Did God Really Need to Kill Jesus?

Did God Really Need to Kill Jesus?

Exploring the concept of the forgiveness of sin

Every Easter Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, depending on your denomination this may focus more on the celebration of his resurrection and the salvation that it brings. Or it may focus more on the guilt you should feel for being such a sinful creature that God had to sacrifice himself/his son Jesus to die for your sins so that God could even be able to look upon you. Like the old song goes:

“What can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Christianity teaches that we are so stained with sin that God couldn’t even look upon us. This is the doctrine that I heard so many Sunday mornings in Baptist churches I attended for a time, that when Jesus was on the cross our sins soaked into him like a sponge, cutting him off from the Father, so that when he died he went to hell with our sins for three days.

During this moment, he cried out to God the Father saying,

This act of becoming a sin-sponge caused Jesus who was sinless to experience being cut off from the Father like we allegedly are, due to being stained with sin.

Then as I mentioned Jesus went to Hell with our sins, allegedly the sins of mankind from the past and future as well. I guess this was sort of a tentative payment for anyone who would decide to accept him as their savior throughout time.

When he dies we get verses about various saints showing up and wandering around the city. This implies that these saints were in a holding area referred to as Sheol in the Bible, although sometimes it gets translated to Hell, depending on the flavor of Bible you picked. Some would claim that they were being held in “Abraham’s Bosom”, although that term only gets mentioned once by Jesus during a parable.

Matthew 27:50–53-

50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and gave up His spirit. 51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. 52 Also the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

I’ve heard pastors interpret the veil of the temple ripping as the symbolism of the separation between God and man now ending due to Jesus’ sacrifice, the tomb opening as a sign of Jesus “taking the keys of death” based on this verse.

Revelation 1:17–18-NASB

17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Ok, so there we have it. God can’t look upon sin, and since mankind was so sinful, and hadn’t been following his list of arbitrary laws to the T, he sent his son to die on the cross to save all of us, which finally allowed mankind to be clean enough to be in God’s presence, and that’s the end of it, neat and clean right?