Jesus dying for our sins

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So I have a close relative who is a bible Christian. She tells us that Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we don’t have to sacrifice animals while telling our sins to priests as in the Old Testament. My question is what does it mean that Jesus died for our sins? Could you explain so it might make sense to a bible Christian! Sorry if this is a stupid question. My husband and I are just starting to get into our religion. Thanks so much for everything! 🙂
 
Tiffany05 said:
So I have a close relative who is a bible Christian. She tells us that Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we don’t have to sacrifice animals while telling our sins to priests as in the Old Testament. My question is what does it mean that Jesus died for our sins? Could you explain so it might make sense to a bible Christian! Sorry if this is a stupid question. My husband and I are just starting to get into our religion. Thanks so much for everything! 🙂
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In a nutshell, man sinned in Adam and Eve and so lost the sanctifying grace given to him by God. It was necessary, if man was to recover that grace and return to God’s friendship, that he make amends. The problem is that man cannot make amends on his own because he has nothing to give God which God doesn’t already have. Even if he gave God his life, he’d only be doing his duty. Man has to pay the price for his sins, but only God could; so God became man.

Imagine our existence as a debt. We pay the principal on the debt as long as we obey God, but the principal eats up all our income. Our debtor is generous and gives us freely the food we eat and other things. But maybe we don’t trust him and decide to skip a payment to buy more food, so we get hit with late fees. Even if we resume making payments, we’d still only pay the principal – the late fees we can’t afford. So God comes along and pays the late fees for us.
 
Animal sacrifices covered mankind’s sin. They were a precursor, aka a “foreshadowing” of what Jesus did for us. The Bible teaches that mankind not only became subject to physical death after he disobeyed God, but that he was also spiritually separated from God. Jesus is referred to as "the Lamb of God’ because he lived a sinless life. He was fully human and fully God, and so his perfection was the only acceptable sacrifice to totally remove our sins, instead of them just being covered up. So, as the perfect “lamb”, his sacrifice satisfied the judgment of God which was on humanity’s sins. Jesus’ resurrection proved that his sacrifice on the cross was complete, because Jesus destroyed death, which is the penalty for sinning. When we are joined to God through Jesus in baptism, the stain of original sin is removed. We then avail ourselves of sanctifying grace via the Sacraments. We strive throughout our lives to maintain that sanctifying grace, through our works and the Sacraments, and when we die, we hope to obtain eternity in heaven with God. If we still have some venial sin in our lives, we can be cleansed and purified in Purgatory. Salvation is a process, but the foundation is always through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. Without Jesus’ death & resurrection, we cannot obtain salvation. I hope this helps.:heaven:
 
Hey Tiffany,

The Catholic Church teaches that Christ died for all of our sins. He made the perfect sacrifice and saved mankind. 1st John 2:2 makes this clear: “and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

However, though Christ objectively paid the price for our sins, we need to say yes to Him for His sacrifice to be effectual in our lives. Show your friend 1st John 1:5-10:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
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This text makes it clear that in order for Christ’s sacrifice to cleanse us from sin we must “confess our sins.” We must “walk in the light as He is in the light” in order for the blood of Christ to cleanse us, not just except Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior one time.

Hopefully this will help!
 
In response to the confessing sins to someone ie: a priest.

Ask her why Jesus gave the Apostles in John 20:21-23 the authority to forgive sins. Why would they hold such authority if everyone was to just confess their sins to Jesus in their heart???

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Also ask her why James 5:13-16 asks us to not just confess our sins to one another, but to call the elders of the church(Priest, deacons) and have them annoying the sick with oil. Why does she not do this if the Bible tells us to???

The Prayer of Faith

13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
 
I think everyone already responded to your question , but I was wondering what would your friend say if you asked what is a “bible Christian” If that means they believe just that which is in the bible, why dont most “bible Christians” give honor to Mary by calling her blessed as it says in the bible? Or why dont they believe in the real presence of Christ in Communion when Christ, referring to the bread at the Last Supper, says “this is my body…this is my blood”? The bible says only if you eat my flesh and drink my blood will you have eternal life, but they dont take that literally either. They only take things literally when it suites their fallible interpretation of the bible , which is only 400 years old, and not 2000 years like the Catholic interpretation. Nor, do they believe many other things the bible actually teaches. So, my point is that Catholics are actually Bible Christians in the sense that we believe as the bible actually tells us to. Sorry, for the diversion, but II always think its ridiculous when I hear the term bible Christians used by people who dont follow many of the key teachings of the bible, and then in turn accuse Catholics of not following scripture.
 
Well, Jesus certainly did “died for our sins,” but you are right to ask what this means for them. In the mind of most Protestants (as far as I know), they take this to mean that Jesus died on the cross in our place receiving the punishment we deserved, viz., divine wrath and eternal damnation. In this view, God the Father actually regarded Jesus as a sinner. Read this article from R.C. Sproul to see an example of the kind of things they say about the cross.

ligonier.org/blog/forsaken-jesus-became-curse/
 
QNDNNDQDCE said:
Well, Jesus certainly did “died for our sins,” but you are right to ask what this means for them. In the mind of most Protestants (as far as I know), they take this to mean that Jesus died on the cross in our place receiving the punishment we deserved, viz., divine wrath and eternal damnation. In this view, God the Father actually regarded Jesus as a sinner. Read this article from R.C. Sproul to see an example of the kind of things they say about the cross.

ligonier.org/blog/forsaken-jesus-became-curse/
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I am pretty sure the Catholic Church teaches the same thing about Jesus being sacrificed for our sins in our place. That is why it is so important to have crucifixes, to remind us of Christ’s suffering for us.

