Help me explain that Christ had to die for our sins

[NMHS]

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I were discussing christianity, the bible, heaven and hell. My mom doesn’t go to a Christian church. She believes if a person does good then they dont sind and then they will go to heaven. She believes in God, she believes that Jesus was a profit sent by God, but not the Son of God. She cannot understand why in the OT they had sacrifices for their sins and she cannot understand that for eternal salvation, Jesus had to die on the Cross for our sins as a sacrifice. I did my best to explain this to her by using some scriptures. She then said well OK I somewhat understand by she still cannot grasp it. She doesn’t understand that God needed a sacrifice for our sins and she doesn’t believe in the word sin.

So I then gave her two chapters in the bible to read,
Romans 3:1-25 and 6:1-23 for the definition for sin, I also gave her Hebrews 9:11-30 for the sacrifice. She has then asked me how do the scriptures apply to us today. In my own words I can only give her a idea of how the scriptures apply to us today, but I know by posting this question and asking for guidance from God that I will get some ideas on how to answer her questions without stumbling to much. I believe God is working in her heart about these issues. Thanks, NMHS

 

[Crimson_Seraph]

Ok, here’s what you do.

You tell her that God has already spoken through the prophets and said that “Our righteousness is as filthy rags” in his sight. You then tell her that according to Hebrews “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” Tell her that man cannot of himself please God. He needs the grace of God to operate in his life to do this, and it will never happen until he gives his life over to the Lord Jesus Christ.

God cannot simply wink at sin or look the other way, God is good yes, but God is also holy and just. This is why Jesus had to die, to pay the debt that mankind owes God. As an old hymn that I love says, “He paid a debt that he did not owe, and I owed a debt I could not pay. I needed someone to wash my sins away.”

The wages of sin is death. Therefore God put the sacrificial system in place so that something could die in your place. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice you see.

 

[NMHS]

Thanks that help me get started, anything else?

 

[Charlie_Zeaiter]

Jesus is God and can defeat death. If we give Him our sin He can defeat our death too, and we’ll live forever with Him.

 

[Nita]

Hi NHMS,

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I were discussing christianity, the bible, heaven and hell. My mom doesn’t go to a Christian church. She believes if a person does good then they dont sind and then they will go to heaven. She believes in God, she believes that Jesus was a profit sent by God, but not the Son of God.

If your mother is not Christian, I doubt she accepts Scripture as the word of God. If that is the case, quoting Scripture passages probably won’t accomplish much.

I’m not sure how to go about leading one to believe Jesus Christ is more than a prophet; that He is in truth the Son of God, become man to redeem us. But I’ll just give some basic thoughts I’ve had. You can judge whether they may help, and flesh them out a bit.

1. It has always seemed to me that God would not have created us and then abandoned us – leaving us to figure out on our own what the meaning of existence is; what He is like and what He expects from us; etc. And, of course He didn’t. He chose to initiate this revelation through the Israelites, ensuring that His words were recorded (eg. Ex 24:4 & 7; Deut 31: 9 & 24). Thus, the gift of the OT Scriptures.
2. If your mother comes to accept Scripture as God’s revelation to us, then there are passages that show Jesus was God. (eg. John 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”)

She cannot understand why in the OT they had sacrifices for their sins and she cannot understand that for eternal salvation, Jesus had to die on the Cross for our sins as a sacrifice. I did my best to explain this to her by using some scriptures. She then said well OK I somewhat understand by she still cannot grasp it. She doesn’t understand that God needed a sacrifice for our sins

God/Christ did not HAVE to die in order for us to be redeemed; He did not NEED to do it that way. But it was the way He chose to do it. Let your mother know that we know this only because God has revealed it to us through His prophets in the Old Testament, through Our Lord’s words in the New Testament, and through the teaching of the apostles and the Church after Our Lord’s death.

Regarding the OT sacrifices, again I’m just going to give you some of the thoughts I’ve had over the years as I pondered the OT sacrificial rites. They can be difficult even for Christians to understand - I know they were for me at one time.

To begin, before God even created man, He knew:
that Adam would sin.
that He would redeem us,
and how He would redeem us.

