Did Christ have to be sacrificed? was it really necessary?

Question

At the time the Bible was written mankind was not far removed from paganism.  We still blamed the weather on the Gods and still had human and animal sacrifices.  Therefore based on our long beliefs of blood sacrifices we created the need for  a Holy Sacrific. And during that time sacrifices were common.  This is whyJESUS or the belief thst JESUS. had to save us by blood was created. The biblical writings reflected the beliefs of that time. Do you really think if JESUS came in modern times we would think he needed to offered as a sacrifice to save us? That is an old paganistic view. Ask yourself this question: Why would an omnipotent being need to sacrifice his son for us rather then simply forgive us? Isn't he the ultimate rulemaker? The final decision?  If you were a king would u offer your son up as a Sacrifice? Wouldn't pardoning people be easier?

yesmar · Answer

Your synopsis of a culture steeped in sacrifice is exactly correct, sir, as is your analysis of an omnipotent being.  He did just forgive us.
  Where you are lacking in understanding, is of other things that were going on behind the scenes.  Jesus death accomplished many things, and would have been necessary no matter what point in human history he had incarnated as a human.

Englyshe As She Is Spoke · Answer

I would suggest you read about this in Anselm of Canterbury.

He argues from logic alone why Christ had to be fully man and fully God and why it was Christ that had to pay the price for sin.

You will not find a better explanation anywhere.

? · Answer

Adam sold himself to do evil for the selfish pleasure of keeping continued company with his wife, now a sinful transgressor, so he shared the same condemned standing with her before God. He thereby sold himself and his descendants into slavery to sin and to death, the price that God’s justice required. (Ro 5:12-19; compare Ro 7:14-25.) Having possessed human perfection, Adam lost this valuable possession for himself and all his offspring.
The real ransom sacrifice, a human actually capable of removing sins, must therefore also be perfect, free from blemish. He would have to correspond to the perfect Adam and possess human perfection, if he were to pay the price of redemption that would release Adam’s offspring from the debt, disability, and enslavement into which their first father Adam had sold them. (Compare Ro 7:14; Ps 51:5.) Only thereby could he satisfy God’s perfect justice that requires like for like, a ‘soul for a soul.’—Ex 21:23-25; De 19:21.
The strictness of God’s justice made it impossible for mankind itself to provide its own redeemer. (Ps 49:6-9) However, this results in the magnifying of God’s own love and mercy in that he met his own requirements at tremendous cost to himself, giving the life of his own Son to provide the redemption price. (Ro 5:6-8) This required his Son’s becoming human to correspond to the perfect Adam. God accomplished this by transferring his Son’s life from heaven to the womb of the Jewish virgin Mary. (Lu 1:26-37; Joh 1:14) Since Jesus did not owe his life to any human father descended from the sinner Adam, and since God’s holy spirit ‘overshadowed’ Mary, evidently from the time she conceived until the time of Jesus’ birth, Jesus was born free from any inheritance of sin or imperfection, being, as it were, “an unblemished and spotless lamb,” whose blood could prove to be an acceptable sacrifice. 
Jesus was indeed “a corresponding ransom,” not for the redemption of the one sinner, Adam, but for the redemption of all mankind descended from Adam. He repurchased them so that they could become his family, doing this by presenting the full value of his ransom sacrifice to the God of absolute justice in heaven. (Heb 9:24)

ROBERT P · Answer

The will of the Father.

Did Christ have to be sacrificed? was it really necessary?

4 Answers