How was Jesus's death a sacrifice?

it was a sacrifice because God could have let the entire race proceed down to hell and been entirely justified.

Instead he took the sin and guilt and punishment for sins for the entire Race of Adam upon Himself, suffered infinitely, in what appeared to us in a six hour time frame, and justified every sinner by taking upon Himself what they would have had to bear for an eternity in hell.

There is no comprehending what Jesus endured. You cannot understand the infinitude of God, neither His eternality, nor his omniscience. You can only take him at His word, and the moment you do, you begin to experience the benefits of what God has procured for us in Christ.

I know - I stepped out of darkness, into his marvelous light over forty years ago, when he instantly delivered me from depression, the moment i first believed.

listen what He did for others......

http://www.freecdtracts.com/testimony/mickey_robin...

http://www.freecdtracts.com/testimony/carolkornack...

http://www.freecdtracts.com/testimony/ian_mccormac...

http://www.iamsecond.com/

Once you stop thinking the wrong thoughts, you will start thinking the right thoughts.

When you reject the word of God, you are wrong, and the only thing left to believe is a Lie.

The point of putting himself in human form is to create a challenge for people. When you look like a human it is really hard to believe that you are, in fact, a God. So that was the challenge and only the few believed in him,

EDIT

Jennifer, you are practically asking: "what is the meaning of life?", If God exists, why did he put us here and created the devil? Those are the silly questions. I understand that you do not believe in God. However in this argument you assume his existence. But if he exists and managed to come up with such an intricate system as the universe (all the physical and biological processes, molecules and atoms, elementary particles - the goddamn particle (it really is a name of a particle)) then his intelligence is probably on the level that we could not comprehend, let alone predict and interpret his actions. It is like expecting from amoeba to understand our daily life, our plans, our thoughts. A bad example, we are not intelligent enough yet, to come up even with something as simple amoeba.

Edit

http://www.allaboutfollowingjesus.org/why-was-jesu...

Here is some christian theory on that matter; i am not religious so i can not comment on that.

Keep in mind, religion is not about evidence or proof, it is about faith. People believe in God's word, they'll not stop calling it a sacrifice just because you have shown them that they do not have evidence that it was, in fact, a sacrifice, They'll believe in it just because the Book says so, and that's how it should be, otherwise it is not a faith. If you are looking for evidences and trying to argue against religion using rationality then you are deemed to fail.

Jesus could of course chosen not to follow God's wishes - even though he was God.

Jesus was fully God, but, fully human as well. Which means he had all the powers, and limitations as any other human - including the ability to think for himself. That's why he had to pray to God - same as we do.

You also have to understand the Jewish method of atoning for sin - the transference of the sin to a "blood sacrifice" made in the Temple. Jesus did this on our behalf - he paid the blood price we owe for our sins. He stood there ant took the punishment the we were supposed to have, and that he did not.

So, yes, this is a sacrifice, based upon the Levitical priesthood system.

As for why God in human form: well, God is BIG! As big as the Universe itself. Thus, he is very hard to comprehend, and about 1 person in 20 doesn't even believe in him (like yourself) - they just can't comprehend God in His fullness. But, a man is MUCH easier to understand, and have a relationship with - at least, for man people. So, we can get to know Jesus, who will God, is much more approachable in the minds of many. Easy to have Jesus as a friend; some fine going to the full God to be much harder, or, impossible.

If you look at the big picture of the Bible it is entirely logical. (Unsurprisingly)

In the beginning God created everything 'very good'.

There was no sin and no death and no suffering.

Adam and Eve were given a simple command not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

They disobeyed. The just penalty for their sin is death. The whole of creation is now groaning under God's curse.

We are all descended from Adam and Eve, and so we are all sinful, and all deserving of death.

God does not want us to die. He wants us to live with him in eternity.

But he is a just God and the penalty for sin must be paid.

The solution is that God himself provided the sacrifice. His son Jesus was perfect - and did not sin. He willingly chose to pay the death penalty on our behalf.

One day - on the day of judgement - we will all be judged. Everyone will be found guilty, falling short of God's standard. However, Jesus has paid the just punishment for all those that accept Jesus as their saviour. Our sins will be wiped clean.

In eternity the curse will be removed, and there will again be no death and no suffering.

Everything prior to Him was preparatory to His perfect sacrifice so His death is also viewed as a sacrifice. This is true by virtue of:

His deity (Hebrews 1:8-9).

His acceptance of suffering to be made perfect (Hebrews 2:10, 5:8-9).

His personal superiority to Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6).

His ability to provide an eternal Sabbath rest for God's people (Hebrews 4:9). God's call of Him as a priest in the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:1-6, 7:1-22).

His establishment of an eternal priesthood (Hebrews 7:23-28).

His presence at God's right hand as eternal priest, after offering a perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 1:3, 8:1-2)

His superiority to the Aaronic priesthood of animal sacrifices (Hebrews 8:3-13).

His ability to carry the results of his sacrifice into Heaven itself, not merely into the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:11-14, 23-25).

His once-for-all-perfect sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 9:25-10:4).

His willingness to be the sacrifice, not merely to offer one (Hebrews 10:1-10).

The bible is a compilation of stories told by people who were either witness to or experienced a degree of spirituality. The truth in the bible is what you choose to believe to be true.

As far as I am concerned, if what I read doesn't resonate in some way with me, then I conclude it to be false. Logic, reason and understanding are attributes I have at my disposal.

The very act of sacrificing life is itself proof of it's untruth.

I am not a follower of any belief system or religion, I do however understand that we are not here by mere accident. Life and the universe are just far too complex, and the laws which govern it are still beyond our understanding.

In truth science is without doubt beneficial, as is wisdom and understanding, but neither science or religion can answer the questions that are beyond their understanding.

Generally all truths are found within ourselves when we choose to believe.

Jesus was a man. In fact He knew the father personally. But for the simple fact that He had a human nature that makes Him qualified to experience human attributes. This means He can make choices to obey God or to disobey God. God knew the outcome of Jesus that's why God confidently spoke and said." this is my my Son in whom I AM well pleased" God stood in the corner of JEsus cheering Him on to stick with the plan of Salvation. Hope that Helps.

As a Muslim, I dont beleive that God ever came to earth. We beleive that God sent several Prophets including Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. The reason he sent them is because he would not come here by himself as he is the creator and not the created. Human beings are created.

Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for two reasons- He was Gods son and He was perfect(the only perfect man to walk this earth...) so he became the sacrifice for us because everyone thought he was a false prophet and crucified him. Jesus let them crucify him because he knew he was the sacrifice for everyone on this earth. As Jesus was being beaten by the Roman king he was praying that God would forgive him for he not know what he does. Hope this helped...

Watch this video if you would like to accept Christ and accept His sacrifice for you, me, and the rest of the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9xBtdb9UwA

It is impossible to understand the point of such theological nonsense. Even Christians don't understand, but they just say they understand, citing the fact that the Bible says that Jesus is the final atonement for all the sin in the world. Jesus "had" to die, because otherwise, God would have had to throw everyone in hell instead. And so somehow, this means that God is a good guy, because he has to kill someone, call it himself so he can give himself the credit for sacrificing himself to himself, in order to avoid torturing absolutely everybody. Now he is nice enough to only torture 80% or more of people rather than 100%. Just hope you are born in the right family.