What does it mean "Jesus died for our sins"?

Question

What sins can people have commited before even being born? and in what sense He died for our sins. And if He died for our sins, wouldn't it mean that we're already saved?
I never understood that, but Christians seem to repeat this event so proudly. I wonder if someone actually understands this issue in depth and detail.

Answer 1

It means precisely what it says. Jesus is the once and for all spotless lamb offering for the sins of mankind.

You are only saved from your personal sins when you receive this gift from Him.

He trades His perfect life for your sinful one. The Father is then satisfied that your debt has been paid. You are no longer declared guilty, but innocent.

Answer 2

Back in the day, in order to be purged of sins, once a year you had to give a blood sacrifice on an alter, this was usually an unblemished lamb.
Jesus was sinless - in essense - unblemished, and gave His body, His blood as the final blood sacrifce. Oh, it gets better than that!
He then broke open the confines of the mortal death so that we can live eternally with God.
No - we committed no sins before birth, and we aren't sinful just because mommy and daddy got busy and that's how we got here, but we are in a sinful world and He gave us a way out of death - eternal death.

Answer 3

Justice demands that there is a penalty for every sin committed. Mercy says that we can have an advocate take care of the penalty for us, in our behalf. However, to meet the demands of justice, it would take an almost incomprehensible amount of mercy to compensate for the sins of all mankind. Only one could have such mercy to meet the demands of justice. That could only be met by Jesus Christ.
Since he is a God, he knows what sins had been committed, what sins were committed during his life time, and since he was a God, he knew what sins WOULD be committed bu those who lived after him.
Therefore, he not only atoned for the sins that had been committed up to the point in time of his life, he also atoned for the sins that WILL be committed by you and I, presently living. That does not absolve us from it and make us "saved." We have to repent and ask for his forgiveness and accept him as our Savior.

Answer 4

The Bible explains that I am a sinner (rebellious against God) by nature. I didn't have to become this way. I was born this way. This may not seem fair but it's like I was born in California by two parents who I didn't choose. They also didn't ask permission if I wanted to be raised there. I was born into this family by the will of my parents. It may not seem fair but that's life I guess.

He died for our sins in the sense of someone paying the penalty for another as their substitute. It may not make sense or even make me feel good but it does take care of the justice. Christ loved us so much that he came to die a substitutionary death in our place. In fact he is the only one who could fill his shoes because he was perfect. He satisfies the wrath or penalty of God.

Now all this is certainly true but practically useless unless you apply it to your own situation; you accept or believe it. If I had won the lottery one day but didn't actually believe it (and of course didn't go down to the store to turn in the ticket) then would I receive the benefits of what a winner is entitled to? No, my life would not change one bit. By my inaction, or unbelief, I miss the joys of my fortune. Millions at my disposal but not actually being applied to my life. It's worthless then.

In the same way, we aren't all saved because he died for our sins. We must individually decide if we believe this fact and act accordingly by trusting in Him for the salvation of our souls.

How sad that many will be so close to the riches that God offers in Christ but many will not go in and claim the ticket because they just can't believe they won the prize. So they live as beggars when they could live as heirs to the king. Such is the offer, we are wise to take him up on his offer.

Answer 5

1. The sins we inherited from our parents, Adam & Eve.
2. He substituted for us. He died in our place. God took his death as our death. Death being the penalty of sin.
3. If we accept Jesus' death as ours, then we're saved but only from the penalty of sin. We still need to be saved from the power of sin. This is a life-long process of sanctification. Then one day, we ultimately will be saved from the presence of sin.

Answer 6

Here's one of the best explainations I've seen on the subject:

“Let me tell you a story—a parable.

“There once was a man who wanted something very much. It seemed more important than anything else in his life. In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great debt.

“He had been warned about going into that much debt, and particularly about his creditor. But it seemed so important for him to do what he wanted to do and to have what he wanted right now. He was sure he could pay for it later.

“So he signed a contract. He would pay it off some time along the way. He didn’t worry too much about it, for the due date seemed such a long time away. He had what he wanted now, and that was what seemed important.

“The creditor was always somewhere in the back of his mind, and he made token payments now and again, thinking somehow that the day of reckoning really would never come.

“But as it always does, the day came, and the contract fell due. The debt had not been fully paid. His creditor appeared and demanded payment in full. Only then did he realize that his creditor not only had the power to repossess all that he owned, but the power to cast him into prison as well.

“ ‘I cannot pay you, for I have not the power to do so,’ he confessed.

“ ‘Then,’ said the creditor, ‘we will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison. You agreed to that. It was your choice. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced.’

“ ‘Can you not extend the time or forgive the debt?’ the debtor begged. ‘Arrange some way for me to keep what I have and not go to prison. Surely you believe in mercy? Will you not show mercy?’

“The creditor replied, ‘Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand. Do you believe in justice?’

“ ‘I believed in justice when I signed the contract,’ the debtor said. ‘It was on my side then, for I thought it would protect me. I did not need mercy then, nor think I should need it ever. Justice, I thought, would serve both of us equally as well.’

“ ‘It is justice that demands that you pay the contract or suffer the penalty,’ the creditor replied. ‘That is the law. You have agreed to it and that is the way it must be. Mercy cannot rob justice.’

