What difference does Jesus’ ‘once-for-all” sacrifice make in terms of your security with God? Your self-image? Your desire to follow Christ? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 1673).
To be frank, I have never been able to understand how the idea that Jesus was a sacrificial animal (lamb) and his dying (like the practice of killing innocent animals to excuse the sins of people) made any sense at all. It has never sunk in my understanding how killing something innocent relieves the guilty party of guilt. This practice could certainly work to eliminate the overcrowding of prisons. The accused party could simply appear in court with a chicken (for example) to give to the judge to excuse his crime. Nope, that has never made any sense to me–though the judge would certainly never want for a nice chicken dinner.
What has made sense to me is that Jesus loved humankind so much that he died rather than compromise that love. In other words he could have told the judges at the time–“Aw shucks! I was just kidding about that ‘love thy neighbor’ stuff...forget all that, just go on watching out for number one.” Jesus had such integrity and love for humanity that he remained true no matter what it cost him personally. Now that generous gift...not sacrifice...is compelling.
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