jesus sacrificed himself to himself?

Question

this was a recent answer about whether it was necessary or not for jesus to sacrifice himself:

Remember that jesus is god.
God was showing that he loved and forgave us by sacrificing himself.
We didn't sacrifice anything to be forgiven ....god did.
Remember that hanging on a cross isn't a good way to die.

If jesus is god why would he sacrifice himself to himself? how is that going to help anything?

gunslinger: what kind of being would sacrifice their own child?

to all of you saying that jesus is not god, what about the trinity?

Answer 1

This is the equivalent of someone stealing from you. .and instead of you just forgiving them. . . you cut off your hand.

except worse.

makes a lot of sense doesn't it?

Answer 2

You and I see many others on this forum do err, not knowing the true Jesus and who He actually is, and represents!!! You do err in not knowing the Scriptures where it tell us who the person of Jesus Christ is, and why He had to leave His Throne of Glory in Heaven, come down to earth, and die a cruel death on the cross of Calvary!
Yes, remember that Jesus is God, with a 'capital G'!
Just look at these verses in the Old and New Covenants which compares both God and Jesus.
God never changes as it is so written in the book of
Malachi 3:6 'For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Likewise we find that Jesus never changes in the book of
Hebrews 13:8 'Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.'
It is important that we do not become confused as to the identity of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and God! God did not create Jesus for Jesus is God, and he has always existed and alway WILL exist down throughout eternity!!!
Jesus proved that he is God by doing many miracles while He walked on earth, in Palestine, that only God could do! He made dead people alive again. He walked across the great lake Galilee. He made blind eyes see perfectly again. He healed deadly diseases with a word. And cast out demons from many!
It took a God to forgive the SINS of mankind, for only God can do such. it took a perfect sinless man because He had to be able to lay His life down for many!!!
God, the Bible tells us, was in Christ, reconcilling the world unto Himself!

Answer 3

Not sure if your a christian or not - but if you understood the scene that took place in the Garden of Eden in Genesis, it will explain spiritually in the bible why jesus did this. He sacrifice his life because Adam sinned and it cause all humanity to be born in sin. Why, sacrifice? The scripture said: Hebrews 9:22a - ....without shedding of blood is no remission. Which means no forgiveness for You or Me and the world would be hopeless. But you said: "how is that going to help anything?" It help every individual that believe in a God that sent His loving son (Jesus) to die for us on the cross - that heaven is prepare for a prepare people. Only if you repented of your sins. This is faith, a faith walk with Christ , knowing what the scripture says about him is TRUE. The thing is believing and receiving Him into your hearts - alot of things your mind will not be able to fanthom but only to accept.

Answer 4

Jesus sacrificed Himself upon the cross so that WE could one day see the face of the Father. Such is the triunity of God. This same Jesus who offered up His body for the sins of mankind is the same Jesus that now sits at the right hand of God, the Father.

Answer 5

First: the fruit wasn't an apple, god mad man without the knowledge of good and evil just like other animals but, god gave man free will and out of that free will eve made the decision to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There ya go. Two: Jesus was not god himself in human form, Jesus is part of the holy trinity (god, Jesus, and the holy ghost). Sacrafices served as payment for your sins and god sent Jesus to die so that animal sacrafices didn't have to be made and all sinners had to do was repent in their hearts and they would be forgiven. I'm not a Christian but my father is a pastor, I don't understand why about a lot of that **** either dude, a lot of them are just nuts (including Catholics because if god dies on the cross so we don't have to confess why is there still confession )

Answer 6

Jesus did NOT sacrifice himself TO himself.

He sacrificed himself FOR: US.!!! His blood covers our sins so that the father can`t see them anymore. Blood is sacred and by it`s sacredness we are saved from our sin IF we believe. .

God is the father
Jesus is the face
Holy spirit is the voice of God.
Thus the trinity!!!

There is no greater gift than for a person to lay down there lives for another person. God loves you so much he gave his only son, to lay down his life for you. That is truly unconditional love.