“There they were: One meting out justice, the other pleading for mercy. Neither could prevail except at the expense of the other.

“ ‘If you do not forgive the debt there will be no mercy,’ the debtor pleaded.

“ ‘If I do, there will be no justice,’ was the reply.

“Both laws, it seemed, could not be served. They are two eternal ideals that appear to contradict one another. Is there no way for justice to be fully served, and mercy also?

“There is a way! The law of justice can be fully satisfied and mercy can be fully extended—but it takes someone else. And so it happened this time.

“The debtor had a friend. He came to help. He knew the debtor well. He knew him to be shortsighted. He thought him foolish to have gotten himself into such a predicament. Nevertheless, he wanted to help because he loved him. He stepped between them, faced the creditor, and made this offer.

“ ‘I will pay the debt if you will free the debtor from his contract so that he may keep his possessions and not go to prison.’

“As the creditor was pondering the offer, the mediator added, ‘You demanded justice. Though he cannot pay you, I will do so. You will have been justly dealt with and can ask no more. It would not be just.’

“And so the creditor agreed.

“The mediator turned then to the debtor. ‘If I pay your debt, will you accept me as your creditor?’

“ ‘Oh yes, yes,’ cried the debtor. ‘You save me from prison and show mercy to me.’

“ ‘Then,’ said the benefactor, ‘you will pay the debt to me and I will set the terms. It will not be easy, but it will be possible. I will provide a way. You need not go to prison.’

“And so it was that the creditor was paid in full. He had been justly dealt with. No contract had been broken.

“The debtor, in turn, had been extended mercy. Both laws stood fulfilled. Because there was a mediator, justice had claimed its full share, and mercy was fully satisfied”

Jesus Christ is our Mediator. His atoning sacrifice satisfied the demands of justice upon our eternal souls -- granting mercy - but without robbing justice.

Answer 7

As far as sins committed before we were born, I would say you may not have heard of a doctrine, called the doctrine of pre-mortal life. Most churches don't teach it, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does. We believe that we existed as immortal spirits, which looked like we do now (only better and more pure). I believe that spirits are made of a more refined material related to light energy. We had our free agency then as we do now, and we made choices on how we wanted to live our lives then. That includes the capacity to make errors. Let me point out that we do not believe in "original sin," but we do believe that people existed in a world as spirits before being born here on this earth, and people had different personalities (like what they have now) and different degrees of obedience (much like children you may have been around) . If you want to learn more, you can check out www.lds.org or I like Cleon Skousen's "A Personal Search for the Meaning of the Atonement. If you want a simpler version, think of it this way. There are always opposite forces in the universe - good and evil, life and death, light and darkness, matter and anti-matter. Sin pulls our spiritual selves over to the negative force. Think of it as an element that loses an electron or some other sub-atomic particle, and it goes down in its energy level. But God is a positive force. By ourselves, we are not capable of becoming clean or "positive" again, in order to return to the same light energy level that God is on. You might try watching the end of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to get an idea what the power of the Atonement is like (not exact, but a good representation of what an infusion or transfusion of spiritual light would do). What Jesus Christ's Atonement does is help us overcome the loss of spiritual light or energy caused by sin, so that we can repent and be cleansed or lifted to a higher energy level again, to be ready to return to live with our Heavenly Father, who we love dearly. Otherwise, we would be separated forever from God, which is called "spiritual death." There is another kind of death that Jesus Christ overcame. That is physical death, or what you see around you when someone or something dies. Remember I said there are opposite forces, like matter and anti-matter? There is also eternal material, which lasts forever, and material which does not, which has the elements of entropy and death. Right now, our spirits are housed in bodies which contain matter which will eventually experience death, no matter how many beauty companies and health companies try to reverse the process. As a complete soul, we need our bodies to continue to grow and progress as family members, but none of us are able to combine our spirits with an immortal body, no matter what science tries with cloning, etc. But Jesus Christ, as the offspring of a mortal mother (Mary) and an immortal and eternal Heavenly Father, was able to go through the resurrection process first, and by so doing, He is able to help the rest of us be resurrected someday as well. We do not know how this works yet, as it is advanced science none of us comprehend, even the brightest among us. In some ways we are already saved, that is to say, everyone who has ever lived on the earth will receive the gift of immortality in the resurrection. But not everyone will be able to return to live with God again. That still requires sincere repentance. And I don't think it's that we're proud of the Atonement, it's just that the knowledge makes us happier and eager to share it with others.

Answer 8

He suffered for our sins so we need not suffer for them. We are not able to live a sin free life. Instead of suffering for this, we need only except him as our only true savior and our path to heaven. Trust and belief is all we need do to take part in heaven after we die. With trust and belief comes a way of life on earth, that is as sin free as possible. As humans it is normal for us to backslide on occasion. We are only expected to try as best we can and repent when we sin. I hope this helps.

Answer 9

Hebrews 9:22 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society


22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.


Every man must make his OWN choice-accept Christ & live

or

Reject Christ & die.

Answer 10

We sin After being born...we pay the death penalty for that...but with repentance we can live again..