Does the sacrifice of Jesus honestly make any sense . . .?

The sense comes when you realise that God's perfect justice and holiness cannot be circumvented. He cannot sweep sin under the carpet. His own law declares that the wages of sin is death. So somebody had to die in order to pay the price of humanity's sin. Humans couldn't pay that price for they were all sinners. Even a perfect man could not pay the price for more than one sinner (in his stead). But God manifest in the flesh decided to pay the price Himself for the sins of the whole world! A perfect God, taking on a perfect human life, could meet His own perfect standards legally. That is why Jesus die sacrificially, as a perfect human who was also God. Divine justice was satisfied. Divine holiness was not compromised even one whit.

Here's the real miracle, though. God did not have to do any of that. He chose to do it, because of His immense love for us sinners. God's system is perfect, as you know. He won't compromise it. He lifts us up to be enabled to gain the merit of Christ, imputed to us. Even before the world was created, he and Christ (the eternal Son) knew this would be the outcome, and they decided that would be the best way. One day, in the glory, we may hope to learn why there was no other way.

You are trying to place 20th century human values on a God that has been around since before time.

Yes from where we stand now, It may seem odd. But for the time that it occurred it made sense.

The passover was a time when the Jewish people had to sacrifice a lamb to remember what God did for them in Egypt. The lamb had to be the first born and pure with defect.

Jesus dying for our sins was an act of symbolism. Christianity was meant for the Jewish people. They were supposed to recognize that Jesus was the new passover lamb, that the time for sacrifice was over and a new thing had started.

You are taking a living breathing book about life and reading it like a Tom Clancy novel that should tie all the plot holes together

The Bible is a book of life and life is sometimes confusing. Why does bad things happen to good people. Why do little kids get sick and die. Why do people listen to leaders like Hitler. Life doesn't follow rules that make us comfortable. Neither does the Bible.

I hope this helps. Email me if you want

God Bless you

Why does that make it worse. You said yourself that God killed God to make God happy.

The blood that was shed in sacrifice was never for God, if you read Hebrews. The blood that was shed was for us. Because the hope was that maybe if you had to get blood on your hands for what you did wrong, you would stop doing that wrong. But we didn't.

So Jesus comes and takes on the torture of carrying all of our sins, in hope that if we see a human figure suffering for all that we did wrong, maybe we would stop doing some of that wrong and not add more suffering to the poor guy.(not to make light of Jesus)

It was a symbolic act by God, to make us think and wake up. Jesus died for every-ones sins from then until the end. So, if we all sin less, that is less that he suffered for.

Does that help?

I am not saying that it wasn't necessary - I am also not saying that it really didn't happen. Jesus did die on the cross, He died with all of our sins. He rose three days later and then ascended to Heaven after that.

I do believe that really happened. I am just saying that the blood was not for God, it was for us.

God never wanted our sacrifices, He wants us to believe Him and be obedient. That concept goes back to 1 Samuel after Saul disobeys God.

Look at the Bible from an ancient Jewish perspective, because that is who is was for. Study what was going on at the world in those times. Or save yourself a pile of reading on your own and just go get a movie called "The gods ain't angry" by a guy named Rob Bell. Most christian books stores will have it. Then if you don't trust what he has to say, take your own time, do your own thorough research and then get down on your knees and ask God to help you understand. It is His book, and His plan and His Son. He knows.

I am not being chippy, it's just that this maybe isn't always the best place to find real answers about your spiritual questions. And I know God is making you ask questions right now, so please, I encourage you to seek the truth and have peace with the knowledge you gain.

In Judaism there is no such thing as a Messiah who is born of a virgin and a god, is a mangod, and who is sacrificed for sin.

The Messiah in Judaism is a human being, born of a married Jewish man and wife in the usual way, lives a long life, marries, has sons to whom he leaves an inheritance, is a king, rules from the rebuilt Temple in jerusalem, does not do miracles - if there are any miracles to be done, God does them not the Messiah.

The Messiah is not worshipped, he is not God, and he has nothing to do with saving anyone from sin, he has nothing to do with anyone's salvation (Original Sin and/or salvation are also not concepts found in Judaism), and he is NOT killed as a sacrifice for sin or for anything else.

