Why was Jesus' sacrifice necessary for the forgiveness of humanity?

Question

Why did Jesus have to be crucified for humanity to be forgiven? Couldn't God have forgiven us for our sins without letting Jesus be executed? It doesn't seem like it would be too much to ask from an omnipotent deity.

Also, why did it have to be the Son of God? Couldn't a mortal have done it just as easily? If the answer is that a mortal couldn't have risen from the dead, does that mean that the person would have gone to Hell? If so, how is that a just reward for the ultimate selfless act?

Finally, why did the "sins of humanity" have to be forgiven at all? How is it that everyone, including good people, would have deserved to go to Hell? And if Jesus died only for the sins of Christians, why should good non-Christians go to Hell? If it is for the original sin, is it fair to blame humanity for what two people did? We don't put Genghis Khan's descendants on trial for war crimes. Last question: what was so bad about original sin? All they did was eat a lousy piece of fruit!

Answer 1

Wow, you have a ton of very good questions! I'll try to answer these in order, as best I can.

"Couldn't God have forgiven us for our sins without letting Jesus be executed?"

The important thing to realize here is that God is a just God. Justice is so much a part of God that He could not simply issue a blanket pardon over humanity - to do so would be denying a basic part of Himself. Also, God could not really call anything "sin" or "evil" if He was just going to issue a blanket pardon - for sin to exist, there must be a punishment attached, otherwise there is nothing to separate bad from good. Since there are many things that are clearly evil, rape, murder, and so on being the usual examples, there must be something that marks them as evil, and that something is a divine requirement of punishment. Jesus took all those required punishments, so God could still be just without condemning all of humanity. Jesus' sacrifice opened up the way for all humanity to be redeemed.

'Why did it have to be the Son of God?"

The sacrifice of Jesus was necessary because only Jesus was perfect. If a mortal, who by virtue (or vice, I suppose) of being human has sinned, the sacrifice only serves to redeem that person. "For the wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23 - all sin deserves death because all sin is in essence a rebellion of a perfect and loving God. Furthermore, Jesus' sacrifice demonstrated the love of God - He wanted to heal the breach with humanity so much, He allowed His Son an excruciating death to pay for the evil that everyone commits.

"Why did the "sins of humanity" have to be forgiven at all?"

God by nature is perfect. In order to have any kind of relationship with God (which is what humans were created to have), humans must also be perfect, because anything else is against the nature of God. No matter how good a person is, they can never atone for every single bad thing they did - it's impossible to even remember and catalogue all the evil committed, much less atone for it all. John 14:6 states "Jesus answered "I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me" Because humanity must be redeemed to have a relationship with God, and because no one can possibly redeem themselves, Jesus must be the mechanism of redemption. Jesus died for the sins of everyone, not just Christians, but Christians believe that you must acknowledge Jesus' sacrifice for what it is in order to recieve redemption.

"Why should good non-Christians go to Hell?"

Part of faith involves trusting that a just, loving, and gracious God won't deliberately stop people from knowing Him. I have to trust that God has something all worked out for people who live on high mountaintops or deep in jungles, where the Christian message does not spread. The concept of Hell, if you'll permit a slight tangent, is a interesting one. Contrary to most classical literature and Dante's "Inferno", Hell is not a place of fire and sulfur and demons. It is a total absence from God - essentially, God respects the wishes of those who have rejected Him in life, and doesn't force them to be with Him forever. He allows humans to make their own decisions about where to go after they die. The reason Hell is so terrible is because the absence of God is also the absence of everything good.

"What was so bad about original sin?"

The actual act of eating the forbidden fruit wasn't bad in itself, the issue arose because God had specifically told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit. Disobedience is the original sin, not the consumption of fruit. Different denominations believe different things about original sin, but all denominations believe that humans commit sins and act in evil ways, and that is why we need redemption. Expulsion from the Garden following the disobedience marked the beginning of the corruption of humanity. We were originally created to be perfect, but are not perfect, as all lives are proof.