I believe the whole OT sacrificial ritual was established by God:

1. as a “type” (prefigurement) of the true sacrifice - to help us recognize the fulfillment when it occurred and to teach us all the different facets of what Our Lord’s sacrifice encompasses. The OT sacrifices were the primary form of worship established by God for His people. They were sacrifices of thanksgiving, praise, peace offerings - as well as sacrifices for atonement of sin (see Leviticus). Our Lord’s sacrifice and it’s ongoing memorial in the Sacrifice of the Mass are the fulfillment of all those OT types.
2. also, these OT sacrifices are meant to teach and impress in our minds and hearts how serious sin is. Life is required to atone for it.

God prepared us for what He would do through prophecies and prefigurements in the OT. (eg. Paschal Lamb and other OT sin offering rituals He established; Ps 22; Wisdom 2:12-20; Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12; …) These are the passages that come to my mind, but I’m sure there are many others.

We don’t know for certain why God chose to redeem us by becoming man and dying for us. My personal thoughts are that He wanted to demonstrate to us the degree of His love for us. God is love. Jesus said " Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

Nita

 

[severntofall]

Ok, here’s what you do.

You tell her that God has already spoken through the prophets and said that “Our righteousness is as filthy rags” in his sight. You then tell her that according to Hebrews “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.”

What does it mean to say that “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.”? What a bizarre thing to stipulate, that before god can forgive our sins blood must be shed. Why would god insist upon such a bizarre thing? Can you imagine telling one of your children that you will forgive them for some offense, but first “blood must be shed”?

Tell her that man cannot of himself please God. He needs the grace of God to operate in his life to do this, and it will never happen until he gives his life over to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Tell her that God created us so that we are completely unable to meet his criteria for behavior, but he was willing to over look this fact after he brutally killed his own son.

God cannot simply wink at sin or look the other way, God is good yes, but God is also holy and just. This is why Jesus had to die, to pay the debt that mankind owes God. As an old hymn that I love says, “He paid a debt that he did not owe, and I owed a debt I could not pay. I needed someone to wash my sins away.”

In other words, God felt in necessary to brutally kill his own son before he would even consider forgiving our sins. Tell her that she on the other hand can forgive whomever she wants without first having to kill anyone, and that only god needs to brutally kill people before he can offer forgiveness. Kind of weird isn’t it? I’ve forgiven dozens of people and never once had to crucify anybody; yet God created us in his own image and he was so sicken by our nature that he felt compelled to brutally kill his own son.

 

[manualman]

I think people make God out to be far too much the lawyer type. Romans 3 and 6 say something rather different to me.

It isn’t so much that God says “Sorry guys, but you broke the rules and I follow the rules, so somebody has to suffer for it. Since I love you and you’re repentant, I’ll take the hit myself in the person of Jesus.”

That’s lawyer talk.

To me, Romans 6 says that sin brings death - by itself! When we sin, we damage our ability to give and receive love. And there has been SO much sin in this world and so much damage resulting from it that when God Himself came to earth in all his love, generosity, compassion, etc - humanity couldn’t stand him. We were so far gone that we killed Him. We ALL share that burden, it is all our collective sins that crucified Jesus.

The joyful part is that it didn’t end there. Because he suffered that death willingly and rose from the dead and promised us that His love for us was undiminished, we have REAL hope that we can be more than the imperfect sinners we are on our own. None of us can manage true goodness on our own willpower. We don’t have to! We have Christ’s offer of Grace that has redeemed us and that He offers us to be remade again in His image.

That’s a far better God IMO than the cosmic lawyer you so often hear about from protestants.

 

[Namesake]

The wages of sin is death. Therefore God put the sacrificial system in place so that something could die in your place. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice you see.

Not trying to be argumentative really, but just how can you believe in substitutional sacrifice, and why does this loving God demand a blood sacrifice? I’m reminded of Mayan sacrifice.

 

[JasonHC]

Christ had to die, so that mankind would be reconciled back to God.

God created mankind to be in communion with Him. Yet, Adam and Eve, and the rest of mankind kept straying away from God. For example, God had bestowed favor on certain men, like Noah, Moses, David to bring back his people to Him, but they also kept straying as a result of sin.

Jesus, who was sinless, was able to restore what these men we unable to do: He brought them back to God by being the sacrifice which enabled forgiveness.

