Category: Salvation

You speak of how Jesus’ death on the cross covers our sin. The exchange doesn’t work for me though… he died and was excommunicated from God for 3 days and can then save all those who all on Him? It seems a bit unjust to me! 3 days of death for an eternity with his people… now if he was to die in our place, that’s a sacrifice but he does not preside in Hell but in heaven with the father.  

Let’s say my brother got a life sentence, I would 100% do 3 days in jail over his life in jail. 

From what I can fathom, it is not a fair exchange. 

I don’t understand how his death for 3 days is enough to cover our eternity. It doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice to me. 

Dont get me wrong, Jesus was an incredibly wise human and may have been Gods son. But, his sacrifice seems insignificant. 

So, how is Jesus’ sacrifice appropriate to cover our sins, how is 3 days of sacrifice enough to cover human kind?  

Do you have any wisdom to share on that topic? 

Answer

What number do you get if you multiply a miniscule fraction by infinity? Jesus is infinite God. Each of us are mere finite creatures, made by God. Each of us have a finite quantity of sin. It’s a lot, and more than I can list, but it is finite. That gives you a finite cost to pay. Add together those amounts for all of the people who will ever exist, and that is still a finite number. But Jesus, as the infinite creator, could take all of that on Himself in a moment, and more than cover the cost. The bottom line is that God the Father saw it as being sufficient. That’s the concept of “propitiation” that the Apostle Paul talks about in Romans. (Romans 3:25,26)

Question

And why do I need forgiveness for my sins?

Answer

God is just.  Sin must be paid for, not ignored or brushed under the carpet.  Ezekiel 8:14

Romans 3:23

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Romans 6:23

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I ultimately still don’t see the need for forgiveness by Jesus for my actions beyond asking God for forgiveness of which I do.

Answer:

It’s probably more a more a matter of repentance, rather than asking forgiveness.   1 John 1:9 is about a Christian maintaining a right relationship with God.  It’s the sort of thing that you are doing.  It’s what happens in a family when you realised that you have offended a family member, and you admit your wrong, and get things right with that one.  But doing that wasn’t what got you into the family.  You had to be born into it, or get adopted.  Repentance and faith is what triggers that to happen with us and God.  Repentance involves a recognition of which way you are going, and turning ‘about face’ back in the other direction.  Faith is recognising a truth and trusting it for yourself.

Question

I will admit, that since I don’t have the same understanding of Christ, I do allow myself to enter into sin more freely (or potentially, with less guilt?), however, this has been something that has been incredibly freeing since leaving the faith in 2014. It’s not that I don’t understand the consequences for my sin. It’s that, it is permissible and now I don’t feel the weight of sin on my shoulders every single day. That was exhausting… The burden of feeling guilty for every time I do something that was not what God would have liked.

Answer

Something psychological is happening there.  It’s like the drunkard that figures that the fact that he drinks to excess is the fault of someone or something else other than his own choices.  So, he can feel good about crying in his beer.  If you can be convinced that your sin really isn’t sin, then you can feel good about yourself.  And, especially if you can rank yourself well above those around you, even some who claim to be Christians,  then you can feel really good about yourself.  But how you feel isn’t going to be what makes you right with God, or give you entry into heaven.

Furthermore, there is something spiritual happening there.  You may have been living the life of a Pharisee, and with that comes the pressure of living a life commensurate with the position.  So, you would find yourself under stress, trying to “live the Christian life.”  When you gave up on that the pressure of living under those conditions was relieved, so you felt better.  But the true Christian life is not living under some sort of set of rules and standards, requiring you to perform.  It’s about a relationship.  And when the relationship is right the ‘right living’ becomes natural.

Also involved in the spiritual side of things is the work of the enemy.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

Between Satan’s influence and your sin nature, you have managed to create your own god to replace the real one.  You have a good relationship with him, and you feel good about it.  But it’s a fake.  An impersonation.  The Pharisee has a god of his making that makes him feel good about himself.  The person reacting to pharisaic living makes some major alterations to his god to suit his new approach to life, so he can again feel good about himself.  They are both missing the truth.

Question

Why do I need salvation from my sins? Like sure, because there has to be consequences for not meeting Gods standard. But sin on earth should not result in an eternity of consequences. It doesn’t seem just to me??? 

Answer

Read Romans 2:11 to 3:20

We sin because we have sin nature.  A natural tendency to stray.  Take a wild pig out of the bush, and put it in your backyard, and you will learn that just moving to a new location doesn’t change who you are.  (Romans 5:12-21; 2 Cor. 5:17, 21)  Apart from that transforming work of grace, to move us to heaven would simply degrade heaven, and make it like sin-swept earth.