Okay, Jesus died for our sins. What does that even mean?

"OK, Jesus died for our sins. What does that even mean?"

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That is the most important question that each person must ask AND UNDERSTAND--because their eternal destiny depends upon it, as well as the impact it has on our very short lives on this earth.

"So, ever since I was little I can remember hearing the phrase "Jesus died for your sin." I know the story of Jesus & have heard it my entire life. I feel like if I am missing out on this portion of the biblical story, I can't claim to have a very good relationship with God, or a very thorough one at least."

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Every person KNOWS that there is something not right with their lives & that that are separated from God BECAUSE of their rebellion & sinning against Him. You are experiencing the same thing. God has made Himself KNOWN to every person & yet we all have turned away from Him, being our own god & choosing to go our own way, in rebelling against God's good, acceptable & perfect will for us.

Sin is an abomination to God because He is holy & He is sinless.

Psalm 7:11 "God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day."

Indignation means an intense deep-felt hatred over sin & wrongdoing. What is our condition before God for our rebellion & sin against Him?

Ephesians 2:1-3, As for you, you were dead in your trespasses & sins, in which you used to walk when you CONFORMED to the ways of this world & of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the children of DISOBEDIENCE. At one time we all lived among them, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh & indulging its desires & thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

Eph 2:11-21 Therefore REMEMBER that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh...were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel & strangers to the covenants of the promise, WITHOUT hope & WITHOUT God in the world.

13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one & has torn down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments contained in ordinances. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace & reconciling both of them to God in one body THROUGH THE CROSS, by which He extinguished their hostility.

17He came & preached peace to you who were far away & peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have ACCESS to the Father by one Spirit.

19THEREFORE--you are no longer strangers & foreigners, but fellow citizens of the saints & members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles & prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. In Him the whole building is fitted together & grows into a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

Isaiah 65 All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people, who walk in the wrong path, who follow their own imaginations, to a people who continually provoke Me to My face...

Isaiah 59:1-3 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have made a SEPARATION between you & God God & your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood & your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies & your tongue mutters injustice.

Read Isaiah chapter 53 in the Old Testament in the Bible & STOP--and meditate on it--it is all about Jesus dying for our sins & suffering IN OUR PLACE for what we deserve. Let God speak to YOU concerning the truth of what it means.

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised & rejected by men, a man of sorrows & acquainted with grief. WE turned our backs on him & looked the other way, hiding OUR faces. He was despised & WE did not care (esteem & place value on him).

When did we start to care & esteem the Lord? When we UNDERSTOOD what He did for us.

Isaiah 53:4 Surely he has borne OUR griefs & carried OUR sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God & afflicted.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was PIERCED (crucified) for OUR transgressions (sins); he was crushed for OUR iniquities (wicked sins); upon him was the chastisement that brought US PEACE
& with his wounds WE are healed.

Why did all of us do this?

Isaiah 53:6 ALL WE like sheep have GONE ASTRAY; WE have turned—every one of us—to HIS OWN WAY & the Lord has laid on him THE INIQUITY OF US ALL.

Romans 1:18-22,24 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven AGAINST all ungodliness & unrighteousness OF MEN, who by their unrighteousness SUPPRESS THE TRUTH. For what can be KNOWN ABOUT GOD IS MANIFEST IN THEM, because God has shown it to them.

20For the invisible attributes of Him SINCE the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power & DEITY; so that they are WITHOUT EXCUSE.

21For although they knew God, they did not honor him AS God or give thanks to Him, but they became VAIN in their THINKING (logical reasonings) & their foolish hearts were DARKENED. CLAIMING to be wise, they became fools...who changed the truth of God INTO A LIE & worshiped & served the creation (created things) rather than the Creator, who alone is worthy of praise (blessing) for ever. Amen.

"How does this transaction work?"

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Romans 2:1-5 Therefore you have NO EXCUSE, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you CONDEMN YOURSELF, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. But we are SURE that the judgment of God is ACCORDING TO TRUTH AGAINST them (rightly falls on them) which commit such things.

3Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can ESCAPE (AVOID) God’s judgment when you do the same things?

Or do you DISREGARD the riches of His kindness, tolerance (delaying judgment) & patience, not PERCEIVING that God’s lovingkindness is meant to lead you to repentance (changing your thinking & acting toward Him)? But because of your hardened & unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

I Thessalonians 1:9 They talk about how you welcomed us when we arrived. They even report how you turned to God AWAY FROM FALSE GODS (idolatry), to serve the living & true God.

