Crucifixion Question

[FinnleyGraves]

I know the story of Jesus's birth, death, and resurrection. And I know the story of his crucifixion.

This is where my question comes into play. There is something I don't "fully" understand. I have a very superficial understand of my question. Hopefully someone can understand what I'm asking and help me to better understand.

I don't fully understand sending Jesus to the earth to live as a man. Then, having him resurrected. And this is the crux of my question:

How does Jesus dying, and being crucified on the cross, equate to forgiving everyone's sins? How does Jesus dying equate to that forgiveness of sin for mankind? How does his blood then equate to the forgiveness of sin?

WHY, did God (have to?) send his son to Earth for mankind? If I remember correctly, Jesus knew he was going to die, and was meant to die, for our sins. I know I'm repeating a bit here.

I do not understand how Jesus coming to the Earth as the Son of God, and dying on the cross equates to taking the punishment (for lack of a better word) for mankind and absolving mankind's sin.

Everything I've tried searching for to help me understand always brings me to articles, or videos, that talk about Jesus dying and doing it for all man.

No one talked about how that happens, or why that happens, with his death. At this point it is just an analogy. I don't understand the mechanics of how his death does all these things for us.

I hope this is making sense to someone. It's hard to describe what I'm wanting to know.

If anyone understands what I'm asking is willing to give me their precious time to help explain this to me I would so greatly appreciate their help.

I have no problem looking up scriptures if they help explain things as well.

 

[talons]

Here is a link to read for you .

Clip from link .
The substitutionary atonement refers to Jesus Christ dying as a substitute for sinners. The Scriptures teach that all men are sinners (Romans 3:9-18, 23). The penalty for our sinfulness is death. Romans 6:23 reads, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What is the substitutionary atonement? | GotQuestions.org

What is the substitutionary atonement? What does it mean that Jesus Christ died as our substitute?

www.gotquestions.org

 

[TrevorHL]

Greetings FinnleyGraves,

How does Jesus dying, and being crucified on the cross, equate to forgiving everyone's sins?

Firstly, I believe that Jesus died as our representative, not our substitute. Adam sinned and he was sentenced to return to the dust because of his sin, and God also passed this sentence on to his descendants. God gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God, not a Deity, a human descended from Adam through Mary, and he was specially prepared and as a result he always did the will of his Father and never sinned, overcoming the lusts of the flesh. He suffered all of the consequences of Adam's transgression, including death, but as he had not sinned the original sentence of returning to the dust was no longer valid in his case, and God raised him from the dead.

In his victory over death, he set a pattern for others to share in his victory when they unite in faith in what was accomplished and believe into him by faith and baptism, and God through Jesus is willing to forgive these believers of their sins and will grant them everlasting life when Jesus returns to set up his Kingdom on earth in Jerusalem and sits on the Temple Throne of David for the 1000 years. No, not everyone's sins, but the sins of those who have faith in Christ. Justification is by faith.

Kind regards
Trevor

 

[Debp]

God always required a blood sacrifice for atonement. Jesus was the sinless Lamb of God offered once. No more animal sacrifices needed.

The link @talons provided to you will be of help to you.

 

[Lambano]

No one talked about how that happens, or why that happens, with his death. At this point it is just an analogy. I don't understand the mechanics of how his death does all these things for us.

Hi, Finn.

A long time ago, on a long-defunct forum, I had some fascinating conversations with a young man who came to Christ from a Buddhist background. He considered blood sacrifices to be primitive, barbaric, and superstitious. (He had seen a Santeria sacrifice in Haiti and was justifiably appalled. Do Christians glorify human sacrifice?) So, I got a few theology books about the atonement and we went through it together. I'm not sure who learned more, him or me. But I ended up seeing the atonement differently.

Forget the mechanics of Atonement. There are 7 models of the Atonement: Ransom, Satisfaction, Penal Satisfaction, Moral Influence, Christus Victor, Governmental, and Scapegoat. All are grounded in the biblical narrative; none of them are without flaw. I want to talk about meaning, not mechanics. For an engineer who wants to take things apart and see what makes them go, that's not an easy thing to do.

