Joe, great question on why Christ had to die. My nephew has 16 years of Catholic education and asked me the very same question. I now believe I know the answer. God is both a just God and a gracious God. His justice is even-steven, an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth. Sin means failing to love God or your fellow man, it takes teh form of murder, rape, beatings, snide comments, lies, cheating on spoouse, to as little (per Jesus) as calling someone a fool. After living here for decades, even the best of us accumulate a mountain of moral debt. As a God that requires perfect justice, we can’t wink at even one sin (e.g., it is okay for me to slander Joe Crummey because it is no big deal). He said the standard was perfection - ouch - a standard that He admitted was unattainable. There must be a payment for each sin, but as an all loving God, He is also gracious. He wants to spend eternity with us. The bottom line is that there was a big problem. Everyone was a sinner, with a mountain of moral debt, decades of big ones, little ones, etc. all stacked in a heap like decades of garbage, and nobody able to pay it back to make things even steven. This is where Jesus came in, as part of the creative process that brought us into this world, He decided to pay the price for these mountains of debt.
The Old Testment talks about spotless doves, lambs, etc. (Bible talk for a picture of sinlessness)being offered as a payment for sin. The Old Testament talks about a saviour (a strange term for western minds)paying the price - Jesus was the fulfillment of those prophecies. The New Testament says that no man will get to heaven by works, but that they would get to heaven by having a desire to be part of God’s kingdom trusting Christ to pay for their sins. I wish I had the exact quote from CS Lewis, but he was a athiest professor in England that became a Christian and required things to make sense - like you and me. The gist of what he said was that if this story of salvation were not so logical and unusual at the same time, he would have thought we made the hole thing up. If the Gospel were, do the good thing and go to heaven, do the bad thing and go to hell, we could easily see that it was written by humans to influence humans. The Gospel of Christ is different, do the bad thing, confess that it was wrong, ask the creator to pay your bill, and go to heaven. People don’t make up a story like that.
Looks to me as you if you like someone else paying for your own “sins”. I am not a christian or anything of a Judaic faith. I am a Pagan and Proud of it but there just seems to be something wrong with “He said the standard was perfection - ouch - a standard that He admitted was unattainable.” Seems to me that its the same thing like communism or how this America has been. Test the “power” and you get punished. Is it that hard to prove something? Some are just hypocritical and walking contradictions!
Joe, great question on why Christ had to die. My nephew has 16 years of Catholic education and asked me the very same question. I now believe I know the answer. God is both a just God and a gracious God. His justice is even-steven, an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth. Sin means failing to love God or your fellow man, it takes teh form of murder, rape, beatings, snide comments, lies, cheating on spoouse, to as little (per Jesus) as calling someone a fool. After living here for decades, even the best of us accumulate a mountain of moral debt. As a God that requires perfect justice, we can’t wink at even one sin (e.g., it is okay for me to slander Joe Crummey because it is no big deal). He said the standard was perfection - ouch - a standard that He admitted was unattainable. There must be a payment for each sin, but as an all loving God, He is also gracious. He wants to spend eternity with us. The bottom line is that there was a big problem. Everyone was a sinner, with a mountain of moral debt, decades of big ones, little ones, etc. all stacked in a heap like decades of garbage, and nobody able to pay it back to make things even steven. This is where Jesus came in, as part of the creative process that brought us into this world, He decided to pay the price for these mountains of debt.
The Old Testment talks about spotless doves, lambs, etc. (Bible talk for a picture of sinlessness)being offered as a payment for sin. The Old Testament talks about a saviour (a strange term for western minds)paying the price - Jesus was the fulfillment of those prophecies. The New Testament says that no man will get to heaven by works, but that they would get to heaven by having a desire to be part of God’s kingdom trusting Christ to pay for their sins. I wish I had the exact quote from CS Lewis, but he was a athiest professor in England that became a Christian and required things to make sense - like you and me. The gist of what he said was that if this story of salvation were not so logical and unusual at the same time, he would have thought we made the hole thing up. If the Gospel were, do the good thing and go to heaven, do the bad thing and go to hell, we could easily see that it was written by humans to influence humans. The Gospel of Christ is different, do the bad thing, confess that it was wrong, ask the creator to pay your bill, and go to heaven. People don’t make up a story like that.
I hope this makes sense. Have a Happy Easer,
Don
Looks to me as you if you like someone else paying for your own “sins”. I am not a christian or anything of a Judaic faith. I am a Pagan and Proud of it but there just seems to be something wrong with “He said the standard was perfection - ouch - a standard that He admitted was unattainable.” Seems to me that its the same thing like communism or how this America has been. Test the “power” and you get punished. Is it that hard to prove something? Some are just hypocritical and walking contradictions!