Colossians 1:21-23 ONCE you were ALIENATED from God & were HOSTILE in your minds BECAUSE of your evil deeds. But NOW He has RECONCILED you by Christ’s physical body THROUGH DEATH--in order to present you HOLY, UNBLEMISHED & BLAMELESS IN HIS PRESENCE—IF indeed you CONTINUE in your faith, ESTABLISHED & FIRM, not moved from the HOPE OF THE GOSPEL you heard...

Isaiah 53:8 He was cut off--out of--the land of the living, stricken for the TRANSGRESSIONS of my people...

How can a rebellious, sinful people be made right before God?

Isaiah 59:12-14 For our transgressions are multiplied before You & our sins TESTIFY AGAINST US. Our transgressions are indeed with us & we know our iniquities: rebelling & denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression & revolt, conceiving & uttering lies from the heart. So justice is turned away & righteousness stands at a distance.

Isaiah 53:10 WHEN his soul makes an offering for guilt (guilt offering for sin), he shall SEE his offspring...out of the anguish of his soul he shall SEE & BE SATISFIED; by his knowledge shall the Righteous One, My Servant, MAKE MANY TO BE ACCOUNTED RIGHTEOUS & he shall bear their iniquities.

I Peter 3:18 FOR CHRIST ALSO DIED FOR SINS ONCE FOR ALL, the righteous for the UNRIGHTEOUS, in order TO BRING YOU TO GOD.

"I find the idea to be VERY COMPLEX & the logic surrounding it to be WARPED IN MANY DESCRIPTIONS, but maybe I'm just missing something."

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The idea is very simple actually & logically sound. You are thoroughly LOST & separated from Jesus because you are a sinner & in rebellion to Him. You admit you are not right with Jesus. You have separated yourself from the Creator Who created you for His holy purposes & glory.

Our sins have led each of us to be spiritually dead, unable to make our relationship right with the Lord & Savior. We have chosen to go our own way not God's way, which is for our very best good.

Like a child rebellious to his parents, who stubbornly turns away from their love & kindness & tells them, "I hate you" because you won't let me do what I want, irregardless of the pain it will bring me. I will not change my mind & actions (repentance).

Yet parents love the child & are kind & patient, waiting for the child to repent & have sorrow for their foolish thinking & ways, turning back to the very ones who love them.

Jesus taught this simple truth: "For the Son of Man came to seek & to save those who are LOST." (Luke 19:10; Matthew 18:11)

Unless you recognize you are lost, separated from God because of your sins & rebellion, you will see no need for a SAVIOR. You cannot save yourself. You are foolish in your thinking & logic, thinking you are wiser than God & don't need His dying on the cross to FORGIVE you of your sins & to DIE FOR your sins, so that sin no longer has dominion over you.

He died for your sins to make you right with God, to bring you back in right relationship with Him, WHEN you repent (change your mind) & turn to Christ to save you & bring the peace of forgiveness & are given the eternal life of the living God.

You appear to presently think you can make yourself right before Jesus, that you aren't that bad & don't need Jesus dying for your sins, that it doesn't seem logical someone dying for you when you don't think you are that bad. That is vain & foolish thinking.

You recognize that in yourself. You know you aren't right in your relationship with God. You are spiritually dead in your trespasses in sins. You need the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world to save you.

Turn to Him today & cry out to Him, who died for your sins, to forgive you of your rebellion & going your own way. Cry out to Him to save you & reconcile you to Himself. Follow Him & experience the very life of God. He has been waiting patiently for you to do this, as He does for all of us who have come to that point of repentance & faith in Jesus.

timothyu said:

But why did God separate us from the tree of life when we sinned?

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Why did God Harden Pharaoh's heart? it's because that's the way pharaoh reacted to God and so pharaohs actions were received in such a way that made God his enemy.

God is good and always willing. It's the other party that rejects God. God doesn't punish us, our own state of being that is cut off and alienated from God suffers due to existing as an inferior reality that is somewhat incompatible with God.

God is the Tree of Life but we ate of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. Now we saw God as someone who is good and evil. We saw God as good and ourselves as evil.

God saw us as perfectly good. Those two states of being are different from one another and therefore we could not eat of the Tree of Life. Jesus on the other hand had no sin and he is the Tree of Life and he said take your cross and follow me.

in the Bible God often talks about states of being when he is expressing things. He is talking about matter of fact reality concerning The macrocosm and microcosm. Man is the micro and God is the macro.