As for how all of this is relevant for today, consider this:

Jesus “was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 5:10) and that “He has become a high priest forever” (Hebrews 6:20). He is not only the sacrifice but also the high priest. We know that he would offer gifts and sacrifices like every high priest (Hebrews 8:3). We also know that Melchizedek offered “bread and wine” (Gen 14:18). Hebrews 9:9 implies that Jesus as high priest offers gifts and sacrifices that cleanse a person’s conscience (i.e. wipes sin and grants grace).

Here’s what Hebrews 9:9 actually says (referring to OT sacrifices):

“This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.”

Thus, we know the following:

1. Jesus offers bread and wine (i.e. body and blood)
2. Jesus offers it forever (i.e. perpetually offering gifts and sacrifices)
3. His sacrifice cleanses a person’s conscience (i.e. bestows grace and wipes sin)

Also consider the following:

1 Cor 10:16 - “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”

John 6:52 - Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

John 6:53-58 - Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever

So how is this relevant? By virtue of the fact that Christ’s sacrifice is the eternal sacrifice by which we have Communion with God (literally). This is precisely how we become partakes of his divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) since we believe that we receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord when receive the Eucharist. It is precisely how Christ and the Church becomes one flesh (Eph 5:31-32). When we go to Mass, we are stepping into the eternal, and as scripture says:

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24)

When we go to Mass we are also experiencing these words from Revelation 19:9: “Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb” which is said before Christ and the Church becomes one at the end of Revelation. Those words are, not surprisingly, similar to what the priest says prior to receiving Communion: “Happy are those who are called to his supper” (also keep in mind that ‘blessed’ could be translated as ‘happy’).

I hope this was helpful!

-Jason

 

[Namesake]

Christ had to die, so that mankind would be reconciled back to God.

God created mankind to be in communion with Him. Yet, Adam and Eve, and the rest of mankind kept straying away from God. For example, God had bestowed favor on certain men, like Noah, Moses, David to bring back his people to Him, but they also kept straying as a result of sin.

Jesus, who was sinless, was able to restore what these men we unable to do: He brought them back to God by being the sacrifice which enabled forgiveness.

As for how all of this is relevant for today, consider this:

Jesus “was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 5:10) and that “He has become a high priest forever” (Hebrews 6:20). He is not only the sacrifice but also the high priest. We know that he would offer gifts and sacrifices like every high priest (Hebrews 8:3). We also know that Melchizedek offered “bread and wine” (Gen 14:18). Hebrews 9:9 implies that Jesus as high priest offers gifts and sacrifices that cleanse a person’s conscience (i.e. wipes sin and grants grace).

Here’s what Hebrews 9:9 actually says (referring to OT sacrifices):

“This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.”

Thus, we know the following:

1. Jesus offers bread and wine (i.e. body and blood)
2. Jesus offers it forever (i.e. perpetually offering gifts and sacrifices)
3. His sacrifice cleanses a person’s conscience (i.e. bestows grace and wipes sin)

Also consider the following:

So how is this relevant? By virtue of the fact that Christ’s sacrifice is the eternal sacrifice by which we have Communion with God (literally). This is precisely how we become partakes of his divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) since we believe that we receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord when receive the Eucharist. It is precisely how Christ and the Church becomes one flesh (Eph 5:31-32). When we go to Mass, we are stepping into the eternal, and as scripture says:

When we go to Mass we are also experiencing these words from Revelation 19:9: “Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb” which is said before Christ and the Church becomes one at the end of Revelation. Those words are, not surprisingly, similar to what the priest says prior to receiving Communion: “Happy are those who are called to his supper” (also keep in mind that ‘blessed’ could be translated as ‘happy’).

I hope this was helpful!

-Jason

Not in the least helpful. It was just rehashing all that stuff. What I want to know is why a substitutionary sacrifice, especially one so bloody, is required in the first place. Violent nature of God I suppose. Christianity would be much more palatable with less blood splattering about. I really think humans have matured well beyond such hideous concepts.

 

[JasonHC]

Not in the least helpful. It was just rehashing all that stuff.

Hm, well the opening post asked about how the Bible still applies to today, and the majority of my post gave an explanation of how it applies to us in the present day.

What I want to know is why a substitutionary sacrifice, especially one so bloody, is required in the first place. Violent nature of God I suppose. Christianity would be much more palatable with less blood splattering about. I really think humans have matured well beyond such hideous concepts.

