Was the death of Jesus truly a 'sacrifice' by God?

Question

My point is that as we are told, God 'gave his only son to save us' it seems to me that this is no sacrifice at all. Firstly he didn't GIVE his son as Jesus joined him in Heaven so rather brought him home. Secondly, Jesus would have gone from a life on earth of poverty in an arid land surviving on food handouts to living forever in the paradise of Heaven. Hardly a sacrifice is it? Thirdly, as he could raise the dead/cure the blind etc., then I doubt a little pain relief on the cross would be too difficult for him. So please explain why all the fuss about his 'giving his life' when in fact it would have been jackpot time! Genuine question asked respectfully by the way.

Answer 1

No, follow this link.

Answer 2

Yea that sure does make a lot of sense now doesn't it.  He sacrificed himself to himself.  He is supposedly the creator of the universe and all powerful, but in order for sins to be forgiven he sacrifice himself to himself.

Na, I guess it's one of those things you just have to blindly accept to be a good believing christian.  Ain't religious faith amazing.

Answer 3

of course

it was in God's plan all along to save many through Jesus' sacrifice.

Jesus was tortured then nailed by his hands and feet to a wooden cross and left to die, somehow i think he would of been in pain, and i think that if you read that part of the bible it will say how people asked why he just didnt ask God to save him from it (pain releif) but he didnt because he was dying for a cause in which has moved many people throughout the years and has saved them

Jesus came to the Earth as a mere mortal, the miracles he did wasn't him it was God working in him, Jesus couldn't do it by himself.

Answer 4

Does the word sacrifice come from the latin meaning to make holy/sacred? Suffering does not necessarily come in to it.

Answer 5

Well as almost everyone, and I think you too, knows the "Sacrifice" was an improvisation thought up when it was obvious that "God" (who didn't & doesn't exist anyway) was powerless to save his "son"!!! Why have thou forsaken me oh father? This question by Jesus graphically demonstrated that he had no idea what was going on. Your loving father decides to sacrifice you by way of a most cruel and humiliating death and does,nt even bother to tell you why. What a charming,compassionate and loving Dad he was supposed to be. Has anyone ever  thought that maybe there would have been an easier way to save us all ?. I note from one of your respondents that apparently "babies are born with sin". They have even demonised poor new born babies,shame on them. Your point is of course very valid and you will not receive a satisfactory answer. You will however receive a lot of gobbly ****. I mean this most respectfully.  

Answer 6

I agree.... God sent us his son to sacrifice so that God could forgive us for the sins that God defined and that God was going to send us to the h**l that God created for sinners to suffer God's eternal torture.  

Sounds kind of ludicrous.  Jesus came to save us from himself basically.

The other problem , along the lines you have stated, is that the Romans crucified tens of thousands or more people.  Jesus' suffering was in no way unique or any worse than what at least tens of thousands of other people have been put through.  On top of that, there are people who have been through much worse... like the medical experiments performed by the n***s for example.

Answer 7

Exactly. It eludes me how can Jesus’ actions be considered a sacrifice, considering he had such a big net gain from it?

I mean, yes he suffered for 3 days, but he got an eternity in paradise. The first billion years would more than make up for it. That’s not sacrifice. When a soldier throws himself on a grenade to save his platoon, now that’s sacrifice.

On a more humorous note, in Pat Condell’s words: “If anything, I think he owes us an another crucifixion. You can’t live on past glories forever. Who does he think he is? Woody Allen?”

Answer 8

Your point of poverty is not valid, since poverty is relative. People at the time had what was available at the time, lack of technological advancement does not measure poverty, though not owning the latest gadgets in a society with those things could indicate poverty. Since he was allegedly a skilled tradesman one must assume he was in the higher earning bracket at the time, or at least his family was.

But the whole thing is just mythology anyway, so it is immaterial.

Answer 9

ask a priest. this question is to hard to answer.

Answer 10

it seems jesus died for nothing.

if we want a "get into heaven free card", we gotta beg for forgiveness, pay tithes, and all kinds of other hoops we must jump through.

Answer 11

im a bornagain crhistian, and jesus died, for use, for all of our sins, becuase we were born with sin, he died to make a piont a sacrifice, and god allowed it to happen, becuase it was in the plan, (gods plan) to save many people.

please answer mine , please

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...

Answer 12

The Bible says that it pleased God to bruise Jesus for us, because Jesus is The Branch of God, but God in human flesh with hurts and pains as we have.

In other words God killed God in the flesh.  Jesus did feel pain and the crucifixion was very painful and His beatings were very painful.  And Jesus sweated pure blood knowing He was going to take all the sins of the world upon Himself.  This horrible thought had Christ in agony, but Christ is the only One who could save you and me.  If Christ had not gone to that cross your sins and my sins could not have been forgiven.  The wages of sin is death and we were walking dead people until Christ came and offered eternal life to those who believe.

Christ was beaten with a cat-of-nine-tails which cut into His flesh badly and the Bible says that He was marred beyond recognition.  Then the Roman soldiers put a crown of thorns on His head and then He had nails hammered into His wrist and His feet and hung up on a cross to die by deprivation of air in the lungs.

Answer 13

People believe what they want to believe.

The Pagans believe in magic? Is that real?

Sheiks carry a blade. Is that legal?

Muslims starve themselves for a month. Will that honestly bring them closer to God?

People will believe things and interpret things the way they want to, manipulating them to shine positively on their own beliefs. It's the way we've always been.

Answer 14

Kimberley..you are spot on.

The claim that it was a sacrifice is laughable.

Presuming you believe any of this story consider this.

