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Good Questions About the Death of Jesus that Make no Sense

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A reader sent an email today with these questions:

  1. If Jesus died in the place of others, why does everyone else also die?
  2. If the penalty for sin is hell forever, and if Jesus paid the penalty for all the sins of the world, why is Jesus not the only one in hell forever?
  3. Did God punish Jesus by making him die and go to hell, or did God reward Jesus by raising him up from death and lifting him up to heaven?
  4. If Jesus died on a Friday afternoon and rose from the dead by the next Sunday morning, was the penalty for all the sins of the world less than two days dead?
  5. If God punished Jesus for all the sins of others by making him die on a cross, why are Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, and Caiaphas not all heroes and saints for fulfilling the will of God?
  6. If people should rejoice at the suffering and death of Jesus, as if his pain were their gain, should they mourn his resurrection and ascension, as if his gain is their pain?
  7. If we live because Jesus died, do we die because Jesus rose to live again?
  8. If people go to heaven because Jesus went to hell, do people go to hell because Jesus went to heaven?
  9. Did the crucifixion of Jesus cancel the sins of others, or was it really the worst sin of all?
  10. Would God be just if He punished the innocent in place of the guilty?
  11. If Jesus paid the penalty for all the sins of others, and salvation in unconditional, is not everyone saved, no matter what he believes, says, or does?
  12. If the purpose of Jesus was to die, why did his story not end with his death?
  13. If good deeds make no difference, because no one can earn salvation, why did Jesus say so much about what persons should and should not do?
  14. How could the penalty for sins be paid hundreds of years before those sins were done?
  15. If Jesus, like a scapegoat, took away our sins when he died, did he bring back our sins when he came back from the dead?
  16. How could Jesus be a substitute to go in our places and also be a leader and example whom we should follow?
  17. If we do not follow Jesus, but he goes one way so that we can go another way, how do we expect to end up where he is?
  18. If Jesus were God, and God demanded that Jesus die to pay the penalty for the sins of everyone else, did God commit suicide?

As I read through these excellent questions about the death of Jesus, I realized that I couldn’t answer ANY of them because I didn’t accept the presuppositions that were within each question.

For example, with question #1, I do not believe Jesus died in the place of others. I do not believe in “substitutionary” atonement.

With question 2, I do not believe that the penalty for sin is hell forever.

With question 3, I do not believe that God punished Jesus by making him die and go to hell…

And so on throughout the list of questions….

This is the problem with the vast majority of theology today. We are asking wrong questions because we are beginning with wrong ideas about God, Jesus, sin, and hell.

All of the questions above disappear when we learn just a few things from Scripture. Like what?

  1. God does not require punishment for sin, or blood payment to forgive.
  2. God is infinitely gracious, forgiving, and loving.
  3. Jesus didn’t die to appease God or buy forgiveness from God.
  4. Hell isn’t what you think…

Start with those ideas, and the way you read and understand the Bible will forever be transformed. If you want help, here are three books to get you started:

Enjoy!

God is Redeeming Theology, z Bible & Theology Topics: , , , ,

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Is the Shedding of Blood Required for the Forgiveness of Sins? (Hebrews 9:22)

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Hebrews 9:22 provides the main reason Christians believe that if Jesus had not shed His blood for us, we could never have been forgiven for our sins. Hebrews 9:22 refers to Leviticus 17:11 as saying this:

… without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins.

So there we go! The blood of Jesus is important – necessary even – for the forgiveness of sins.

End of story. The question is answered. The post stops here.

Except … hmm … something doesn’t seem quite right with that quick and tidy answer …

For example, I forgive people all the time without requiring that they shed blood for me. And I’m really glad that people forgive me all the time without asking that I open a vein or kill my cat for them.

So if I can offer forgiveness without the shedding of blood, and so can other people, what is going on with God? Doesn’t He freely forgive (Col 3:13)? Since when are there conditions for unconditional love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness? Is God’s forgiveness of a lesser sort than ours? Or maybe His forgiveness is of a more powerful type of forgiveness that requires blood?

And if God’s forgiveness is greater and so requires blood, then my next question is, “Why blood?” I mean, if God is the one making the rules, and sin is a serious affront to His holiness, then why did He decide that blood would appease Him? Why not require … I don’t know … spit? Or hair? Yes, I like the hair idea.

Why didn’t God simply say “Without the cutting of hair, there can be no forgiveness of sins”? Of course, that might not be fair to bald people, but I digress …

Hebrews 9 22

What’s the deal with blood?

Yes, yes, I know. I’ve been to “the seminary.” They tell us:

It’s because the life is the blood.

