Was Jesus a sin sacrifice? Why did Jesus have to die? (part 2 of 2)
In part 1 of this writing I showed that Jesus was not and could not have been a sacrifice by God. He was NOT a sin sacrifice.
So if Jesus was not a sin sacrifice what was his purpose here on earth and how does he cover our sins.
Jesus came to reveal the father and it is faith in his blood that atones for sin.
Revealing the FATHER
Nobody knows the father apart from the son and who the son reveals him to.
Luke 10-22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
This simply means that those who believe in Jesus the father is revealed through him to them .
The main purpose of the ministry of Jesus was revealing the truth about the father, revealing the father who is love. This truth is very much misunderstood. Jesus came to separate God from the pagan gods and the confused understanding of who God is. EVEN today many Christians have merged God and these gods together and have as we saw in part 1 a very warped understanding of God to the point they believe that God killed Jesus. It is through Jesus that the truth (God) is manifest.
Jesus was asked by the Pharisees what was the greatest commandment
Matthew 22- 34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.35 the one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which isthe great commandment in the law?
Jesus responded that it was to love thy God with all your heart, soul and mind.
Matthew 22- 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment.
Jesus though also expanded and included the second great commandment.
Matthew 22- 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Both centred around LOVE.
Jesus gave a new commandment in John 13-34
John 13-34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
We see again a commandment with the central theme of love.
Why is love so necessary? Why does the whole law hang on these 2 commands based on love?
It is because this was how we were made. God IS love
1 John 4-8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Here we are told that those who do not know love do not know God. God is love. Not that God has love but that he IS love.
We were made in the image of God.
Genesis 1-27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
This is not the physical image of God, God is a spirit, we are not spirits, but he is love and it was in that image that we were made in.
We however are no longer in the image of God but in the image of Adam (see my writing on this subject )
The universe is built on the principle of “love” It is woven into the very fabric of life.
Gods universe is built in harmony with himself.
Trees require carbon dioxide to live, When we breathe out we breathe out carbon dioxide. We need oxygen to live and trees produce oxygen. By not participating in this giving and receiving we would die. *
The dead sea is another good example of the circle of “love” it receives water from the river Jordan but has no outlets for that water. It does not “give” and so it has died. * example refernces by Dr Tim Jennings
When things do not give as well as receive they stagnate and die. This is not an arbitrary law. Its a design law.
When you give rules to your children this isn’t because you don’t love them or that you are a bully who makes demands of their children. The rules are there to help protect them, to keep them safe. As the child grows you need to give them less rules. They learn and understand based on these rules.
When God finished creating he said everything was GOOD.
Genesis 1-31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
If it was good then it couldn’t have been bad.
But what happened.
The Devil questioned God’s character.
Genesis 3-1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
The devil made God seem like he was a dictator. Satan, the devil, enticed a rebellion against God by implying that God created arbitrary laws enforcing them because of his power and might and not wanting his creation to be like him and simply threatening punishment if his rules were broken. Satan made God appear to be a selfish power hungry tyrant (like a Roman emperor).
Satan managed to replace the true image of God that was in humans, love, with the image of himself,selfishness. It is satan that wants to be like God, wants people to worship him instead of God
Isaiah 14-13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
The power that satan has lies in the lies that people believe about God that keep people from truly knowing who God is such as believing he is a dictator and killed Jesus.
Eve believed the lie that satan told her.
When we believe a lie even though it is a lie, if we believe it as truth then it affects how we think, feel, act and react.
The devil changed Eves perception of the truth. Changing her perception of the character of God. God’s word and character have been in question ever since…did God really say????
When God said to Adam in the day that you eat you shall surely die, this isn’t a rule that God had made up so he could keep all the power to himself to be the only one with the power God possesses, no created being can have the power that God has. The design law the law of love would be broken
God was simply proclaiming the consequences of the action. (see my writing why did God say cursed is the ground because of you?)
When Eve went against the word of God she was thinking of herself separating herself from the love of God. This brought about a thought for self. When God found Adam and Eve after they ate of the fruit they had covered themselves with leaves for they knew that they were naked.
Genesis 3-10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Nobody had said to them this but they were concentrating on themselves.
Adam’s sin brought about the infection of selfishness into the human race and brought about the love of self. And sin is exactly that Selfishness In Nature.
Galatians 6-8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Our true nature our true image is love, when we sin we go against that true nature. The more we sin the more our true nature is eroded. It takes over us like a disease.
When we live in Christ then christ lives in us and love is the natural result of God living in us. Love is the fruit.
John 15-4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
When God is in us our fruit will be love. It is the result of the spirit abiding in us.
God is glorified through our loving actions our fruit.
John 15-8 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
We are known by our fruit our love for one another, people will see we are his disciples
John 13-35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
We do live in a selfish world, what can I get rather than what can I give is the general position. When we concentrate on our wants such as a bigger home, newer car, latest fashion, these are wants of the flesh.
As a disciple of Jesus worldly possessions should mean much less to us.
We should be focusing on God and not the world. This is not easy in a world that is so focused on possessions and self.
Jesus makes this clear in the story of the rich man in Mathew 19 and Mark 10
Where Jesus tells the rich man who had kept all the commandments that he must give everything to the poor and follow him in order to obtain eternal life. The rich man did not do so because he was too selfish, concerned with his own wealth.
But as disciples of Jesus we are meant to be different, we are meant to stand out.
We are not meant to be of this world
John 17-14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
It is our sin that separates us from God.
Isaiah 59-2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
God is the source of life
John 1-4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (God was in Jesus)
But the wages of sin is death
Romans 6-23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If you are separated from the source of life it is inevitable that you will die.
I shall just give a quick example.