Ok, two points for me to mention. The sacrifice that is offered in the Mass is called the unbloody sacrifice. Jesus’s role as high priest is different from the levitical priesthood, which involved the slaughtering of animals. Hebrews 7 addresses this very thoroughly (see Hebrews 7:11-27, especially v. 27). Also keep in mind that Jesus is a Melchizedekian priest, so to speak, since it is said that he would be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. His sacrifice did not involve the need to slaughter animals.

I have not studied OT sacrifices in depth, but here’s one aspect to why God required sacrifices:

The OT sacrifices were done as a form of breaking from idolatry. When the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt, God did not intend to take them out of Egypt permanently. The idea was to take them out for 3 days to sacrifice animals, then return (Ex 3:18, Ex 5:3). Later, when the plague of frogs strikes Egypt, Pharaoh says, “Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD”. Then he says in verse 25: “Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land”.

And Moses responds:

26 But Moses said, “That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the LORD our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? 27 We must take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, as he commands us.”

In other words, sacrificing these animals would be sacrilegious to the eyes of the Egyptians. The idea was that God would pull the Israelites out to break free of such idolatrous bondage, but due to Pharaoh’s hardness of heart, he decided to take them out permanently, so the Israelites would no longer be influenced by idols. It’s like taking an alcoholic out of a pub.

Yet, what did the Israelites go back to doing once Moses was up on Mt. Sinai for 40 days? They lost faith, and decided to worship a golden calf as if they were still in Egypt. Again, it’s like a drunkard finding his way to get another drink. Also, repeating sacrifices is like telling a drunkard to sacrifice a bottle of liquor. If I remember correctly, the ‘need’ for sacrificing animals had to do with reminding oneself about who is really their God.

It’s interesting to note that even God did not desire sacrifices according to Hebrews 10:8: “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”

Ultimately, the Old covenant could not free His people. Yet the New covenant is one in which the law would be written on their hearts (Hebrews 10:16). Again, Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek whose sacrifices involved offering bread and wine (Gen 14:18), not animal sacrifices.

 

[Crimson_Seraph]

What does it mean to say that “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.”? What a bizarre thing to stipulate, that before god can forgive our sins blood must be shed. Why would god insist upon such a bizarre thing? Can you imagine telling one of your children that you will forgive them for some offense, but first “blood must be shed”?

Tell her that God created us so that we are completely unable to meet his criteria for behavior, but he was willing to over look this fact after he brutally killed his own son.

In other words, God felt in necessary to brutally kill his own son before he would even consider forgiving our sins. Tell her that she on the other hand can forgive whomever she wants without first having to kill anyone, and that only god needs to brutally kill people before he can offer forgiveness. Kind of weird isn’t it? I’ve forgiven dozens of people and never once had to crucify anybody; yet God created us in his own image and he was so sicken by our nature that he felt compelled to brutally kill his own son.

1. The wages of sin is death. You’re a dirty, rotten, sinner who rejected God and deserve every bit of punishment of hell. So do I. Now, God provided a way of forgiveness in that he allowed a substitute to be offered in your place. God cannot just say “well ok I forgive you.” Because he is holy and he is just. So something has to pay the price. Originally it was an animal without spot or blemish that died in your place. But this was only a forshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ who died for the sins of the world.

I can’t imagine telling my kids this because I’m not God. Who are we to judge him and what he does? You don’t tell the Lord of all Creation “hey, I think you’re doing this wrong.”

1. God created mankind without sin and perfect. God desired a loving relationship with man and provided him with everything he could want. Sadly, Adam and Eve were not content with this and rebelled against God. It wasn’t God’s fault, he gave them a choice.

I would tell my daughter (if I had one), that inspite of all the horrible things that we as a people have done and still do, that God so loved us that he was willing to sacrifice his beloved son on the Cross of Calvary so that we could truly live once more. He became man so that we could become closer to God. He died so that we could live. He bore our sins, so that we could share in his righteousness.

1. Again, you presume to know better than the Almighty. His ways are not our ways. You assume that because you can just look the other way, that God will just forget everything just because. No, God is holy and he is just. A sacrifice had to be paid to satisfy that justice, and Christ paid it fully. If you cannot understand it, it is because the Holy Spirit has not convicted you of your sins and made you realize that you need him.

Incidently, this is why I as a Protestant, wear a crucifix around my neck. To remind me of the sacrifice of my Lord and how much he loved me.

 

[manualman]

Namesake, did you read my post?