That’s from Leviticus 17:11. In the Bible. And since we have a verse, the discussion is over.

But wait! That’s no answer. The question still stands. So okay, God wants blood, and it has something to do with the life of a person being in the blood. But God makes the rules, so why did He decide He wanted blood? Why does God want to kill people (or animals in the place of people) because people sin?

In fact, come to think of it, the issue isn’t with blood any more. The issue now is with God. Why does God want blood?

I could follow this line of reasoning further, but I think you get the point. In fact, some of that conversation might sound very similar to conversations you have had with atheists. At least, much of what I wrote above echoes conversations I have had with atheists. Atheists are atheists for a variety of reasons, but some of them have real issues with a god who demands blood so that He can forgive sins.

And you know what I tell them? I say this:

God Doesn’t Want Blood

God doesn’t want blood. God wants life! It is WE who think that God wants blood (when He doesn’t).

The idea of God demanding blood is borrowed from pagan religions. Jesus went to the cross, not to reinforce and support this idea, but to expose and redeem it. That’s a huge idea which would take us down a whole new rabbit trail.

Hebrews 9:22 shedding of bloodBut if God doesn’t demand blood, then how does God forgive? Doesn’t Hebrews 9:22 teach that God needs blood in order to forgive us? No, it does not. Let us read carefully what Hebrews 9:22 says in context.

1. Hebrews 9:22 contrasts Jesus with Moses

The first thing to notice about the context of Hebrews 9:22 is that the author is clearly contrasting the sacrificial system of the Mosaic Law with what Jesus accomplished in His death on the cross.

One way to note this is by looking back to Hebrews 9:15, which is the opening statement in the larger context of this discussion about sacrifice and blood. In Hebrews 9:15, the author writes about the “redemption of the transgressions.” The word used there is not the normal word for “sin” in the NT, but is parabaino (STR: 3847), and means to overstep or go beyond the boundaries.

The TDNT says that parabaino is closely connected with sin in the New Testament, but primarily in the sense of using human tradition to disobey the law of God while claiming to be the fulfillment of the law.

In other words, parabaino takes place when someone tries to explain and apply the law of God, but actually ends up doing the exact opposite of what the law says.

The author of Hebrews indicates that Jesus came to redeem sin, that is, to redeem the parabaino type of sin. More specifically still, Jesus came to redeem the sin of misusing the law. It is this issue that concerns the author of Hebrews.

2. Hebrews 9:22 says there is purification and forgiveness Without Blood

Second, it is important to note that even in Hebrews 9:22, the author pretty adamantly states that there is purification and forgiveness apart from the shedding of blood. The author says, “almost all things are purified with blood …”

If we went back to read the Levitical law, we would see that purification and forgiveness was extended under a variety of circumstances, including the washing with water (Lev 15:16-17; 17:15), anointing with oil (Lev 14:29), burning flour (Lev 5:11-13), giving money (Exod 30:11-16), or releasing an animal into the wild (Lev 16:10).

And in fact, when it comes to intentional sins, there was no offering of any kind which was prescribed by the law. All the sacrifices and offerings of the law are for unintentional sins only. This means that when an Israelite sinned intentionally (as they most certainly did, just as we do), the only way they could receive forgiveness from God was to look to Him for it in faith (just like us)!

The author of Hebrews knows all this, which is why he says that almost all things are purified by blood.

3. Hebrews 9:22 is not about Sin; but about the Covenant

Of course, even this requires further modification, for it is not true that almost all things required blood for purification. A quick reading of the Law reveals that most things did not require blood.

So what does the author of Hebrews mean?

The context indicates that the author specifically has in mind the tabernacle and the religious items within the tabernacle (Hebrews 9:21). The author is talking about the initial dedication ceremony of the first tabernacle built by Moses. This purification and dedication ceremony initiated the Mosaic Covenant (Hebrews 9:18-19).

So the author of Hebrews is not giving a general principle in Hebrews 9:22 for how we receive forgiveness of sins, but is instead referring to how the covenant of Moses was initiated by blood.

4. Hebrews 9:22 says that Shedding of Blood came from the Law

Fourth, notice that the author of Hebrews specifically states where the instruction about offerings of blood came from. He does not say, “and God commanded that all things be purified with blood, for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

No, Hebrews 9:22 specifically states that this these things are “according to the law.” Of course, those of us who hold to the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture don’t see much difference between something the law stated and something God stated, and yet we must be careful because numerous Old Testament prophets emphatically declared that God is not the one who gave the law or commanded that the people offer sacrifices, and He was not pleased with these sorts of religious rituals, nor did He ever want them (cf. Jer 7:21-23; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8).

