IvanOng said:
As far as I know... the reason why God sent Jesus to die on the cross for us is to show how great his love is for us, and also by doing that, Holy spirit will fall upon us and all our sins to be forgiven.
Qus1: Why is it that by allowing Jesus to die on the cross, all our sins will be forgiven. What is the significance of it?
Qus2: Can I say that God loves us more than he loves Jesus because of what he did?
*Please backup your answers with verses from the bible if possible and try to be as elaborative as much as possible, Thanks alot. I will really appreciate it!!
WOW! You know how to pick your questions don't you.
One of the titles used for the Messiah [the Term 'Messiah' is a Hebrew title and means 'Chosen' or 'Anointed' One. The Greek title (meaning the same thing) is 'Christ'] is 'the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' (Jn.1:29).
Ever since Adam and Eve committed the first sin God has consistently taught that sin is such a serious matter that nothing other than the sacrificial forfeiting of a life will deal with sin and thus settle the matter. As a result, God taught Adam and Eve how to approach Him by means of an animal sacrifice (not that any animal sacrifice would ever be sufficient to atone ('pay') for the sins of a human being but that God would provisionally accept the animal sacrifice in anticipation of the future sacrifice of his own Son as 'the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'). All throughout human history God has repeatedly taught man that the only way to approach Him would be through the blood sacrifice 'for without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin' and without the forgiveness of sin you have, by comparisson, an absolutely 100% certain chance of walking into the middle of a nuclear reactor and coming out completely unscathed compared with the chance that you would have of coming into the presence of God, who is absolutely Holy, and surviving.
As time went on God called Abraham...
Gen.22 - God tested Abraham's faith in Him by getting him to sacrifice his own son Isaac. God literally waited until Abraham raised the knife to plunge it into his beloved son, whom he loved more than life itself (but he loved and trusted God more). Only at that moment did God tell Abraham to stop. God told Abraham "Now I know that you love God above everything else". Then God told Abraham to release Isaac and look to the thicket nearby. There was a ram caught in the thicket and that was to be what Abraham was to sacrifice. The ram that God had provided for the sacrifice. Only then did Abraham realize what the object lesson (an object lesson is where you teach someone by getting them to do something) had really been all about. Abraham realized that his friend (God) had just shared the innermost secret of his heart with him. This was that one day God would sacrifice his own son (whom he loved more than Life itself) for the sin of mankind, but God would go through with it and would not stop at the last moment. Now Abraham knew the real significance of all the animal sacrifices. Because God provided Abraham with the ram, Abraham named the place 'The Lord will provide' because, in due time, God would provide the perfect sacrifice (in the Messiah, who, as the God the Father's eternally begotten Son, and the 'Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world') that Abraham couldn't.
...Isaac and Jacob (whom God renamed 'Israel') and through Jacob's twelve sons created the nation of Israel. With this nation he set up the entire Old Testament sacrificial system as a prelude to the eventual sacrifice of his Son as the Messiah (the one chosen to be the sacrificial 'Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'). All throughout the Old Testament God expected the people to come to him by faith both with and in the animal sacrifice as the provision of God to deal with their sin.
Eventually, the time came for God to send his own Son to be the one true sacrifice for sin that would atone for the sin of the whole world. He would only achieve this because as the Messiah he is
both Infinite Divine Creator (Jn.1:1,14; 10:30-31; Col.1:15-17)
and finite human creature (Jn.14:28; Rom.1:3; Gal.4:4) and his death is therefore sufficient to atone ('pay') for the sins of the whole world.
It is because of the death of the Son of God as the 'Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' that God brought an end to the Old Testament sacrificial system and the whole world is now required to place their faith in the Messiah as the 'Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' as the sole and exclusive means of entering into the presence of an absolutely Holy God who cannot and will not tolerate sin forever. Without faith in God's sacrifice (which God has provided) then our very being is an insult to God and he will vent his Eternal wrath upon us as sinful beings. Only with the covering of the Messiah's blood will we have any chance of escaping the wrath which is to come, just as the Israelites escaped the angel of death on the night of the passover in Egypt long long ago (Ex.11:1-13:16).
As for your second question, no, as the eternally begotten Son/Word of God (Jn.1:1,14; 10:30; Col.2:9) it would not be true to say that God loves us as creatures more than he loves his Son as the second Person of the Trinity who is as equally Eternal, Immutable, Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent as the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Simonline.
THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU
