Did Jesus Have To Die?

[PonderingJak]

I’ve heard that Jesus had to die, that there was no other possible way for people’s sins to be forgiven. They needed a sacrificial lamb to take their place, so Jesus ended up being crucified. But why did He have to do this? God made the world, He can basically do what He wants

 

[Solmyr]

Excellent question.

There is no logical reason for it. Any loving father will pardon the “misdeeds” of his children, without picking out the “most innocent one” and brutally murder him. This whole sacrifice idea was just a leftover from all the primitive religions, where the vengeful and cruel deity had to be appeased by something very valuable.

As the bible says: “the smell of the burnt offering is pleasing to the nostrils of the lord”.

 

[jaimeleglise]

I am no expert but I think God could have redeemed
the world any way he chose. Jesus chose this way to show us how much He loves us.

 

[ChurchSoldier]

Yes, He did.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

I’ve heard that Jesus had to die, that there was no other possible way for people’s sins to be forgiven. They needed a sacrificial lamb to take their place, so Jesus ended up being crucified. But why did He have to do this? God made the world, He can basically do what He wants

Yes and no. God is entirely self-sufficient, as I’m sure you know. He needs nothing. Of course God could have forgiven humanity’s sin with a wave of his metaphorical hand. However, God always chooses what’s best for mankind. Jesus didn’t incarnate to become a sacrifice for our sins. That smacks of penal substitution. Jesus incarnated to show us how to live. To teach us that we cannot defeat evil with even greater evil; we can only defeat evil with love and perfect obedience to the Father.

Jesus sacrificed his life to show us how to live, but he, himself wasn’t a sacrifice or a ransom of any kind. If he would have been a ransom, to whom did God owe something?

So, Jesus didn’t need to die, but sinful humanity needed him to die. We nailed him to the Cross and we keep him there every time we sin.

 

[TRON]

In my poorly phrased quickly written opinion…
GOD did not ordain that Jesus had to be murdered by crucifixion, however GOD\Jesus did know that this is what we humans would do to him. Knowing this, Jesus came anyways.
The Old Testament sacrifices were more of a foreshadowing of what was to come, rather than a requirement of justice.
Often times GOD has stated that it is Good Works that he wishes for, not blood sacrifices…

 

[Crusaderbear]

I know this might be unpopular, but I’ve always felt the .Crucifixion speaks more about mankinds inhumanity than God’s love. I truly appreciate what was done for us, but still feel we may have missed a big part of the lesson being taught by not accepting our complicity in his death.

 

[Simca]

Excellent question.

There is no logical reason for it. Any loving father will pardon the “misdeeds” of his children, without picking out the “most innocent one” and brutally murder him. This whole sacrifice idea was just a leftover from all the primitive religions, where the vengeful and cruel deity had to be appeased by something very valuable.

As the bible says: “the smell of the burnt offering is pleasing to the nostrils of the lord”.

The Jewish sacrificial system was very intricate and was given to the Jewish people by God himself. There was the Burnt Offering, the Sin Offering, The Guilt Offering, the Fellowship Offering, etc. Each different rite had specific rituals for a specific purpose. And each purpose points to a future fulfillment in Christ.

As the New Testament says in Romans, “The wages of sin is death”. This is because a Holy God, because he is holy–not vengeful–can only dwell in the presence of purity, and only those who have been purified can dwell in his presence.

God allowed the Jewish people, through confession and the laying on of hands, to “transfer their sin” onto that of an animal. The animal would then be sacrificed and pay the price of death in place of the sinner.

When we believe in Jesus, confess our sins, and live a holy life accordingly, the death of our Sacrificial Lord takes our place, and through him, we can be admitted into heaven to live in God’s presence.

Either Jesus had to die, or the sacrificial system would have to remain until today. We have sinned, we are guilty, and as the scripture says, “It is the blood that makes atonement, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your sins, for it is the blood which makes atonement.” Without this atonement, we would never, on our own, be able to live eternally with God.

Yes, the smell of the burn offering is pleasant to God. It is not because it was a pleasant odor. It is because the Burnt Offering restored the fellowship between man and God. And God loves us so much, that he craves our fellowship–this is his greatest desire–that those whom he created would love him back and enjoy being in his presence, as he enjoys our presence when we spend time with him.

 

[JM3]

Jacques Maritain

The Range of Reason; Chapter 10;

…for a Christian aware of the significance of his own creed, Christ’s condemnation and death are a divine mystery, the most awesome irruption of God’s secret purposes into human history, a mystery which can be looked at only in the light of supernatural faith, and you are perfectly right in stating that “as long as your pupils will think of this problem in terms of a lynching party or of a judicial frameup, they will remain on a low, non-metaphysical plane that has nothing to do with Christianity.”

Nowhere more than in the condemnation of Christ did the exercise of human freedom appear supremely dominated by the transcendent power and foreseeing mercy of God, in a way infinitely more pathetic than Greek tragic destiny. It made Paul bend his knees in adoration.