Noxot said:

God saw us as perfectly good. Those two states of being are different from one another and therefore we could not eat of the Tree of Life. Jesus on the other hand had no sin and he is the Tree of Life and he said take your cross and follow me.

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We were incompatible with God simply because we put our will before His. Knowing good and evil made us compatible with God in that respect... in our knowledge of self. There was a reason God did not want us to then live forever like the rebellious angels. There was a reason to inflict the death penalty upon us and kick us out of the Garden and into the Adversary's world where self could reproduce but always die. Self interests would become castles of sand instead of eternal monuments of power and control over others. Nothing changes by way of the self serving will of man, but nothing lasts.
We could not be allowed to contaminate the middle area between Heaven and earth so we were removed and the middle area no longer a connection between Heaven and earth. People always talk about going to Heaven when they die but this is an untruth compliments of early Christians who removed the Kingdom from theology so that they could set up their own castles of sand. But yes Jesus reversed the penalty to eternal death and restored that middle earth, the Kingdom between Heaven and earth. Jesus became the middle earth and accepts into Himself only those compatible with Him rather than self.

Kaiteb123 said:

Hello!

So, ever since I was little I can remember hearing the phrase "Jesus died for your sin." I know the story of Jesus, and have heard it my entire life, but when I really started to think about the idea of him dying for my sin, I couldn't wrap my head around it. I find the idea to be very complex and the logic surrounding it to be warped in many descriptions, but maybe I'm just missing something.

I guess I want to hear the way you would explain this phenomenon to someone who struggles with it. Yes, Jesus died so my sins could be forgiven, but how did that transaction work?

I feel like if I am missing out on this portion of the biblical story, I can't claim to have a very good relationship with God, or a very thorough one at least.

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Adam sinned against God and thereby his sin severed his and all mankind's spiritual relationship with God and so this sin made it impossible for him, Eve, or any of their descendants to inherit/enter into eternal life with God. It was impossible for any mere human to heal the harm that Adam's sin had caused mankind. That is why Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom (place under the earth for the righteous after death) instead of in heaven with God. Adam's sin caused all mankind to lose access to the Tree of Life (eternal life) in heaven.

God the Father still loved mankind which He created even though mankind was estranged from God through the sin of Adam and so He sent His only Son to become incarnate as Jesus so that He could be THE Mediator between God and man because only Jesus is both God and man. By Jesus' own perfect sacrificial death He mediated/atoned for the spiritual estrangement caused by Adam's sin. No mere human could ever repair the estrangement that Adam's sin had caused. Because Jesus is both God and Man, His perfect sacrificial death on the cross has made it possible again for every human person to inherit eternal life.

Rrad

Kaiteb123 said:

Hello!

So, ever since I was little I can remember hearing the phrase "Jesus died for your sin." I know the story of Jesus, and have heard it my entire life, but when I really started to think about the idea of him dying for my sin, I couldn't wrap my head around it. I find the idea to be very complex and the logic surrounding it to be warped in many descriptions, but maybe I'm just missing something.

I guess I want to hear the way you would explain this phenomenon to someone who struggles with it. Yes, Jesus died so my sins could be forgiven, but how did that transaction work?

I feel like if I am missing out on this portion of the biblical story, I can't claim to have a very good relationship with God, or a very thorough one at least.

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Read Isaiah 53 for starters. The Bible always says it better than I can.

Jan001 said:

Adam sinned against God and thereby his sin severed his and all mankind's spiritual relationship with God and so this sin made it impossible for him, Eve, or any of their descendants to inherit/enter into eternal life with God. It was impossible for any mere human to heal the harm that Adam's sin had caused mankind. That is why Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom (place under the earth for the righteous after death) instead of in heaven with God. Adam's sin caused all mankind to lose access to the Tree of Life (eternal life) in heaven.

God the Father still loved mankind which He created even though mankind was estranged from God through the sin of Adam and so He sent His only Son to become incarnate as Jesus so that He could be THE Mediator between God and man because only Jesus is both God and man. By Jesus' own perfect sacrificial death He mediated/atoned for the spiritual estrangement caused by Adam's sin. No mere human could ever repair the estrangement that Adam's sin had caused. Because Jesus is both God and Man, His perfect sacrificial death on the cross has made it possible again for every human person to inherit eternal life.