Please read the bible and ask God for wisdom to understand. You are really far off the mark here... But that is ok. Keep asking and searching and you will find the truth and the truth will set you free.

Answer 7

Jesus is not God...He was and is the SON of God.

He was sacrificed on the cross in a brutal death to die for OUR sins and to grant us forgiveness of our sins.If God would acrifice His Son in this way does that not prove God loves us?

It was ordained in anchient Hebrew scriptures that He should die in this way so His death was a fullfillment of scripture.

This was not Jesus deciding that He would go to Jerusalem and set Himself up to die...it was pre ordained through scripture

Answer 8

It took a sinless, unblemished Lamb of God (Jesus) to take away the sins of the world. Only person who never sinned. Only person who could take our sins away.

Because of Jesus we are no longer bound to sin. We can be forgiven of sin and have our sins washed away in the blood of Jesus is we only believe in Jesus. God's plan and there is none better.

Jesus did it, because He was the only One who could do it. A sinner can't enter heaven and be with God the Father. Jesus made it possible for you and me.

Answer 9

1 John 4:1 says: "Beloved ones, do not believe every inspired expression, but test the inspired expressions to see whether they originate with God, because many false prophets have gone forth into the world."

The question you ask is a fine example of why the scripture I quoted is so important. There are many teachings that are masqueraded as Bible teachings that mislead people and turn them away from learning the truth. That is the danger in "believing every inspired expression" without testing it for accuracy.

You make a very good point. The doctrine of the Trinity can be defined this way: The central doctrine of religions of Christendom. According to the Athanasian Creed, there are three divine Persons (the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost), each said to be eternal, each said to be almighty, none greater or less than another, each said to be God, and yet together being but one God. Other statements of the dogma emphasize that these three “Persons” are not separate and distinct individuals but are three modes in which the divine essence exists. Thus some Trinitarians emphasize their belief that Jesus Christ is God, or that Jesus and the Holy Ghost are Jehovah. Not a Bible teaching.

Since your question is not regarding whether or not the Trinity is a true teaching or not, I will save reasoning on that matter for another time. However, if you would like information to that effect, feel free to email me.

Here is an illustration to help explain the reasonableness of Jesus' sacrifice.

There were two boys who were the best of friends. As they grew up, one became a Judge and the other a criminal. One day the criminal found himself before his former best friend, the judge, for a crime he had committed. Everyone in the audience knew of their former friendship and whispered among themselves about what the decision the Judge would make. Would he be easy on the criminal because they were friends? A hush passed over the audience as the Judge began to pass his sentence. He passed the strictest sentence possible for the crime committed. All the audience gasped in surprise and thought to themselves, "Has he forgotten his friendship?" Then the Judge stood up, removed his Judge uniform, stepped down from his seat and paid the fine imposed for his friend.

Therefore, the judge was able to both be just and merciful.

To apply the illustration. When Adam sinned, God's perfect sense of justice required payment. He passed the strictest possible sentence - that of death. Then, lovingly, he sacrificed his own son to pay the debt, so that man could have the prospect of life.

If you have any questions, please, please feel free to contact me.

ADDITIONAL:

I just read your addition comment about the Trinity. So, here, briefly is some reasoning on the subject:

Does the Bible teach that each of those said to be part of the Trinity is God?

Jesus said in prayer: “Father, . . . this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:1-3, RS; italics added.) (Most translations here use the expression “the only true God” with reference to the Father. NE reads “who alone art truly God.” He cannot be “the only true God,” the one “who alone [is] truly God,” if there are two others who are God to the same degree as he is, can he? Any others referred to as “gods” must be either false or merely a reflection of the true God.)

1 Cor. 8:5, 6, RS: “Although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (This presents the Father as the “one God” of Christians and as being in a class distinct from Jesus Christ.)