Answer 2

Laws have punishments for disobedience and rewards for obedience, otherwise, there is no such thing as a law (or God for that matter), it becomes meaningless. There are laws, even God obeys them. He is not omnipotent in the sense that you speak of where he can do whatever he wants. He cannot lie, steal , cheat, allow sin, etc. Man breaks laws and God is just, but he is also merciful. He is just because he executes the judgments of the law and merciful because his son paid the price of the penalty IF you accept it and acknowledge it and refrain from breaking the law further.

It had to be the son of God because a) he was the only sinless one and therefore the only one that could do it. b) he had the attributes of his Father (God) and could rise from the dead and the attributes of his mother (Mary) and could die. c) he died for the sins of all (repentence required) and so that ALL could be resurrected (free, yes, everyone that was ever born).

There is no original sin. Little children and babies are innocent because Christ paid for their redemption from death and sin too. We suffer the consequences of death and sin it is true, but Christ made an escape from both. God knew this from the beginning of course.

Answer 3

God is holy , perfect , and righteous .Their must be a payment for sin . Either man pays for his sins forever in hell Or by the perfect blood of Jesus . Any disobedience is a sin .We all suffer from the original sin , and all we have to do is hear the word of God and accept Gods free gift of salvation .Most people won't because of their pride.

Answer 4

We have all broken God's law. For example, we have all lied. Breaking God's law is called sin. The Bible says, in Romans 6:23, that "the wages of sin is death." Meaning that our punishment for breaking God's law is death, which is eternity in Hell. However, God does not want us to go to Hell. He came to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ. He was suffered and died on the cross in order to take the punishment that we rightly deserve. We broke God's law, but Jesus paid our fine. Jesus paid a debt that he did not owe, because we owed a debt that we could not pay. If we repent (turn from sin) and trust in Jesus Christ to save us, we will be saved from Hell, and will be given the gift of eternal life in Heaven.

Answer 5

You are asking many questions, but take a look at your last one, and maybe it will clue you in.
"All they did was eat a lousy piece of fruit"
All they did was to willfully rebel against the Creator God who had blessed them with 10 thousand benefits, yet they chose to believe the slander of Satan and snub the One who freely gave them all they have, and believe the Lie - that God was just a petty tyrant interested in Himself, and not really concerned with the interests of His creatures.
This is the Lie that was forever destroyed and exposed for what it was when the Creator God (yes, Jesus is plainly set forth in the Bible as being the co-Creator - see John 1:1-3), came down from heaven, became a Man, and died upon the cross, taking upon Himself all the guilt and just punishment of His rebellious creatures, the descendants of Adam, and took it away, bearing it upon Himself when He died on the cross.

So today most men still think of themselves more highly than God, and are still slaves of sin today, simply because they refuse to believe the testimony God has borne concerning His Son, who died on a cross, for your sins, and for mine.

Answer 6

God requires justice for the wrong doings of man. We are not righteous enough to meet God's expectations for justice. Jesus was the perfect, sinless, man, Son of God who did and still does meet God's requirements for Justice.

