Comments on: Why did Jesus have to die for our sins?

By: slipperyelm

slipperyelm — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:05:59 +0000

This doesnt even make any sense. Doenst explain anything.
Also saying the Jesus in GOD is blasphemy. There is no equal for GOD.

By: Christ, Suffering and Offering It Up « The Life of a Photographer

Christ, Suffering and Offering It Up « The Life of a Photographer — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:08:39 +0000

[...] On Christ and Why He had to Die [...]

By: SteveK

SteveK — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:09:00 +0000

Excellent post, SteveG. Once again, your words speak truth not only to my heart but to my mind.

By: SteveG

SteveG — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:00:00 +0000

A wife who has been through it.

Rest assured, you will be in my prayers daily for a long time to come.

And...Thank You.

Thank you for having the courage to try at a reconciliation. It might sound strange to some, but I think it's an astounding witness.

By: Lana

Lana — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:09:00 +0000

I like this.
I think it is a helpful angle when we consider the tension between the “necessity” of redemption, the confusion caused by substitution theories of atonement and the fact that God is Love. I came to the Catholic Church from a Protestant background and have recently discovered just how different the idea of redemption is in Catholic thought. The truth is, we don’t know why God sent Jesus, we just know that it was out of merciful love, it has to do with relationship, and that it is mysterious.
As to the demands of justice, I love this part of BXVI’s “Deus Caritas Est”:
10. We have seen that God’s eros for man is also totally agape. This is not only because it is bestowed in a completely gratuitous manner, without any previous merit, but also because it is love which forgives. Hosea above all shows us that this agape dimension of God’s love for man goes far beyond the aspect of gratuity. Israel has committed “adultery” and has broken the covenant; God should judge and repudiate her. It is precisely at this point that God is revealed to be God and not man: “How can I give you up, O Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! … My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst” (Hos 11:8-9). God’s passionate love for his people—for humanity—is at the same time a forgiving love. IT IS SO GREAT THAT IT TURNS GOD AGAINST HIMSELF, HIS LOVE AGAINST HIS JUSTICE. Here Christians can see a dim prefigurement of the mystery of the Cross: so great is God’s love for man that by becoming man he follows him even into death, and so reconciles justice and love.” (emphasis not in original)
Sorry for the long quote, and thanks, SteveG!

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:40:00 +0000

Helpful for me, thank you

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Why did it take God so long? I think, to use a biblical expression, God does things in the fullness of time and His ways are not our ways as He has reminded us. There’s not always a Shazaam! moment when these things are puzzled out, but sometimes there is that moment and it all makes sense to the point in which there can’t be any other way. BTW, great discussion.

By: SteveG

SteveG — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:04:00 +0000

But why did God wait so long to do so? That makes it sound as if he struggled to forgive us, which seems a little too anthropomorphic to me.

I think Jennifer actually posed a question to me cvery like this a while back. I have to dig around and see if I can find my response. Maybe it might be helpful. Hopefully by tomorrow.

By: SteveG

SteveG — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:40:00 +0000

In Scripture and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the idea is reiterated that God did not have to suffer or be sacrificed as a moral necessity. Rather, the idea is that humanity's sin is so great that the principle of justice (and remember God is All-Just) demands the death of the sinners. There is sort of an economy here: the wrongdoing of man can only be "corrected" with a sacrifice on the part of man.

Upon rereading this, I have to stand by my comment that I can’t see these as mutually exclusive. This is not an either or, but a both/and.

Your description is unquestionably right. The CCC certainly does speak in terms of ransom and a sacrifice in payment for our debt.

608…Christ’s whole life expresses his mission: “to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

But it also speaks about the act of giving on the part of God…

614…First it is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.

I think that this passage neatly brings together the two parts we are discussing. My main point in the post was that I think that the second part is usually the answer given without the first part being included. I am trying to use an analogy to give the whole picture.

I think the whole picture makes the ‘Why Jesus died for us?’ make more sense. Admittedly, it is not a perfect analogy because no analogy is perfect.

No man, unless he is God, can make a sacrifice which is sufficient to correct things. The Son of God indeed did become man, and the sacrifice was that of a man, but it was only sufficient because he was also God. Thus, I think I am on very firm ground in saying that indeed God (in the Person of Jesus, as a gift of the Father, and through the Holy Spirit) did indeed make the ultimate sacrifice in order to achieve our reconciliation and repair the relationship between Himself and mankind (and every man and woman).

616…No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons and constitutes himself the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all

I think to try to separate that and say it was the sacrifice of the man who did it is to miss that it was both…it was the man, but it was also an ultimate act of giving on the part of God. We know that this is true from one simple scriptural passage that...

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son…

By: T & T Livesay

T & T Livesay — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:16:00 +0000

Brand new reader here … thanks for writing!

from Haiti-
T.