It isn’t so much that God is angered by our sins and feels the need to punish someone. It is more that sin, inherently, is fatal to the basic goodness of the human soul. It’s not that we did something on an arbitrary list of things we aren’t allowed to do.

God doesn’t get angry when you step off a cliff and as a result hurl you to the ground at its base. It’s just gravity! The wages of stepping off a cliff are SPLAT! In the same way, the wages of sin are death.

By willingly accepting the automatic consequences of humanity’s sinfullness, Jesus showed us supernatural levels of love and mercy. Now that He’s got your attention that way, he’d like to give you this cool stuff called Grace which can actually FIX your tendency to sin.

 

[markhiggins01]

Atonement is a huge topic, it is not simple as we have discovered and there are different theories explaining why the death of Christ on the Cross somehow makes a difference.

Here is my take which I believe is the orthodox Catholic response

Christ died so that we (in Christ) could offer satisfaction to God for Our sins.

Original sin and all subsequent sins offended God infinitely and demanded an apology equally infinite. Justice demands that the fellon makes an apology rather than some other guy. God became Man- the son of man, the head of the human race to make this apology. Christ’s death was accepted by God as the apology. It only counts as your apology if you are in Christ. Those who become members of the body of Christ gain Christ’s death and merit as their own which makes them reighteous before God.

Why was death and not just a p(name removed by moderator)rick peformed when surely an infinite being’s p(name removed by moderator)rick would be of infinite worth?

Cardinal Newman says that we put a price on things we value, the Eternal Father, in putting the death of His son in our nature as the price to be paid expresses in His perspective the value of humanity’s salvation. God chose to set this price because it expresses our value to Him.

 

[John_Donlan]

The severity of an offense is directly related to “who” or “what” is offended. For instance, if you walked on a patch of grass and you damaged some of the grass in the process…your ‘offense’ would be minor – compared to walking over a person lying on a sidewalk, sleeping, and causing that person physical bodily harm.

Thus, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the One that they offended was infinite…and the extend of their offense was infinite because of Who they offended. How could this be rectified? If Adam and/or Eve were to die, would this be enough to compensate for the infinite offense done to God? No. They were ‘finite’ beings, and no amount of offering on their part could make up for the infinite offense of their sin against “The” infinite being.

So God the Father, in His infinite and outreaching love for our souls – not wanting them to be eternally lost from the paradise of Heaven – had to find a way to help us ‘undo’ the infinite offense of sin. The only way that this could be done is if ‘someone’ who is infinite could be sacrificed in reparation. Hence, Jesus – His very own Son – was asked to offer Himself as an infinite sacrifice in reparation for sin.

Because of the merciful offering of Jesus – coming to earth, taking on our human nature, living in poverty and rejection for 33 years, submitting Himself to torture and eventual death upon a cross, being branded as an “imposter” and a “criminal” – the gates of Heaven could finally be opened to us. Our sins could be forgiven because (even though they have infinite repercussions) an infinite sacrifice was made for them on Calvary.

I hope this helps!

 

[a_burger]

You must understand the Hebrew sacrifice. It was to cleanse sins. Look in Revelation where our robes are perfectly white with no stain. Little sins make little stains. The robes didn’t even have little stains. The Bible tells us that the blood of animals don’t remove but merely hid them until the blood of Jesus forgave sins. If we could go to heaven by being good then Jesus would not have had to die on the crooss. Look at Matthew 26:52 where Jesus tells us his Father could send a legion of angels to rescue him.

Jesus also tells us no man is good. We might think a man is good but God don’t. only Jesus, God the Son, is good.

If everyone would just sit down and pnder at to why Jesus died and that he had the power to overcome they would understand that Jesus is the only way.

I hope this helps. By the way two different historians reported that Jesus rose from the dead. If Jesus rose from the dead then that must mean something big really big.

 

[Namesake]

You must understand the Hebrew sacrifice. It was to cleanse sins. Look in Revelation where our robes are perfectly white with no stain. Little sins make little stains. The robes didn’t even have little stains. The Bible tells us that the blood of animals don’t remove but merely hid them until the blood of Jesus forgave sins. If we could go to heaven by being good then Jesus would not have had to die on the crooss. Look at Matthew 26:52 where Jesus tells us his Father could send a legion of angels to rescue him.

Jesus also tells us no man is good. We might think a man is good but God don’t. only Jesus, God the Son, is good.