20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in (or because of the faithfulness of) the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20

Forgetting mechanics, in the world of abstract symbols, in becoming human, Jesus identifies Himself with sinful mankind. The wages of Sin is death, and His death is your death (and my death). And when we identify by faith with Him, your life becomes His life.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

As for forgiveness, forgiveness already occurred in the heart of God. Christ on the cross is God's sign that we ARE forgiven. You can accept it, or not. I hope you can accept that good news.

18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making his plea through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 18-21

You ARE forgiven; now it's time to be reconciled to God.

 

[Grailhunter]

I know the story of Jesus's birth, death, and resurrection. And I know the story of his crucifixion.

This is where my question comes into play. There is something I don't "fully" understand. I have a very superficial understand of my question. Hopefully someone can understand what I'm asking and help me to better understand.

I don't fully understand sending Jesus to the earth to live as a man. Then, having him resurrected. And this is the crux of my question:

How does Jesus dying, and being crucified on the cross, equate to forgiving everyone's sins? How does Jesus dying equate to that forgiveness of sin for mankind? How does his blood then equate to the forgiveness of sin?

WHY, did God (have to?) send his son to Earth for mankind? If I remember correctly, Jesus knew he was going to die, and was meant to die, for our sins. I know I'm repeating a bit here.

I do not understand how Jesus coming to the Earth as the Son of God, and dying on the cross equates to taking the punishment (for lack of a better word) for mankind and absolving mankind's sin.

Everything I've tried searching for to help me understand always brings me to articles, or videos, that talk about Jesus dying and doing it for all man.

No one talked about how that happens, or why that happens, with his death. At this point it is just an analogy. I don't understand the mechanics of how his death does all these things for us.

I hope this is making sense to someone. It's hard to describe what I'm wanting to know.

If anyone understands what I'm asking is willing to give me their precious time to help explain this to me I would so greatly appreciate their help.

I have no problem looking up scriptures if they help explain things as well.

Did you get your question answered?

 

[Jericho]

How does Jesus dying, and being crucified on the cross, equate to forgiving everyone's sins? How does Jesus dying equate to that forgiveness of sin for mankind? How does his blood then equate to the forgiveness of sin?

WHY, did God (have to?) send his son to Earth for mankind? If I remember correctly, Jesus knew he was going to die, and was meant to die, for our sins. I know I'm repeating a bit here.

I guess we should start at the beginning. I would define sin as anything contrary to the will and nature of God. When Adam sinned, it caused a spiritual separation between man and God. And because Adam was the first, the master template for us all, that sin nature was passed down to all humanity.

God and sin cannot mix. It would be like trying to mix oil and water. So, it would be impossible for someone in that fallen state to be in the presence of a holy God. That meant that when humans died as the result of sin entering the world, they would automatically go to a place of eternal separation (hell, Sheol, or whatever you want to call it).

In the Old Testament, God instructed the Israelites to atone for their sins by shedding the blood of animals. The animals essentially took on their guilt and bore their punishment. There is something about blood that transcends the physical and acts as a bridge between the natural and supernatural. The shedding of innocent blood satisfies some sort of spiritual law that perhaps we do not fully comprehend. But life is in the blood, so their sins were covered, but only temporarily.

Only God could provide a permanent solution. He did that by bypassing humanity's sin nature, which seems to be inherited through the father, and substituting himself. That allowed Jesus to be born sinless, which is why he's called the second Adam. Jesus then became the perfect sacrifice. In his divinity, he was able to atone for everyone's sins, past, present, and future, simultaneously, once and for all.

Jesus atoned for our sins in ways we cannot. That's why those in hell who have not accepted Jesus' atonement must atone for their own sins. They have no animals to make atonement. The only thing they have left to sacrifice is themselves. The problem is that the price of atonement can never be met. So they are condemned to atone for their sins for all eternity. Hopefully, that explains the "why" and, to an extent, the "how".

p.s. There is a book by Dr. Hugh Ross, called Beyond the Cosmos, which may shed more light on this.