If you have a mobile phone, when you first get the phone you put it on charge and it “comes to life”. It receives life from the power source. However once it is fully charged you will remove it from that power source. The moment that it is disconnected from the power source the phone is dying. It will not die right away but it will die eventually. You can say that the phone will die. You are not saying the phone will die straight away but pronouncing the inevitable consequence of disconnecting the phone from the source of power the source of its “life”.
The only way to keep it alive permanently is to connect it to the power supply and keep it connected to that supply.
Humans will eventually die, they will run out of power. The only way for a human to continue in eternal life is for the soul to be connected permanently to the power source which is God.
Death is simply the consequence of disconnecting from the power source.
Jesus came to fix this broken connection, that through him a way back to the father could be established. He came to be a cure for the selfishness that exists in the hearts of humans.
He came to restore the true character, the true image of God IN man. Living and dying as an example to us of God’s love and to reveal to men WHO the true God was.
He showed satan to be the lair that he is. Satan having changed the image from love to anger. A God that required appeasement and enticing men to do evil deeds.
Worshipping the creations of the creator rather than the creator himself
Romans 1-24 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
A God that creates rules to dictate us and oppress us, an authoritative God. A God that enforces rules that he creates just because he is God and will then eternally punish those that do not follow his arbitrary rules purely because he can or because he is an egotistical maniac.
Jesus shows these to be false. If the blood sacrifice was what a bloodthirsty God required to pay our punishment for our sin then it would seem strange that God would intervene when Herod had wanted to kill the baby Jesus.
Jesus was innocent and his blood could have covered that punishment then.
But sacrifice is NOT what God wanted
Micah 6-6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Isaiah 1-11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
This was not the reason for the death of Jesus.
The problem was not with God and his thirst for blood.
It was about revealing the character of God revealing the true God above the pagan gods. Jesus was to reveal this truth.
John 14-8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
1 John 4-7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
Jesus destroyed the power that satan had over death.
Hebrews 2-14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
1 john 3-8He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
How did Jesus do this. Jesus willingly sacrificed his OWN life. Not as a blood sacrifice to appease God’s wrath. Jesus shed his blood in act of total unselfishness and love to reveal the true God.
Jesus could have done anything while on earth but he went around healing and doing everything for others. Eating with sinners and restoring life. Showing mercy and kindness and above all else love. Revealing the father through himself. Living a sinless and selfless life. Through the sacrifice of himself he revealed the true character of God.
God gave his only begotten son. God GAVE so that we could receive.
John 3-17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Jesus came to overcome sin and death That through his unselfish act , sin would no longer have power over us.
Gods true character and true identity had to be restored into humanity.
Jesus revealed the true God the one above all gods, revealing him to the pagans(gentiles) also.
John 8-12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Luke 2-32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
The act of his own sacrifice was an act of total selflessness and love.
Jesus died so that we through him we can know the true God. A God with the power to restore life. No other god could do this. When Jesus was raised from death he showed God’s true power and which God was true.
We are saved through faith
Ephesians 2-8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
It is through the RESURRECTION of Jesus that we are saved. When we believe in that resurrection we believe in the one true God and it is that belief, that faith by which we are saved
Romans 10-9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Romans 3-25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
The Greek here is ἱλαστήριον hilastérion, this means sin offering or covering. Yet again not a sacrifice.
Now some versions translate this as
Romans 3-25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood–to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished NIV
The word appears just twice. Interestingly the NIV translates this as atonement cover in Hebrews 9-5
Hebrews 9-5 Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now. NIV
The KJV translates it as mercyseat.
Hebrews 9-5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
It does not mean God presented him as a sacrifice.
Jesus is a sin covering through the FAITH in his blood that he shed
The blood that was shed on the cross by Jesus through his faith in God. We are saved by our faith THROUGH his faith.
Romans 3-22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Galatians 2-16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Galatians 3-16 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
We are actually justified by HIS faith. That Faith HIS faith is imputed for unto us when we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Jesus did not have to die, he could have stopped it any any time.
John 18-36 36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
He allowed himself to die, he refused to save himself.
They mocked him on the cross saying he cannot save himself . Jesus could have but he didn’t.
Mark 15-31 Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save
Many people say this today that Jesus can’t save others because he couldn’t save himself.
This was the point..he came to save others not himself.
If Jesus had called on God to save him, God would have, but only he would have been saved. Jesus would have been selfish. Had Jesus chosen to save himself then God could not have raised him from the dead and the faith of Jesus could not be given to us.
Jesus said
John 15-13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus glorified the father through his death and subsequent resurrection.
John 17- 1These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
We receive an eternal life through his act and our acceptance of it.
It took one man’s sin to infect humanity
Romans 5-12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
1 corinthians 15-21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
But through one man’s act humanity could be saved.
1 corinthians 15-22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
The question could be and often is asked, why did god put the tree in the garden in the first place?
God could have chosen not to make the universe at all
He could have created a world where there was no choice
He could have created a world where there was choice but people would only choose good
Or as he did he could have created a world where there was choice and people are free to make that choice.
Only in option 4 is it possible for real love to exist.
God cannot force love but he does want it. God wants to receive love but the only way that he can receive real love is if we have the option of not loving him.
Love does not exist where there is no choice, it has to be able to be freely given to truly exist. Otherwise we would be pre programmed robots.
God will let you go if you wish to reject him but that is not his desire
Ezekiel 18-23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
Ezekiel 18- 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
There is celebration when someone does turn to God
Luke 15-7I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
8 Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? 9And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. 10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
We all hurt when we lose someone close, God deals with this thousands of times on a daily basis.
God wants everyone to choose him and be saved
2 peter 3-9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And through Jesus’ offering of himself, through faith in his blood and that God raised him from the dead, everyone can be saved.