Question on Jesus' Sacrifice

[CoachRoberts]

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick question on God/Jesus and the question of sacrifice. What's bothering me, is as I understand it (which could be pretty wide of the mark, I will admit!);

God decides to send Jesus to earth (obviously part of the Holy Trinity).
Now Jesus presumably knows that he's God the Son, so is basically guaranteed a return to heaven for all eternity after his life is over on earth.

So my issue is largely when people say "God died for my sins" and tell us about this sacrifice of God's "only" Son I think well, how much of a sacrifice is it? You take someone from Heaven where he's been since the dawn of time, send him to earth for a paltry (circa) 35 years, when he is then killed..... then (knowingly) is guaranteed back into the eternal bliss of Heaven for the remaining infinite years of the universe.

This isn't an issue of Jesus, his life/teachings, or Christianity per se... but just an issue of me totally failing to see how Jesus' life on earth, including a grizzly end actually equates to any sort of sacfrice on God's behalf. If the story was God sent Jesus to HELL for our sins, then I would see the massive sacrifice, but as it is, if I was guaranteed a life in Heaven all of a sudden torture and death really isn't much more than a very, very, very fleeting moment of inconvenience (compared to ETERNITY in Heaven!).

Any thoughts?!

Thanks in advance,

Matt

 

[Thief]

And I would agree.

There's been some lengthy discourse here at the forum about this item.
It takes many turns all at once.

Be prepared for a lot of quoting.

As for me, the parables of the Carpenter are the saving grace.

He saved no one by dying.

The sacrifice, could be the disgrace dealt, when such treatment was inappropriate.
He good name and reputation would be degraded.
You may have noticed....He called Himself the son of Man.

 

[Just_me_Mike]

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick question on God/Jesus and the question of sacrifice. What's bothering me, is as I understand it (which could be pretty wide of the mark, I will admit!);

God decides to send Jesus to earth (obviously part of the Holy Trinity).
Now Jesus presumably knows that he's God the Son, so is basically guaranteed a return to heaven for all eternity after his life is over on earth.

So my issue is largely when people say "God died for my sins" and tell us about this sacrifice of God's "only" Son I think well, how much of a sacrifice is it? You take someone from Heaven where he's been since the dawn of time, send him to earth for a paltry (circa) 35 years, when he is then killed..... then (knowingly) is guaranteed back into the eternal bliss of Heaven for the remaining infinite years of the universe.

This isn't an issue of Jesus, his life/teachings, or Christianity per se... but just an issue of me totally failing to see how Jesus' life on earth, including a grizzly end actually equates to any sort of sacfrice on God's behalf. If the story was God sent Jesus to HELL for our sins, then I would see the massive sacrifice, but as it is, if I was guaranteed a life in Heaven all of a sudden torture and death really isn't much more than a very, very, very fleeting moment of inconvenience (compared to ETERNITY in Heaven!).

Any thoughts?!

Thanks in advance,

Matt

And so should it be for us on Earth, this is a fleeting moment of inconvenience and nothing more.

What I will say though is that God took on human nature, and stripped himself of his power and died for us. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that. The bible teaches the wages of sin is death. So, it is only required to die to pay for sin. Problem is when we die, it lasts forever. However, if a person who had no sin died in our place, it is a different story.

However, you get out of the story what you want to get out of it. Good luck...

 

[Pegg]

This isn't an issue of Jesus, his life/teachings, or Christianity per se... but just an issue of me totally failing to see how Jesus' life on earth, including a grizzly end actually equates to any sort of sacfrice on God's behalf. If the story was God sent Jesus to HELL for our sins, then I would see the massive sacrifice, but as it is, if I was guaranteed a life in Heaven all of a sudden torture and death really isn't much more than a very, very, very fleeting moment of inconvenience (compared to ETERNITY in Heaven!).

Any thoughts?!

Thanks in advance,

Matt

Hi Matt,

there are multiple levels to the sacrifice of Jesus. On one level it was given so that people could have someone to look up to, to learn from and to know how to draw close to God.
1Peter 2:21 In fact, to this [course] YOU were called, because even Christ suffered for YOU, leaving YOU a model for YOU to follow his steps closely. ...25 For YOU were like sheep, going astray; but now YOU have returned to the shepherd and overseer of YOUR souls

On another level it was given to prove satans accusation about mankind to be false.
Job 1:9 At that Satan answered Jehovah and said: “Is it for nothing that Job has feared God? 10 Have not you yourself put up a hedge about him and about his house and about everything that he has all around? The work of his hands you have blessed, and his livestock itself has spread abroad in the earth. 11 But, for a change, thrust out your hand, please, and touch everything he has [and see] whether he will not curse you to your very face.”
He claims we are selfish and only worship God because God cares for our needs. Jesus sacrifice was to answer that challenge. Adam failed in his obedience to God, but could Jesus, in his perfect condition, remain faithful to God under the most sever trial? The answer is Yes. We are not a faulty creation...Jesus proved that point.


Yet on another level it was given to pay the debt each of us owe to God for our individual sins.
Romans 6:23 "For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord"
We die because we sin and there is no way out because we are 'born' into a sinful condition. So from the moment we are born, we are already condemned to die. Christs sacrifice was to in exchange for our debt. He effectively paid the debt for us.


All this amounts to a sacrifice on Gods part because he had to allow his only begotten son to die a painful death. But he did this because he loves mankind...they both love mankind enough to take this action.

 

[CoachRoberts]

Thanks for the replies, appreciated.... I suppose when put like that, I guess I might be guilty of over emphasising the significance of the crucifiction, when in reality there might not be one defining action/moment which epitomises Christianity; and like you (Mike) said,

"You get out what you want from it."

Thanks again,

Matt

 

[fahrenheit]

Thanks for the replies, appreciated.... I suppose when put like that, I guess I might be guilty of over emphasising the significance of the crucifiction, when in reality there might not be one defining action/moment which epitomises Christianity; and like you (Mike) said,

"You get out what you want from it."

Thanks again,

Matt

I would be very careful with that belief, because to say you can over emphasis the significance of the crucifixion is like saying you can be too sad when someone dies. Make no mistake, the resurrection is one of the most important events in Christianity because it proves that Jesus had favor with God and that what he was saying was correct.

In the moments before his death he faced such a suffering that caused him to cry out "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?". What caused him to suffer and why?

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

 

[Katzpur]

I believe that Jesus Christ assumed all of the guilt for the collective sins of all who would accept Him as their Savior. To me, this is a huge sacrifice for someone without any sin whatsoever to be willing to endure simply out of love for us. The fact that Jesus returned to Heaven after dying doesn't lessen what He went through so that we could return to God's presence without having to be punished for our sins.

 

[Jordan St. Francis]

Jesus has a human nature as well as divine nature, yet his divine nature was not some kind of shield protecting him from human reality---with its all its agony.

I am not certain that we can say the outcome was ever guaranteed. He so desired that the cup would pass him that he sweat blood and his dying words were a cry of helplessness.

The Godhead was permanently transfigured in the actions of the Son. Christ, God the Son, remains enfleshed with wounds and all. I don't think we can comprehend the mercifulness involved here on God's part.