2 Cor 5:21

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The real difference in Protestantism is that they hold that “believing in your heart that Jesus died and rose for our sins” is all you need. Once you acknowledge that intellectually or in your heart, then you get the “get out of hell free card”. There is no need for sanctification. We are declared righteous not made righteous according to them. Many in officially hold a license to sin as a result. It is very sad and very unbiblical. Point them to the verse above and Matt 7 and Matt 25. Both make it clear works are part of salvation. Works are the physical sign of faith. Faith is life transformation and life change that shows our desire to confirm to Christ. It is this type of faith that unwraps Christ’s gift on the cross.
 
You are getting into a territory where fine distictions have to be made. The Protestant idea is that God had in mind all the sins of the elect and, in order to spare the elect while satisfying his demand for justice, regarded Christ as having committed those sins and punished him accordingly. This is why you hear people say that Christ experienced damnation and hellfire or that the fellowship in the Trinity was broken or other nonsense like that. According to this view, Christ’s atoning work amounts to little more than serving as a divine punching bag.

In 2 Corinthians, Christ being made “sin” means that Christ was made a sin offering, which is without doubt what the footnote said. He is playing on multiple senses of a word like when he uses “sinners” to refer both to gentiles who do not follow the Law of Moses and to those who actually commit sins in the proper sense, both Jew and gentile. Christ being made sin does not mean that he was regarded as a sinner by God.
 
robert_chacon said:
I think everyone already responded to your question , but I was wondering what would your friend say if you asked what is a “bible Christian” If that means they believe just that which is in the bible, why dont most “bible Christians” give honor to Mary by calling her blessed as it says in the bible? Or why dont they believe in the real presence of Christ in Communion when Christ, referring to the bread at the Last Supper, says “this is my body…this is my blood”? The bible says only if you eat my flesh and drink my blood will you have eternal life, but they dont take that literally either. They only take things literally when it suites their fallible interpretation of the bible , which is only 400 years old, and not 2000 years like the Catholic interpretation. Nor, do they believe many other things the bible actually teaches. So, my point is that Catholics are actually Bible Christians in the sense that we believe as the bible actually tells us to. Sorry, for the diversion, but II always think its ridiculous when I hear the term bible Christians used by people who dont follow many of the key teachings of the bible, and then in turn accuse Catholics of not following scripture.
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I understand this. She is one of those who think Catholics do nothing according to the bible yet in reality we do. She seems to skip over all of the important bible verses. My Husband and I are trying to show her the verses and explain different things since she is deeply criticizing our Faith. We may not get anywhere with her, but our main hope is that she might open up her mind just enough to realize Catholics do go by the bible. Maybe she will even begin to realize that their are things that she should be doing that she is not (such as the Eucherist).
 
Thank you all for your responses!!! There were so many great responses! You all are a blessing! They really helped me better understand this! Hopefully it will help my relative, too. 🙂
 
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2.17)
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This took place in the sixth day. We’re in the sixth day. Adam did eat the fruit: Adam must die in the sixth day. So Adam should not be resting on the seventh i.e., be in the Kingdom of God. God is most merciful, He gave Adam a means to continue, to exhaust the sixth day by begetting children. The whole of humanity is Adam. How is Adam to happen in the seventh day? There’s only one way: to purify with sin. It is expedient to commit against Adam an astonishing sin, a unheard of sin. A sin that will render Adam’s sin vanishingly small in comparison. God is most wise. He shadowed the Son of God, His very essence, the Logos, in the Son of Man, Ben Adam. Jesus = Son of God & Son of Man. God killed his Son, something that is such an evil thing against Adam that Adam’s sins are no more.

Not Adam’s sins, but rather the sins of Jesus’ brothers. Jesus’ brothers are not many. Religions hide this truth.
 
Well Adam and Eve sinned, going from Perfect to Corrupt, thus spiritually crippling the all of humanity. We hereby deserve nothing but one thing: DEATH. Death is the only thing that can satisfy Divine Justice, on the other hand, no death is good enough to FULLY satisfy this justice. The only thing that can reverse this process of sin and death is the Perfect Sacrifice, the shed blood of a perfect man, TOTALLY SINLESS, which no mere creation can do.

That is why God came himself through Jesus Christ, to be born as the Sinless Man,
the Lamb Without Blemish, the Perfect Sacrifice. Jesus, born sinless, lived sinless,
died sinless, thus fully satisfying God’s sense of Justice, but there’s a catch…One must enter into that sacrifice by accepting Jesus as the Savior.
In dying, Jesus destroyed Death,
In rising, he restored Eternal Life.

Also, I don’t know where your relative got
the idea that “not having to tell our sins to
a priest” deal, that is TOTALLY wrong, so
let me provide this 8-9 minute video:
** Why Do Catholics Confess Their Sins to a Priest? **
 
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