1 Pet. 1:3, RS: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Repeatedly, even following Jesus’ ascension to heaven, the Scriptures refer to the Father as “the God” of Jesus Christ. At John 20:17, following Jesus’ resurrection, he himself spoke of the Father as “my God.” Later, when in heaven, as recorded at Revelation 3:12, he again used the same expression. But never in the Bible is the Father reported to refer to the Son as “my God,” nor does either the Father or the Son refer to the holy spirit as “my God.”)

For comments on scriptures used by some in an effort to prove that Christ is God, see pages 212-216, under the heading “Jesus Christ.”

In Theological Investigations, Karl Rahner, S.J., admits: “???? [God] is still never used of the Spirit,” and: “? ???? [literally, the God] is never used in the New Testament to speak of the ????µ? ????? [holy spirit].”—(Baltimore, Md.; 1961), translated from German, Vol. I, pp. 138, 143.

I limit my response to the question as to whether the trinity is a bible teaching or not here, but there is much more information on that subject if you require it.

Answer 10

Religion is not rational. Modern Christians like to pretend their beliefs aren't complete idiocy by the standards of logic and critical thought, and they like to pretend the Genesis mythology is scientific truth that everyone should accept on the word of unknown authors in a pre-scientific culture, even though they readily reject these myths from other religions as silliness. But the Apostle Paul called the atonement of the Messiah on the cross a stumbling block to the Jew, because though he and others labored mightily to position their religion as a fulfillment of Judaism, very few Jews, particularly the Rabbis and scholars, have ever agreed that the purpose of the Messiah was to be a blood sacrifice for the sins of the world. And Paul called the atonement foolishness to the Greeks, who at the time epitomized logic, rhetoric, critical thinking and scientific method, and like you, saw this plan of salvation as ridiculously convoluted and incoherent, and that it portrayed a bloodthirsty God who's motives were unfathomably obtuse. The Greek Olympian gods were basically powerful beings with human personalities and failings, and though the Israelite god was also anthropomorphic in many ways, the pastiche of Yahweh and Zoroaster's Ahura Mazda that emerged after the Babylonian exile, the war between the evil god and the good god, the resurrection of the dead to judgment, the god's insistence on blood and eternal torment of his creation just seemed insane to the Greek mind as it does to the empiricist's mind to this day.

Christians have been conditioned to accept the propositions of their faith as valid beyond testing, just as believers of other theisms do. Their critical faculty is in effect programmed to bypass the same issues in their faith that they readily see as proof of invalidity in competing faiths. Trying to deprogram them is no different than trying to deprogram any other cult member. Because they are so intricately tied to this culture and so emotionally dependent upon these beliefs, threatening these beliefs provokes a survival level response, a lizard brain reaction that does not originate in the reasoning portion of the brain. That is why you often get such vitriolic responses, cursing, damning, even threatening with violence, all of which their religion would seem to specifically demand they not do.

I saw one response to a question like this that said, "You deserve to die and burn in hell, and if I met you I'd send you there. JESUS IS LORD!!! God's blessings. " he may as well have signed it "ALLAHU AKBAR, Love, you're friendly neighborhood Taliban."

Such are not people of faith. Anyone who has such a thin-skinned need to wipe out any dissonance with their delusion in fact has no faith at all, but a really strong emotional need to defend the way they have ordered and understood reality, including with violence and even murder in the name of their faith.

In sum, you won't get any rational answers. You'll just get circular reasoning, faithbot responses and possibly cursing and consigning to hellfire for even pointing out the incoherence of their doctrine. You'll not get a single response explaining why blood sacrifice is a reasonable and rational desire of any intelligent being, let alone a perfect god. All we can do is hope they go the way of the dinosaurs, the ones they think Adam and Eve rode to church on, before they destroy the world in an attempt to bring back their dead cult leader.

Answer 11

Actually this story is a common theme in mythology, Odin hung Himself from the world tree, Yggdrasil, and in so doing gained knowledge of the Futhark, and then He sacrificed one of His eyes into the Well of Knowledge to gain the ability to see the future.

The imagery of giving of oneself selflessly can be seen in other older religions as well.