If everyone would just sit down and pnder at to why Jesus died and that he had the power to overcome they would understand that Jesus is the only way.

I hope this helps. By the way two different historians reported that Jesus rose from the dead. If Jesus rose from the dead then that must mean something big really big.

Well, forgive me my ignorance. I don’t understand why people who truly believe in a paradise after death think that death is such a sacrifice. Especially when Jesus was assured of paradise since he is God. So how does Jesus dying, even by crucifixion, compare to the way many people die. Lots of people suffer more than Christ did and they have no where near the assurance of paradise after death. Christ knew full well that he would be bodily resurrected in three days. How many people have had that assurance? So where is the big sacrifice?

 

[antonabe]

When Adam and Eve were created they were destined to live for ever and there was no death.Their Sin however brought about the death of Man and all men were born with Original Sin.My belief is that the only way Death can be eliminated is by Death and that is why Our Lord Jesus Christ had to die for us.The concept of Sacrifice was in a manner of speaking giving glory to God and offering remission for our Sins.In the time of the OT animals would have been valuable assets to mankind and sacrificing by killing an Animal and thus losing the valuable asset for God can be considered an act of Penance as it is a loss to man.

 

[Natalie_Valente]

John Dolan’s answer is so true. Good for you John.
Jesus died so that he could reverse the effects of Original Sin caused by Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God. The effects
of that was eternal death.

Jesus reversed that by His sacrifice on the cross so that we
could have eternal life.

How you spend that eternal life depends on how you spend your
life here on earth. Now, God is your Father. Your Father,
God, needs to hear that you love Him. Tell you Him you love
Him. You can tell Him that anytime, night or day, while working or play, or any other time.

Also He needs you to ask Him what you can do for
Him. Ask every day. Be kind to one another because that
is helpful to God – less stress on God. Be helpful to one
another so long as it doesn’t cause sin.

Also He needs penance because of the
daily sins committed against Him through mankind. You know
just like you, when someone does something to hurt you you
are angry and hurt and need to hear that that person is sorry
or to make some gesture or offering to you to make up for it.
God feels the same way so offer all your work of the day up to God as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. You can offer your play up too. It is good also to
do the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for people and the souls
in Pergatory. It takes about 12 minutes. The time you spend
praying for others is a sacrifice also. Your prayers are taken to
Heaven by angels of which there are many more angels
on the earth as people.

When you die, Jesus will judge between what you did that
was good against the bad and you will go where you belong.
If you have sins to suffer for, you will go to Pergatory and there
pray for other souls. The prayers of others move you up towards
Heaven. So people on earth who pray for the souls in Pergatory
are helping them to move up to Heaven.

The time you give up in prayer and kindness you show others
are all good. Any sacrifices of money or goods are all good.
Time spent visiting the sick, giving aid to the poor, feeding
the hungry, burying the dead, etc. are times weighed in the
good since they are sacrifices of time, goods, and money.
Time spent in prayer pleases God and is weighed in the
good. Also remember that when you do something, do it with
good intensions. Your intentions mean a lot to Jesus.

Natalie

 

[antonabe]

Well, forgive me my ignorance. I don’t understand why people who truly believe in a paradise after death think that death is such a sacrifice. Especially when Jesus was assured of paradise since he is God. So how does Jesus dying, even by crucifixion, compare to the way many people die. Lots of people suffer more than Christ did and they have no where near the assurance of paradise after death. Christ knew full well that he would be bodily resurrected in three days. How many people have had that assurance? So where is the big sacrifice?

We have to understand the real meaning of Death.Before salvation by the Sacrifice made by Christ there was no everlasting life after the Physical death of the body.We believe that souls were in a state of limbo, if I may call it that, until Jesus redeemed these souls by descending after his Death to announce the good news to them.Death can then be defined as the absence of everlasting life.The Death of Jesus Christ not only gave everlasting life not only to the generation living at that time but also to the past and future generations.Regarding the sacrifice made by Christ in the human form he endured torture by scourging,agony both mental and physical,humiliation,ingratitude,and all his blood was drained out leading to the death of the body, and this is the real sacrfiice.Upto that point Humans died with no chance of extension of life but Christ gave us the real victory over death by rising again.You are right in a way.After the death of Chist for a Christian, Death is now only a reward its not a sacrfice any more