1. Jesus knew that he would go to Heaven after he rose from the dead, so what exactly did he sacrifice

2. Would it have been a greater sacrifice to live a full life on Earth or go to Heaven, from what I'm told Heaven is a better place to be than Earth

3.A "God" who lives for Eternity in Heaven in perpetual happiness calls coming to Earth for a few years and dying as ALL people do , some kind of sacrifice?

4. Who is to say Jesus suffered, he had the ability to not feel pain if he so chose.

5. Jesus suffered for approx 12 hours. Compare that to soldiers in world wars who fought for years  under the most extreme conditions, suffering wounds and lying in fields until someone could tend to them.

Or compare that to a person suffering for years from cancer or the like

Be honest you Christians...SACRIFICE is the wrong word...think of another one

Answer 15

For a "visual" of some of the things described in the following passage check out this Old Rugged Cross music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzKrKzwWR...

Matthew 27:27  Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him.  28  And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.  29  When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"  30  Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head.  31  And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.

32  Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross.  33  And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull,  34  they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink.  

35  Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: "THEY DIVIDED MY GARMENTS AMONG THEM, AND FOR MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS."  36  Sitting down, they kept watch over Him there.  37  And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.  

38  Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left.  39  And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads  40  and saying, "You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross."  

41  Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said,  42  "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.  43  He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.' "  

44  Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.  45  Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.  46  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"  

47  Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "This Man is calling for Elijah!"  48  Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.  49  The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him."  50  And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

Answer 16

i believe it was he did this to save us but many of us don't believe in it(but i believe)

Answer 17

the first answer is correct , but I want to add to it :

we died, if we repent & take Jesus as our savior & ask him to fogive us of our sins, he will & we will have eternal life in Heaven

his death is like our way out of sin when we repent & have him as our savior

it's like if you go to court for a speeding ticket & you have to pay it , then a friend of yours comes in the court room (Jesus & our sins)

and the friend says I'll take all the blame for the ticket & I'll even pay for the ticket too

Jesus paid the price for OUR sins , that is/was the sacrifice  

Answer 18

When Jesus was on the cross, God was no longer there with him. He said 'Father, why have you forsaken me?'. Because for Jesus to be able to do what he did, he had to separate himself from God, which was the most painful thing he could of done, because in that moment, Jesus was so full of sin that his Father could no longer look at him.  

Answer 19

There was sacrifice on both the part of Jesus and God.  Yes they knew that IF Jesus were faithful to death without sinning that he would be resurrected.  But if you have a child would it cause you any pain to see him mistreated throughout his life finally to be nailed to a torture stake, to be rejected by his own people?  God has feelings too.

For Jesus it was a sacrifice to give up that position in heaven, humble himself to become a man here on earth to go through those things that he did as stated above.  

There is much more that could be said on this matter but what you should do in focus on what they did for you.  It was love for mankind that caused God and Jesus to do what was required to redeem mankind from sin and death and that has opened up the opportunity for you get everlasting life.  That should cause you to love them and exercise faith in that SACRIFICE.

Answer 20

Jesus could not have been any sort of sacrifice for many reasons:

Human sacrifice was PROHIBITED by Jesus' own religion/holy scripture.

The "sacrifice" was performed outside the Temple.

The "sacrifice" was performed on a physically imperfect creature (they'd beaten and bloodied him beforehand).

The "sacrifice" was executed by pagans, not Temple priests.

***It is important to note that the laws governing acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices to the G-d of Israel were set done since the time of Moses by the L-RD G-D Himself in the Torah, commonly known as the first five books of what christians term "the old testament".  These laws were still being followed in the time of Jesus and he would have been perfectly aware of them.

He was executed as a political agitator by Rome for claiming messiahship (liberator) against the occupiers and persecutors of Israel.  

References to pagan practices and attitudes abound in the gospels.  The Last Supper, for example, with the transfiguration of bread and wine into his flesh and blood is abhorrent to the Jewish faith but perfectly "normal" to pagan mystery religions of the time.

Also, the idea that he was God AND man is so pagan it cannot be denied by anyone who objectively considers the unique relationship of the G-d of Avraham, Yitshak and Yaacov to Israel versus the relationships of the gods of Greco-Roman polytheism to their worshippers.

I hope this helps your thinking through your question.  Blessings!

Answer 21

he gave his life for us so that we could repent for our sins and try to go back and live with him in heaven...for more details email me [e-mail]

Answer 22

By God, it isnt a sacrifice. By Jesus, it IS a sacrifice. Do you know what pain He got from getting flogged, whipped, crowned with thorns, got spat on, nailed, hung on wood with your hands attached, your muscles aching? Barenaked? Humiliating and painful.

Answer 23

Yes.  The hours of hanging on the cross taking on the sins of the world is a sacrifice that is incomprehensible to us.  

Christ did not give Himself a "little pain relief."  If you read the account, before He even went to the cross, while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was sweating drops of blood.

He refused the vinegar sop, which might have given Him some pain relief.

It was the sins of every human which made His crucifixion impossible for God to bear.  Jesus, who never sinned, forsaken by His Father who could not look at sin.  How can a human understand what it would be like?  It is taken in faith.

Answer 24

The suffering and agony he went through on the Cross when God could not bear to watch him is the sacrifice he made. Death was only a part of it. Jesus didn't do miracles for selfish reasons, he is never recorded as having done anything for himself.

Answer 25

wow.... so in general you're saying that all those that die torturous deaths from cancer or other ailment - if they are Christians is doesn't matter because in the end they will be happy?!

Christ was fully GOd and yet fully man so yes, He felt every moment of torture. He felt every cruelty that came His way from those people's hands and words and all around actions. does it not pain you when you are verbally abused or ignored by others?!

while you write that your question is asked respectfully, there is little respect in your words so it's very challenging to answer while ones stomach is turning.