Answer 7

The Bible is clear, and it is consistent. One person cannot die for the sins of another. This means that the guilt from the sins committed by one person cannot be wiped out by the punishment given to another person. First, in Exodus 32:30-35, Moses asks God to punish him for the sin of the Golden Calf, committed by the people. God tells Moses that the person who committed the sin is the person who must receive the punishment. Then, in Deuteronomy 24:16, God simply states this as a basic principle, "Every man shall be put to death for his own sins." This concept is repeated in the Prophets, in Ezekiel 18 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die... the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him."
If one believed that a blood sacrifice was necessary before God would forgive you, then even one example where God forgave without a blood sacrifice would prove that this idea is UnBiblical. There are many such examples, but the most interesting is found in the Book of Leviticus. The reason this is so interesting is that it comes right in the middle of the discussion of sin sacrifices, which is found in the first chapters. In Leviticus 5:11-13, it states, "If, however, he cannot afford two doves or two young pigeons, he is to bring as an offering for his sin a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering." One can also see that one does not need a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins in the Book of Jonah 3:10. There, the Bible simply states that God saw the works of the people of Ninevah. Specifically it says that the works God saw were that they stopped doing evil, and so God forgave them. There are plenty of other examples, and the idea that one needs a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins is UnBiblical.
What, EXACTLY does God say about human sacrifice in the TaNaCH? In Deuteronomy 12:30-31, God calls Human sacrifice something that He hates, and an abomination to Him, "for every abomination to the Eternal, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. In Jeremiah 19:4-6, God tells us that Human sacrifice is so horrible a concept to Him, that it did not even come into His mind to demand it from His creation, "They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind." We see the same thing in Psalm 106:37-38, and in Ezekiel 16:20. This means that God would not accept Jesus's death on the cross as a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. The very idea of that God would accept a human sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins is UnBiblical.
The concept of Original Sin simply states that because Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they brought Death into the world. Every human being dies because Adam and Eve committed a sin, and for their sin, all humans are punished with death. However, the Bible describes something entirely different. Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden because if they remained, they could eat the fruit of the Tree of Life, which would make them IMmortal. If Adam and Eve had to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life to become IMmortal, then they were created mortal to begin with. They did not bring Death into the world, and we don't die because they sinned. As a matter of Biblical fact, the answer to Question One shows that one person cannot die as the punishment for the sins committed by another. We die because Death is a natural part of existence, and has been since from the moment the first human beings were created. That is why God told the animals, before Adam and Eve ate the fruit from The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil, to be fruitful and to multiply, since they needed to replace themselves. God also told the same thing to Adam and Eve before they ate that fruit as well.
It is the hallmark of pagan, idolatrous faiths, to confuse God with human beings, either that God becomes human, or that humans become God. In Biblical history, one sees this confusion with Pharaoh, and with Haman (boo, hiss!), as well as with Antiochus, the Assyrian King against whom the Maccabbees rebelled. Furthermore, as one example, in Hosea 11:9 God tell us, "For I am God and not a man."

Answer 8

THE answer that the Bible gives to this question is very simple but clear and full of significance. To grasp its importance, though, we first need to see Jesus' life and death as a solution to a very difficult problem. Only then can we properly understand the enormous value of Jesus' death.

In having Jesus give his life, God was dealing with a situation that arose when Adam sinned. What a tragedy that sin was! The very first man and his wife, Eve, were perfect. The beautiful garden of Eden was their home. God gave them the meaningful work of caring for their garden home. They were to have under their loving oversight the other living creatures on earth. And as humans multiplied and filled the earth with millions of their kind, they were to expand the paradise to earth's limits. (Genesis 1:28) What a delightful and exciting work they were given! Moreover, they had the warm companionship of each other. (Genesis 2:18) They lacked nothing. Happy eternal life was before them.

It is hard to imagine how Adam or Eve could sin. But the first human pair rebelled against the very one who created them—Jehovah God. Using a serpent, the spirit creature Satan the Devil deceived Eve into disobeying Jehovah, and Adam followed her.—Genesis 3:1-6.

There was no question about what the Creator would do about Adam and Eve. He had already spelled out the consequence of disobedience, stating: "From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die." (Genesis 2:16, 17) A question of far greater magnitude now required an answer.

Mankind Faces a Difficult Problem
The original sin created a very critical problem for mankind. Adam began life as a perfect human. Therefore, his children could have enjoyed perfect everlasting life. However, Adam sinned before he fathered any children. The entire human race was still in his loins when he received the sentence: "In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:19) So when Adam sinned and began to die as God said he would, all mankind was sentenced to death along with him.

Appropriately, the apostle Paul later wrote: "Through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned." (Romans 5:12) Yes, because of the original sin, children that were supposed to be born perfect with endless life ahead of them were brought forth with sickness, old age, and death as their prospect.