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That is the official version agreed, yet as official versions go doesn't explain the sin, the harm, what Jesus did to atone with His death, and of course in Christian tradition, fails to mention the Kingdom. I believe these little explanations may have been what the OP is after having already heard the official version ????

Kaiteb123 said:

Hello!

So, ever since I was little I can remember hearing the phrase "Jesus died for your sin." I know the story of Jesus, and have heard it my entire life, but when I really started to think about the idea of him dying for my sin, I couldn't wrap my head around it. I find the idea to be very complex and the logic surrounding it to be warped in many descriptions, but maybe I'm just missing something.

I guess I want to hear the way you would explain this phenomenon to someone who struggles with it. Yes, Jesus died so my sins could be forgiven, but how did that transaction work?

I feel like if I am missing out on this portion of the biblical story, I can't claim to have a very good relationship with God, or a very thorough one at least.

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It is really a mystery that only God knows. But I will say what I think. In the world there are many types of people, some good, some bad. Some really bad. We would look at a person like a terrorist, or highly physically abusive person as unforgivable. Yet Jesus showed that even when he was abused to a very high level he still forgave. This does not mean Christ just forgives abusive people, no, rather like all of us who have sinned less, he offers us salvation as we turn to Him, and away from our sin. The cross offers forgiveness for the abusive as well as the good. God does not just forgive, he first takes the abuse that He is willing to forgive. He experienced the abuse, so He can forgive it.

Imagine if He just sat in heaven and let people experience pain, but was not willing to suffer it himself, that is selfishness. He is willing to suffer what we suffer, so he can sympathise with us, an aid us in our trials.

Kaiteb123 said:

Hello!

So, ever since I was little I can remember hearing the phrase "Jesus died for your sin." I know the story of Jesus, and have heard it my entire life, but when I really started to think about the idea of him dying for my sin, I couldn't wrap my head around it. I find the idea to be very complex and the logic surrounding it to be warped in many descriptions, but maybe I'm just missing something.

I guess I want to hear the way you would explain this phenomenon to someone who struggles with it. Yes, Jesus died so my sins could be forgiven, but how did that transaction work?

I feel like if I am missing out on this portion of the biblical story, I can't claim to have a very good relationship with God, or a very thorough one at least.

Click to expand...

It means your attempts to fill the desires of your heart for unconditional love, total acceptance, meaning, and purpose apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ are no longer being counted against you. Now, through being born again of the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ, you have the life of God restored to you. This allows God to meet those needs of your heart in Himself because He created you in such a way that only He can meet those needs. And because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, there is now no sin that will cause God to remove His life. This makes the life you have an eternal life. A life that carries you through the remainder of this life, past the grave, and into eternity.

Kaiteb123 said:

Hello!

So, ever since I was little I can remember hearing the phrase "Jesus died for your sin." I know the story of Jesus, and have heard it my entire life, but when I really started to think about the idea of him dying for my sin, I couldn't wrap my head around it. I find the idea to be very complex and the logic surrounding it to be warped in many descriptions, but maybe I'm just missing something.

I guess I want to hear the way you would explain this phenomenon to someone who struggles with it. Yes, Jesus died so my sins could be forgiven, but how did that transaction work?

I feel like if I am missing out on this portion of the biblical story, I can't claim to have a very good relationship with God, or a very thorough one at least.

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You might think something hateful of somebody. Such thoughts should be punished with your death.
Instead, Jesus took the punishment for you. Him, being God, could do that.

Kaiteb123 said:

Thanks so much to everyone who responded! I just wanted to say, I was told by someone close to me that this question might seem like I'm questioning God, or that I'm thinking I know more than Him. I wanted to apologize if anyone felt that way, that was never what I was trying to do in any way. Just wanted to clear that up!

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I think God wants us to question Him DAILY, taking all to Him , everything, in prayer, continually as it comes up.

Another important question is more specific - whose sin did Jesus atone for ? Who is resurrected with Him to eternal life, instead of being resurrected doomed to judgment?

bump

friend of said:

bump

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Scriptures please

I don't remember what I said last time.

Jesus Christ wangled with our evil nature and turned it into something that draws all men to him. He surmounted all that happened in faith in Union with his father and created a new religion that was open for all.

And he died to show what we made of religion and God. He died, showing how wrong humans are about how he is. He used his own weakness to capture us.

And so God had people to come up with all kinds of reasons of why what happened happened and he uses all of those beliefs as much as he can to draw us closer to himself and to show us what we are like.