Example God says be and it is. So why if God wanted to forgive the sins of man would he have to scrafice Jesus? Couldnt he just say be and it would be?After all its up to him who he want to forgive or punish...What the people who died before Jesus?How are their sins to be forgiven?
2007-09-21 06:02:01 · 8 answers · asked by Conservative 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
As the first answerer stated, God said that without the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness of sin.
In the time before Jesus' sacrifice, they annually offered the blood of animals which had to be without spot or blemish. You couldn't sacrifice a lame animal, it had to be the best one you could get. The sacrifice of animals did not forgive sin though, it only put off God's judgement of sin for another year and that sacrifice pointed forward to the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
Those who died prior to Jesus' sacrifice either died in faith, believing that God would send a suitable sacrifice as He said he would, or they died in sin and un-belief. If they died in faith, their Spirit and Soul were immediately ushered into the presence of God, in heaven, because their faith was accounted to them as righteousness. If they died in sin and un-belief, their spirit and soul were immediately ushered into the place called Hades (not hell), which is a sort of waiting place. After Jesus was crucified, the bible tells us that Jesus descended into Hades and preached to those who were held captive and gave those who had died prior to His sacrificial death on the cross the opportunity to believe as well.
Forgiveness of Sin requires the shedding of blood and a suitable sacrifice, one without spot or blemish, must be offered. God chose to send His only Son to earth to live the perfect life that no other human being could live and then to offer up His perfection in our place. He became Sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus is the one time sacrifice, once and for everyone that will believe on Him. His sacrifice does what the sacrifice of animals could not do, it completely forgives Sin, once and for all.
Yes, God can do as He pleases and the bible say it pleased the Father to offer His Son in our place. That is how much value He places on each of us, that He was willing to sacrifice His one and only Son to pay the penalty that each of us deserves to pay ourselves, but cannot.
God bless you.
2007-09-21 06:29:28 · answer #1 · answered by the sower 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Are you saying you can't see the logic in the idea that an all powerful being would somehow be forced to appease himself by killing himself?
Perhaps, sometime slightly before 1 AD, God suddenly decided to sit down and think about what he had done. Once he gave it some thought, he realized that all the sin in the world was actually completely HIS OWN FAULT. He had created the creatures that were sinning AND he had created the rules that made their actions sinful AND he had known it was all going to happen beforehand, but he had gone and created it all anyway.
Perhaps he felt so bad about having punished so many humans for his own mistakes that he actually came down to Earth and let the humans punish him for a change. That would really be the only logical reason why God would have felt the need to die on the cross as Jesus.
Of course, considering this, it wouldn't really matter what anyone believes about the situation. God is the only one that deserved to get punished, and he got punished. End of story.
2007-09-21 13:25:15 · answer #2 · answered by Azure Z 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The people who died before Jesus, got their chance. Where do you think He was, while His body was lying in a tomb? He went straight to hell and emptied it. I would assume it emptied. If you were there and Jesus showed up and gave you an offer you couldn't refuse, would you have refused it? :)
When God created all things, He also created laws of the universe. Things way over our heads. I can only presume that these laws were set into motion for the continuity of this world and the universe. Once set into motion, all things operate under those laws of the universe.
Possibly He could undo them but if He did, all this would be for nothing. God is true to Himself. What He creates, He does not uncreate.
We don't have knowledge outside of what we see around us. Our eyes are only built for this world. Even Jesus said, "How can I tell you the things of heaven when you don't understand the things of this world?" The point being, we have enough knowledge to live these lives. No more, no less.
So it's His game, His rules and He doesn't change.
2007-09-21 13:16:01 · answer #3 · answered by judysbookshop 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I'm not sure that we have enough information to answer that. I suspect that it has to do with the limitations of logic and reality as opposed to mere fantasy.
As to the people who died before Jesus, they had to wait in the 'bosom of Abraham', but they were the first ones to enter Heaven after Jesus took the 'keys' to the gates of Heaven and Hell. They got there on their faith in God's Promise of Salvation. We get there on a debit system. They got there on a credit system.
2007-09-21 13:15:09 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Absolutely.....
The only thing God cannot do is lie
To answer you other questions:
Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.....so says Scripture. It is the way God ordained His plan for salvation for those who say yes to Christ.
The people who died before Christ were saved by faith and obedience to the law. Whereas we have been saved by grace through faith apart from the curse of the law.
Hope this helps you a bit.
-Primo
2007-09-21 13:07:03 · answer #5 · answered by primoa1970 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
The people that died before Jesus had to believe in Him and serve Him. Once they died they went to Abraham's bossom to wait til Jesus died then they went to Heaven. He died because that was his way of showing His love to us. Why would He want people that hate Him to go to Heaven when they die?? Unless they repent...?
2007-09-21 13:11:44 · answer #6 · answered by ~Living4HIM~ 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I think God has a plan for us and yes, he will do as he pleases to get this plan moving along. But he can't force us, because that would defeat the whole plan...he wants us to chose Him because we want to, not because we have to.
2007-09-21 13:07:54 · answer #7 · answered by CurlySue 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I think God lets us participate in evanaglism but doesn't leave men's souls and their fate up to us. That would not be fair or just and I know God is (fair and just).
2007-09-21 13:14:36 · answer #8 · answered by sisterzeal 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