"That is not fair," someone might say. "We did not choose to disobey God—Adam did. Why should we lose our prospect for everlasting life and happiness?" We know that if a court of law were to put a son in prison because his father had stolen a car, the son could rightly complain: "That is not just! I did not do anything wrong."—Deuteronomy 24:16.


Adam brought sin
and death upon mankind
By inducing the first man and woman to sin, Satan may have concluded that he would place God in an impossible situation. The Devil struck very early in the history of the human race—before any children had been born. The moment Adam sinned, an important question was, What will Jehovah do about the children that Adam and Eve will have?

Jehovah God did what was just and fair. "Far be it from the true God to act wickedly, and the Almighty to act unjustly!" declared the righteous man Elihu. (Job 34:10) And concerning Jehovah, the prophet Moses wrote: "The Rock, perfect is his activity, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness, with whom there is no injustice; righteous and upright is he." (Deuteronomy 32:4) The solution that the true God provided to the problem created by Adam's sin does not take away our opportunity for everlasting life on a paradise earth.

God Provides a Perfect Solution
Consider the solution God laid out in the sentence he pronounced on Satan the Devil. Jehovah said to Satan: "I shall put enmity between you and the woman [God's heavenly organization] and between your seed [the world under Satan's control] and her seed [Jesus Christ]. He will bruise you [Satan] in the head and you will bruise him in the heel [Jesus' death]." (Genesis 3:15) In this first prophecy of the Bible, Jehovah alluded to his purpose to have his heavenly spirit Son come to earth to live as the perfect man Jesus and then die—be bruised in the heel—in that sinless state.

Why did God require the death of a perfect man? Well, what was Jehovah God's penalty for Adam if he sinned? Was it not death? (Genesis 2:16, 17) "The wages sin pays is death," wrote the apostle Paul. (Romans 6:23) Adam paid for his sin with his own death. He was given life, he chose to sin, and he died as a penalty for his sin. (Genesis 3:19) What about the condemnation that the entire human race came under because of that sin? A death was needed to atone for their sins. But whose death could justly cover the transgressions of all mankind?

God's Law to the ancient nation of Israel required "soul for soul [or, life for life]." (Exodus 21:23) According to this legal principle, the death covering mankind's transgressions would have to be of a value equal to what Adam had lost. Only the death of another perfect man could pay the wages of sin. Jesus was such a man. Indeed, Jesus was "a corresponding ransom" for the saving of all redeemable mankind descended from Adam.—1 Timothy 2:6; Romans 5:16, 17.

Jesus' Death Has Great Value
Adam's death had no value; he deserved to die for his sin. Jesus' death, however, had great value because he died in a sinless state. Jehovah God could accept the value of Jesus' perfect life as a ransom for obedient descendants of sinful Adam. And the value of Jesus' sacrifice does not stop at paying for our past sins. If it did, we would have no future. Being conceived in sin, we are bound to err again. (Psalm 51:5) How grateful we can be that Jesus' death makes provision for us to gain the perfection that Jehovah originally intended for the offspring of Adam and Eve!

Adam can be likened to a father who died and left us in such deep financial debt (sin) that there is no possible way for us to get out of debt. On the other hand, Jesus is like a good father who died and left us a rich inheritance that not only frees us from the enormous debt that Adam burdened us with but also provides enough for us to live on eternally. Jesus' death is not simply a cancellation of past sins; it is also a wonderful provision for our future.

Jesus saves because he died for us. And what a valuable provision his death is! When we see it as a part of God's solution to the complex problem of Adam's sin, our faith in Jehovah and his way of doing things is strengthened. Yes, Jesus' death is a means of rescuing "everyone exercising faith" in him from sin, disease, old age, and death itself. (John 3:16) Are you thankful to God for making this loving arrangement for our salvation?

Answer 9

Jehovah has issues....