This is the same point the author of Hebrews makes in 10:5-6.

Reconciling the words of these inspired prophets with the modern understanding of inspiration and inerrancy is a difficult task indeed. I have a way that works for me, but again, to travel down that rabbit trail would take us too far afield.

But however we understand that thorny issue, we can all agree that in Hebrews 9:22, the author is simply contrasting how the law inaugurated the Mosaic Covenant with how Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant.

shedding of blood for forgiveness of sins

5. The Shedding of Blood Never Brought Forgiveness!

In light of this contrast, notice fifthly, that the author of Hebrews deftly shows how the Mosaic covenant, with all its bloody sacrifices, was never able to accomplish what it promised.

The author of Hebrews points out that it is “impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Though it was the law that promised the forgiveness of sins through blood sacrifices, the simple fact that the law required perpetual sacrifices revealed that the law could not deliver what it promised.

Nobody was ever actually forgiven through the blood of a sacrifice! So according to the author of Hebrews, though the law required blood for forgiveness, blood didn’t provide any forgiveness! The law didn’t work!

6. Hebrews 9:22 is not about Forgiveness OF SINS

This leads to a sixth point about Hebrews 9:22 which should not be missed.

I intentionally misquoted Hebrews 9:22 above. I quoted it as saying that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

But Hebrews 9:22 does not include those final two words. Hebrews 9:22 says nothing about sin. Yes, sin is mentioned in Hebrews 9:26-28, but only in reference to the sacrifice of Jesus. The first time the author references sin in connection to the sacrificial blood of the Mosaic covenant is in Hebrews 10:4, where, as we have just seen, the only connection between sin and blood is that sin cannot be taken away by the blood of bulls and goats.

So what is the blood for in Hebrews 9:22? Again, as we saw above, it was for the purification of the tabernacle and its vessels when Moses inaugurated the first covenant. Modern western Christians are so infatuated with sin, that we see sin everywhere and believe that our biggest problem in the world is sin and that God is sitting in heaven trying to figure out how to stop us all from sinning.

I believe that nothing could be further from the truth.

God is not nearly as concerned with sin as we are.

Before the majesty of God’s holiness and love, all the sin of the world is little more than an annoying flea jumping around on the ground by his foot. Sin is not that big of a deal for God. The only reason He is concerned at all about sin is because sin hurts and damages us, and since He loves us beyond all imagination, He wants to do something about that annoying flea, because it has bitten us and injected us with all sorts of harmful toxins.

Also, God must do something about sin because sin is a big deal for Satan, and Satan uses sin to lay claim to our lives, which is something God does not want. But this too is another rabbit trail which we must avoid for now. The bottom line is that sin is not a big deal for God, and sin is not the issue in Hebrews 9:22.

7. Hebrew 9:22 isn’t even about “Forgiveness”

But what about the word “forgiveness” in Hebrews 9:22? Doesn’t that indicate that sin is the issue? No, it does not. This is the seventh point about this important text.

The word which the author uses here is the Greek word aphesis. This word does not mean “forgiveness” in the way that modern, English-speaking people think about forgiveness. Instead, aphesis is something closer to “deliverance” or “release.”

It has in mind the picture of someone who is enslaved and in chains, and someone else come along with the key to unlock them and set them free. I have written previously about aphesis.

In Scripture, we are freely forgiven of all our sins, past, present, and future, completely and only by the grace of God. We are, however, called upon to obey God so that we might enjoy the freedom from sin that He wants for us. Sin injects us with toxins that further enslave us, which God wants to liberate us from.

This sort of release often requires something on the part of the one who is being released, lest they fall right back into slavery after having been released! In this way, aphesis is a symbiotic forgiveness. It not only requires that the liberator unlock the chains; it also requires that the liberated run away from what had chained them.

blood of Jesus shed for us forgiveness of sins

8. The “Release” of Hebrews 9:22 is a Release of the Covenant

In Hebrews 9, it is not people who are being released, but the covenant itself! This eighth point is that the blood of Hebrews 9:22 has absolutely nothing to do with the removal of sin.

Instead, the blood was for the enactment of the Mosaic Covenant. The author of Hebrews could not be more clear. He says that a testament, or will, is not put into effect until the one who wrote it dies (Hebrews 9:16-17). My wife and I have Wills, and as is the case with all Wills, they do not go into effect until we die. A “Last Will and Testament” has no power while we live.

So after Moses wrote the Covenant, or the testament, he enacted a death over it to make it effective and active upon the people (Hebrews 9:19-21).

Whose “Last Will and Testament” was this? It was God’s! It was God’s covenant to the people.

