Jesus is often referred to as "the Lamb of God". His job was to live a sinless life on earth, and then take upon the sins of the world and die with them so that others could go to heaven. For this reason, the Jewish religion traditionally sacrificed perfect, spotless lambs in atonement for their sins, looking forward to the Christ. These spotless lambs, which symbolized purity from sin, paid the price of blood for their sacrificer's sins.
However, the problem of Jesus' sufficiency as a sacrifice is now called into question.
Regardless of whether Jesus lived a sinless life, during his time on the cross, and at the very least, at the moment of his death, Jesus had all the sins of the world on his shoulders. Suddenly, this sinless life had sin thrown upon it.
Yet amazingly, Jesus is somehow able to avoid the normal punishment for sin? After all, according to the Bible, the wages of sin is death - going even further, Jesus could not have even died had he not had any sin. This is no problem for everyone else in the world, for "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and thus are subject to death (and without atonement, Hell) Yet how is Jesus able to escape the punishment of Hell that all others who die with sin face?
One may point to the lamb, yet the lamb 1) stayed dead when it was killed, and 2) was still spotless at its time of death. The same cannot be said for Jesus, who was quite spotted, indeed drenched in sin, at the time he gave up his spirit to the Father.
While the idea of a scapegoat is questionable, the idea of a lamb's worth in atonement is much more feasable than Jesus'. Jesus, when he was sacrificed, was not spotless, and thus should not have been acceptable. Furthermore, he apparently got a "Get out of Hell Free" card due to his divine nature - fair? I think not. After all, if his divinity was all that was needed to save him from the fires of Hell, neither a sinless life nor even a sacrifice at all would be needed, as even the power to smash Hell would be well within his "omnipotent" sovereignty.
How, then, did Jesus pay the price for your sins?
However, the problem of Jesus' sufficiency as a sacrifice is now called into question.
Regardless of whether Jesus lived a sinless life, during his time on the cross, and at the very least, at the moment of his death, Jesus had all the sins of the world on his shoulders. Suddenly, this sinless life had sin thrown upon it.
Yet amazingly, Jesus is somehow able to avoid the normal punishment for sin? After all, according to the Bible, the wages of sin is death - going even further, Jesus could not have even died had he not had any sin. This is no problem for everyone else in the world, for "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and thus are subject to death (and without atonement, Hell) Yet how is Jesus able to escape the punishment of Hell that all others who die with sin face?
One may point to the lamb, yet the lamb 1) stayed dead when it was killed, and 2) was still spotless at its time of death. The same cannot be said for Jesus, who was quite spotted, indeed drenched in sin, at the time he gave up his spirit to the Father.
While the idea of a scapegoat is questionable, the idea of a lamb's worth in atonement is much more feasable than Jesus'. Jesus, when he was sacrificed, was not spotless, and thus should not have been acceptable. Furthermore, he apparently got a "Get out of Hell Free" card due to his divine nature - fair? I think not. After all, if his divinity was all that was needed to save him from the fires of Hell, neither a sinless life nor even a sacrifice at all would be needed, as even the power to smash Hell would be well within his "omnipotent" sovereignty.
How, then, did Jesus pay the price for your sins?