The entire concept Christianity has of the Messiah being the exact opposite of all of that, they got from ancient pagan religions and cultures that practiced human sacrifice for the salvation of the community. The priests would select certain people, virgins, hold a ceremony in which they were made gods, and then kill them as a sacrifice for the sins of the community and to ensure salvation from drought, invaders, etc. AND then they would eat the bodies and drink the blood of these "gods" they had sacrificed in order to take in their "life", their power.

Christianity is completely pagan. None of what it believes comes from Judaism whatsoever, and is in fact the complete opposite of Judaism in all its doctrines and foundational beliefs.

When Judaism was founded by Abraham, it took it OUT of all that. Christianity took it right back in to themselves.

EDIT: Tabetha is incorrect. The Christian new testament LIES when it says that without the shedding of blood there was no remission of sin. The Torah says that only in the case of UNINTENTIONAL sin was a blood sacrifice done. And furthermore, that if a man could not afford a bull for it, he could bring a sheep, but if he could not afford a sheep, he could bring a bird, but if he could not afford a bird, he could bring A GRAIN OFFERING.

Grain is not blood, and was perfectly acceptable in the place of blood sacrifice. Furthermore, prayer was always a component. Beyond that, in the Book of Hosea, when the Temple was destroyed the Jews are crying to God, asking God what they should do now for sacrifices since there is no Temple to bring the sacrifices to? God tells them "From now on, the PRAYERS OF YOUR LIPS shall serve as the bulls of sacrifice."

And this was LONG before Jesus. Prayer replaced the sacrifice.

Human sacrifice is an abomination to God, and that is exactly what the Christians have with Jesus. An abomination to God.

Following your same logic you could also say that our life has no purpose. Because according to you God created all the rules so why did he make his Son suffer. Why does he make any of us suffer? Why do we have to live life at all if he already knows who will be saved and who won't?

I believe the answer lies in the fact that God wants us to grow. And the only way that we can grow is through experiences. God then inspired us to live righteously when he said that "no unclean thing can enter into his presence." And since we are all sinners and God cannot lie it would follow that none of us would be saved. That is where Jesus Christ comes in, Christ condescends to our level, experiences the life that we live (so that he can understand and help us) and then suffers for all of our sins and pains and dies (hardly pleasant.)

God does not save everyone because it is not his will to save everyone. If God so desires he certainly has the ability to cause everyone to be born-again. After all, he causes people to the born-again (1 Peter 1:3, NASB) and he can move the heart of the King where he wishes it to go (Proverbs 21:1). If he can do this, why does he not move the hearts of all people so they get saved? After all, doesn't the Bible tell us that God does not want any to perish (2 Pet. 3:9)?

Though this is a difficult theological topic and it is worth a lot more discussion, the quick and easy answer is that God has not designed the course of history so that all people will be saved. But don't be confused. God is not arbitrary. He is infinite and his ways are not ours. He has reasons for doing what he does.

Few Christians know that God can desire one thing and bring about another -- and no, this is not a contradiction. Consider how God desires all people to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3-4) yet Jesus spoke in parables so that people would not repent and be forgiven (Mark 4:10-12). Also, God has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires (Romans 9:18). As a judge may desire to set a person free, the law requires he execute judgment. So too, God can lovingly desire all to be saved but he must also execute righteous judgement on them and all who have not trusted in Christ will be lost.

Finally, though theologians have sought to delve into the mind of God by trying to answer this difficult question, God answers it for us.

"What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles," (Rom. 9:22-24).

Hope this Helped

God Bless

in case you attitude the bible as you're able to a Shakepearian play, you're able to get someplace, with the aid of fact there are various gaps and lacking instructions. on occasion you're able to correctly be analyzing Jesus asserting some thing then wrapping it up with some thing so incomprehensible you ask your self whether He forgot to place another concept in between the 1st sentence and the final sentence. i won't clarify completely to you what historical human beings theory approximately mortality/immortality, nor their philosophy on existence. We only have bits and products and we are able to come to partial conclusions that are unsatisfactory at ultimate. Even analyzing historical cultures/tribal customs, it extremely is complicated to appreciate why God needed a blood sacrifice.

Yes, Jesus died a horribly long painful death hanging on a cross for everyone to witness. He felt the same pain as we as humans feel. He took our place on the cross to pay for our sins (which He by the way, never sinned). So ultimately God watched His son die because of us because He loves us as our creator. This all came to be because God allowed humans to make a choice to love and obey Him. He didn't want to program us like robots. That wouldn't be true love. Sadly, He had to die for us because the wages of sin is death. The punishment we received in the beginning for disobedience was death, therefore He had to take that punishment that he sentenced on us humans to save us from it! Thus, the ultimate sacrifice. Basically, He gave out the punishment (death) and He took it!

Well, yes. The slavery of humans to evil is an unnatural state due to the imperfection of humans. Although omnipotent, this cannot be wished away, anymore than you can forgive your lover of infidelity without suffering the pangs that come with forgiveness.

Paul's theory of kenosis says that Jesus did not know what lay beyond death anymore than you or I do.

The suffering to correct the human deficiencies in the relationship with God were too great for almost any human to bear. So God, in his Love for humans, himself became human to redeem humans from the slavery to evil.

Think of redemption as purchase and manumission.

That evil entered the world requires alot of explanation as does the idea tha a creature given free will is not a puppet of God.

I totally agree. Besides, people sacrifice their lives for others every day. I mean, I would appreciate it if someone died for me, for whatever reason, but Jesus really didn't go through that much compared to, say, people held in prison camps during WWII or Vietnam, etc. I like your summation (God sacrifices himself, to himself, to pay himself etc.) Nicely put.

Edit: Why is your god so incredibly blood thirsty? Why does wanting blood shed make it any more logical? That's pretty darned disgusting, IMO. And barbaric. Then the whole deal with drinking Jesus' blood and eating his flesh -what are we, Aztecs? It's horrible, and the more you think about it, the worse it gets. You're worshiping a blood hungry, savage, cannabalistic monster.

I agree with a lot of the posters on here. There is no way that you would understand because you have already decided that you don't believe in Jesus Christ. Second of all, God didn't make the system that way. There was no sin until Eve was tempted by the Devil in the Garden of Eden. It was human error and living out of God's perfect will that ultimately drove Him to sacrifice Himself (in earthly form) as a sign for His unconditional love for everyone, despite their short comings and the evils they commit (aka, thinking that we know better than He does). He wiped the slate clean for all of us. Unfortunately, most of us can't fight the urge to live in our flesh and not in God's will. You are a living example of why all of this happened. You have also allowed Satan to convince you that his way is better than God's way. Faith is not an analytical thing. By trying to dissect it, you only prove that you don't have it. The only thing that is completely clear here is that you don't even want to entertain the idea that something beyond your "logic" is acceptable. Again, logic is the polar opposite of faith. Either you get that or you don't, and you don't. The Bible is not a scientific textbook with theories for humans to prove or disprove. As far as your reply to "conditional logic", yes...you are exactly right. It is written in the Bible that God's ways are not our ways. He is so much bigger than us that we can not and will not understand Him, and He doesn't owe us an explaination for that. Either you believe in God as the creator of all that is in this world (except evil, I would like you to give me the scripture that says that God brought evil into this world. Satan was a fallen arcangel that established an army of evil to combat God's perfect will) or you don't believe it. In Genesis 1, there is a seven day calander of what God created and when. Find me the place where it says "God created evil to torment the people of this new world". Satan is said to be the Lord of the earth and God is the Lord of it all. By rebuking Satan on earth, you can achieve eternal life in Heaven. By claiming, as you are here, that God is confused and His will cannot be true because it doesn't match up with your earthly logic is just as insane to a Christian as our Christian beliefs are to you. Why did you even post a question that you aren't looking for an answer to? You think that you have it all figured out anyway, and you are just trying to cause conflict and degrade other's beliefs on the sole premiss that they don't match yours. Besides, I've heard it said to people with beliefs like yours' in the past..."I would rather live like there is a God to find out that there isn't, than to live like there isn't to find out there is". Pack your sunblock!