't know what it is like to go through it....... But Christ knows. And imagine, as an eternal being, how foreign death must feel. How foreign pain is. Humanity is something totally foreign to God. Through Christ, God can relate to us and we to him. Christ is the bridge between us and God; God is eternal and totally righteous, we are temporal and fallible. Christ is the medium, he had the spirit of God and the mind of God, but the flesh that we have.

Also as far as the sacrifice, his blood, being the one Set Apart by God, is far more valuable than any of ours. In other words we are cheap, fallen sons, but he is irreplaceable and true. We cannot be slain as a sacrifice to atone for sins, because our blood is not worth much because we are infected with sin. Christ, being pure, has blood that can atone for all.

Answer 7

Jesus was and is the only perfect and living God. The way He was tortured before the crucifixiation and after was what no one person has ever and could ever experience. Who can truly say that they love their enemies and only want to see them saved? No one. You could not even begin to try to understand. I could not either. All I know is that He loves me and I am undeserving. It sounds as though you don't have much to look forward to at all.

Answer 8

Suffering is suffering.
Jesus asked ",,,Father why dost thou forsake me?"
So, he had his moment, his question.
We have questions about death and life.
When we die for a good cause does it make death easier?
The power to change his fait was in his own hands. He did not have to ask God for help. Yet he had his human moment.
All he had to do is change his words and actions and he would not have been put to death. He knew this. He was a very intelligent individual. He knew very well what he stood for and why he was set to meet this fate.
The word Martyr implies that same conviction that one is willing to and ultimately will die for what one believes in. If one cannot be convinced that Jesus was God incarnated then he certainly was a Martyr. I say this most respectfully.
If you want to say his sacrifice was greater because he is God or because he was gaurenteed to sit at Gods right hand than I would say his sacrifice was less than it would be for us as we have no gaurentee or such position with God. So less.
If as I believe, he did what he did as a Martyr, as much as any one who puts their precious human life on the line. He was loved and loving, and still a young man by our standards, well educated, had a trade! His life was ahead ahead of him! In terms of this life he lost a great deal. In erms of what he died for he gave everything he had to it for us to believe in a loving enlightened way of life.

You see, I am not a Christian as you see yourselves. To see the precious gift of one is not to the exclusion of the gifts of others. Such things should not be a competition.

Peace. Thank you for your question. It was a beautiful moment of contemplation for me.

Answer 9

People don't understand that His sacrifice for us was far beyond torture and death; He took on all past, present, and future sins of the entire world! He was separated from God when He took on our sins, and risked eternal separation! Being in the dark, separated from God, is the most horrible, lonely, agonizing thing that could ever happen to anyone. And He did it still, because He chose to, and because He loves us!

Answer 10

Jesus was a martyr who gave his life for a cause. He was a humanitarian and his message was positive for all peoples. Why do you feel sorry for yourself, and what do you feel you have sacrificed? Theologically, I believe Jesus' message was that to LIVE BY HIS TEACHINGS AND YOU WILL HAVE A PLACE AT GOD'S SIDE AS WELL. So stop being such a wuss.