3~Jesus’ Death

What Does Jesus Dying on the Cross

Have to do with Forgiveness?

 

  • Forgiveness is not a simple thing
  • It has to do with God 
  • taking Satan’s power from him.

 

What Things Are Sin?

Are you a sinner or a very good person to the point of being perfect?  Actually, we cannot claim to be both. True, we may not murder, but let’s look at the types of sin.  There are three types:

  1. Bad things we do
  2. Bad things we think
  3. Good things we do not do

The Bible and Quran probably pretty much list the same sins. The following comes from the scattered lists in the Bible (Romans 1:29-31; I Corinthians 6:9-1; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 4:31, 541; Philippians 2:3,14; Colossians 3:8-9; I Timothy 1:9-10, 5:13, 6:35; II Timothy 3:2-8; Titus 3:3,9-11; James 3:14-16, 4:1-3, 5:3-6; I Peter 2:1, 4:3, II Peter 2:14-19; Jude 7:8,16; Revelation 21:8). From this list, we can see that everyone sins. Here are three quick definitions of sin:

  1. Trespassing into hell
  2. Missing the target of heaven
  3. A fine, a debt.

Spiritual Laws That Cannot Be Broken

ABOUT GOD:

  1. It is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18)
  2. It is impossible for God to change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8)
  3. It is impossible for God to break a promise (Psalm 89:34)
  4. It is impossible for God to be pleased with people without faith in him (Hebrews 11:6)
  5. It is impossible for God to deny who he is (II Timothy 2:13)
  6. It is impossible for God to sleep (Psalm 121:2-3)
  7. It is impossible for God to judge wrong (Ecclesiastes 12:14)
  8. It is impossible for God to be tempted to sin (James 1:13)

ABOUT SATAN:

  1. It is impossible for Satan to tell the truth. He is the Father of Lies. (John 8:44)
  2. It is impossible for Satan to give life. He is the originator of death (John 8:44)
  3. It is impossible for Satan to do right. He is the originator of sin (Matthew 13:38)
  4. It is impossible for Satan to forgive. He is the accuser. (Revelation 12::10)
  5. Satan always tempts people to sin (I Thessalonians 3:5)
  6. He rules over everyone who sins (Ephesians 2:2)
  7. He is the king of death (Hebrews 2:14)

 

  • WHERE DOES GOD LIVE?  Heaven.
  • WHERE DOES SATAN LIVE? Hell

 

What Happens To Our Soul When We Sin?

  1. We obey Satan (Hebrews 2:14)
  2. We become separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2)
  3. We earn death (Romans 6:23)
  4. The moment we sin, our soul dies (Genesis 2:17)

What Is Soul Death?

Technically, the word “death” means separation. When our body dies, we become separated from our body. When our body dies, we become separated from this earth. When our soul dies, we become separated from God who is Life (Job 33:4; Acts 17:25; John 1:3-4.

There is a “second death”.  “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

God cannot just forgive us. It is more complicated than that.

Every time we sin, our soul dies. Well, that is a terrible predicament to be in. But it is a spiritual law that cannot be broken.

Satan holds mankind hostage. Mankind is doomed to go to hell.  Someone had to pay the ransom to get us out of hell (see Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45).

What is it that Satan wants? He wants his ransom to set us free.

When we sin, we create a spiritual debt. We owe our souls to Satan and he wants the ransom, our debt, paid. It is a spiritual law that cannot be broken. This debt can also be called a fine. When we break the law, we are fined. Our government does not care who pays the debt as long as it is paid.

Have you ever gone into debt to the government— perhaps for taxes or a speeding fine–and borrowed the money from someone else to pay it? The government did not care who paid it, as long as the debt was paid.

Or, has anyone ever taken your punishment for you in other ways? Perhaps you were young and your parent insisted on a beating as punishment. Perhaps an older brother or sister who was bigger and stronger than you step in and say, “I did it. Punish me.” The parent the one who admitted the guilt, then was satisfied and the wrong forgiven and forgotten.

Have you ever been threatened with reprimand within a company? If it was serious and you were a new employee, you expected to be fired over it? Perhaps someone who had been in the company a long time took the blame and did not lose his job? Then the matter was forgiven and dropped.

In all these cases, someone richer or stronger or more senior than you took the blame and took the punishment for you. Once the punishment had been meted out, the punisher was satisfied.

This is what Satan is like. He insists on the death punishment for our sin, and he does not care who pays the fine, the debt, the ransom, as long as it is paid.

You may say that is unfair. But, nothing Satan does is fair.

God Made It Possible for Us to Be Forgiven By Entering Our World

If you owe a debt to a bank, then you pay the debt off, the bank issues a paper saying it has forgiven your debt.

How did God pay our debt of death to Satan (a spiritual law that cannot be broken) so our debt could be forgiven?  Remember, we live in a physical world. God on purpose put us in this physical world.

Then, God put a part of himself in the physical world. Injil (Gospel) John 1:1-3, 14 says “In the beginning [of the world] was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth”

How could Jesus be created and eternal both? Remember, Jesus was the Word of God placed in a human body. Words are spoken thoughts. Our thoughts have existed as long as we have, even though we create our thoughts.

Here are some other scriptures that state what John 1 said. The church of God was purchased with his own blood (Acts 20:28). God’s glory was displayed in the face of Christ (II Corinthians 4:6).  God said, “I will live with them and walk with them” (II Corinthians 6:16).  Jesus existed in the form of God when he took on the likeness of men (Philippians 2:6).       Jesus was the image of the invisible God, and all the fullness of God dwelled in him (Colossians 1:15-19). Jesus was the exact representation of God’s nature (Hebrews 1:2). God was revealed in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16). Our great God and Savior was in Christ Jesus (Titus 2:11-13).

 

God in Jesus Paid our Debt/Ransom/Fine for Us

Then Did What is Impossible for Us to Do

‎First, Jesus never sinned (Hebrews 4:15)

Second, he took the blame for every sin ever committed by mankind (II Corinthians 5:21; II Peter 2:24)

Third, he paid the ransom Satan demanded to free us from being his hostage and bound for hell (I Timothy 2:6).  He paid the debt we owed to Satan (Romans 4:25; Isaiah 53:5)

On the cross that day, Jesus’ body died. Also, his soul died (Isaiah 53:11; Acts 2:31). Our debt or ransom was now paid.  But then Jesus tricked Satan.

HE CAME BACK TO LIFE. Jesus’ soul immediately came back to life, and three days later, Jesus’ soul re-entered that body.

Now that the fine had been paid, Satan became powerless to hold mankind hostage any longer. Remember, it is impossible for Satan to give life. Satan can only kill.  God took over then and brought the soul of mankind back to life. That is called FORGIVENESS – bringing our soul back to life.

But Not Everyone Is Forgiven

But, of course, that does not mean all of mankind will be able to go to heaven. We have to believe God did this for us. If we don’t believe it, we cannot accept his ransom, and we still belong to Satan. We call this belief “faith”. To demonstrate our faith to God, we imitate what that human body did for us: We die to our sinful nature, we are buried in a watery grave, then we come up out of our grave born again, our souls alive.

Then the rest of our life, we must continue to be loyal to God and try the best we can to do right. He will continue to forgive us, but only if we try not to sin. We cannot go around having all kinds of fun sinning because God will forgive us; it doesn’t work like that. We must keep battling Satan our whole life because Satan wants us back. But if we keep returning to God, he will keep forgiving us. Then we are guaranteed heaven and do not have to wait until the Day of Judgment to know this.