Who killed Christ? The Jews? The Romans? I have killed Him, I am killing Him every day through my sins. There is no other Christian answer, since He died voluntarily for my sins, and to exhaust the justice of God upon Himself. Jews, Romans, executioners, all were but instruments, free and pitiable instruments, of His will to redemption and sacrifice. That is what Christian teachers ought to inculcate in their pupils.

 

[pianistclare]

Jacques Maritain

The Range of Reason; Chapter 10;

Excellent response. Yes.

 

[sirach2v4]

not only did he die for us, we celebrate his awesome sacrifice, the only one that could possibly fulfill the requirements of the God’s covenant.

 

[jaimeleglise]

you might want to ask the apologist to.get the best answer. God bless you.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

For me, number nine says it all.

 

[eazyduzit]

Jacques Maritain

The Range of Reason; Chapter 10;

The one who actually killed our Savior was Satan. As revealed in Gen.3:15

 

[LordHaveMercy]

No, He did not. He did not have to do anything for us. Mankind declared war on God, and that could have been the end of the story. He could have just let us fall into the abyss when we die. Instead, He came on a peace mission to His enemies (that’s us), and then died for them, so that through baptism He could now call them friends.

He did not have to do that, and He would still be perfect if He had chosen not to. But He did, isn’t that wonderful?

 

[eazyduzit]

The logical answer for His death is that it is the only thing that could satisfy God’s justice. If God just wiped away sins without a full payment, then justice would not have been satisfied and God could rightly be accused of being unjust, which He can never be.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

No, He did not. He did not have to do anything for us. Mankind declared war on God, and that could have been the end of the story. He could have just let us fall into the abyss when we die. Instead, He came on a peace mission to His enemies (that’s us), and then died for them, so that through baptism He could now call them friends.

He did not have to do that, and He would still be perfect if He had chosen not to. But He did, isn’t that wonderful?

I agree with you. Adam and Eve had the power and knowledge to ignore Satan. They thought of themselves instead of God. They willingly disobeyed. Had they not disobeyed, it wouldn’t have matter what Satan did.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

The logical answer for His death is that it is the only thing that could satisfy God’s justice. If God just wiped away sins without a full payment, then justice would not have been satisfied and God could rightly be accused of being unjust, which He can never be.

I don’t think it’s just that we have to suffer and die for what Adam and Eve did. Mexico had recaptured “El Chapo,” but all the Mexican people have not been put in jail for the crimes of one. To me, that would be unjust.

 

[adrift]

Catholic Catechism

Article 4

“JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DIED AND WAS BURIED”

571 The Paschal mystery of Christ’s cross and Resurrection stands at the centre of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. God’s saving plan was accomplished "once for all"313 by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.

572 The Church remains faithful to the interpretation of “all the Scriptures” that Jesus gave both before and after his Passover: "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?"314 Jesus’ sufferings took their historical, concrete form from the fact that he was “rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes”, who handed “him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified”.315

573 Faith can therefore try to examine the circumstances of Jesus’ death, faithfully handed on by the Gospels316 and illuminated by other historical sources, the better to understand the meaning of the Redemption.
313 ⇒ Heb 9:26.
314 ⇒ Lk 24:26-27, ⇒ 44-45.
315 ⇒ Mk 8:31; ⇒ Mt 20:19.
316 Cf. DV 19.
II. CHRIST’S REDEMPTIVE DEATH IN GOD’S PLAN OF SALVATION

“Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God”

599 Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God’s plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God."393 This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.394

600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place."395 For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.396

“He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures”

601 The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of “the righteous one, my Servant” as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin.397 Citing a confession of faith that he himself had “received”, St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures."398 In particular Jesus’ redemptive death fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering Servant.399 Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God’s suffering Servant.400 After his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.401

Article 3

THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST

1322 The holy Eucharist completes Christian initiation. Those who have been raised to the dignity of the royal priesthood by Baptism and configured more deeply to Christ by Confirmation participate with the whole community in the Lord’s own sacrifice by means of the Eucharist.

1323 "At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet ‘in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.’"133

133 SC 47.

To state that Jesus was not a sacrifice nor He did not die for our sins goes against what Jesus taught and what the Church teaches.
I remember the sisters stating that Jesus could have swept the floor. The answer is that Jesus did not have to die but He chose to. His life wasn’t taken from Him but He laid it down

 

[Lily_Bernans]

The logical answer for His death is that it is the only thing that could satisfy God’s justice. If God just wiped away sins without a full payment, then justice would not have been satisfied and God could rightly be accused of being unjust, which He can never be.

How is it just to punish those who have not sinned or to deprive those who have not been given a chance to refuse Satan? I accept it as somehow best for us because I trust in God, but somehow it seems unjust.

If I had ten children and the oldest disobeyed me, I don’t punish all the subsequent nine and tell them they inherited the oldest’s sin. That is a sticking point for me.