But since God Himself could not come down to die and so enact the covenant, Moses symbolized the death of God with “the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop” (Hebrews 9:19).

The “release” in Hebrews 9:22 then, is the release of the covenant.

Prior to the shedding of the blood of the bulls and goats, the covenant was not active. It was under lock and key. A death was needed to free it, liberate it, or enact it.

And since God was the “testator” (Hebrews 9:16), but God could not die, Moses killed calves and goats to symbolize the death of God, and in so doing, enacted the covenant of God with His people, Israel.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with sin.

Nor does Hebrews 9:22 have anything with the conditions of forgiveness, for as we have seen above, the covenant offered numerous ways for people to receive purification from sin, and when it came to forgiveness for intentional sins, the Israelites believed on the grace of God for forgiveness just as we do.

9. The People were also Released from Slavery

But the “remission” or “release” of Hebrews 9:22 is not just of the covenant. The implementation of the first covenant with Moses took place after the Israelite people had been delivered and redeemed from captivity in Egypt.

From a purely legal standpoint, they were runaway slaves. And according to the laws of slavery, as long as a slave is still living and has not yet been set free, the slave is still a slave, even if they run away.

So the redemption enacted as part of the Mosaic covenant was the redemption of the slaves from Egypt. The death of the calves and goats symbolized the death of the Israelite people to their former life of slavery in Egypt.

Through the Mosaic covenant, the people of Israel died to their old identification as slaves to the household of Pharaoh (i.e., Egypt), and were raised again to a new identification as members of the household of God. This is why the water and the blood was sprinkled not just on the book of the covenant, but also on all the people (Hebrews 9:19).

They were dying to their past and were being born again into a new family. As members of this new family, they had new household rules to live by, which were enumerated in the Mosaic covenant.

10. Hebrews 9:22 in the context of Hebrews 9-10

All of this together helps us understand the discussion in Hebrews 10 that follows about how the New Covenant, which was enacted through the death of Jesus, is far superior in all ways to the Old Covenant which was enacted through the blood of animals.

This also helps explain why Hebrews 10 talks about sin so much. Though we have seen that Hebrews 9:22 is not talking about the forgiveness of sins, we often get confused about the rest of Hebrews 9 and on into Hebrews 10 because there are many references to the sacrifice or offerings of Jesus Christ for our sins.

blood of Christ Hebrews 9-10

The best way to understand this is to remember what we have learned from Hebrews 9:16-22 about why the blood of the calves and goats was sprinkled over tabernacle and its instruments, along with the book of the covenant and the people, on the day the Mosaic Covenant was instituted among them. The blood was to inaugurate the covenant and indicate to the people that they had been set free from slavery.

All of this is exactly the same with the death of Jesus.

Jesus did not die to rescue us from the wrath of God. Nor did Jesus die to secure for us the forgiveness of sins. God has always freely forgiven people of their sins.

No, the death of Jesus on the cross was to inaugurate the new covenant of God with the entire world, and to indicate to all people that we were no longer slaves to sin.

That second point is critical. Jesus did not die for God because of sin. Jesus died for sin.

God’s holiness did not demand that Jesus be put to death. No, it was the devil that demanded death and blood (cf. Hebrews 2:14-15). Sin was the certificate of ownership which the devil held over the heads of humanity.

By dying, Jesus cancelled this debt of sin so that the devil could no longer have any claim upon us. This happened because just as all sinned in Adam, and so became slaves to death and the devil, so all died and were raised to new life in Jesus, and so were liberated and redeemed from our slavery to death and the devil.

Just as the Israelites in the wilderness died to Pharaoh, and were raised to new life in the family of God, so also, all people in Jesus died to sin, death, and devil, and were raised to new life in the family of God. This is the basic meaning of the discussion in Hebrews 10 about the sacrifice of Jesus for sin.

But the discussion goes beyond this as well. The author of Hebrews intentionally subverts the sacrificial elements of the Mosaic covenant by transitioning away from images of blood and death, and writing instead about offerings and purification.

Let just a few of these be noted.

Following immediately after Hebrews 9:22, we read that Jesus also purified the heavenly sanctuary. And just as the first ceremony indicated the inauguration of the Mosaic covenant and the death of the people to their past enslavement to Egypt, so also, the actions of Jesus indicated the inauguration of the New Covenant and the death of the people to their enslavement to sin.

In Hebrews 10:1-4, the author emphasizes the complete failure of the Mosaic law to do anything about sin. In Hebrews 10:2, we are informed that if the law could have taken away sin, the people would have stopped making sacrifices, for they would have had no more consciousness of sins. Yet the sacrifices themselves are a reminder of sins, even though they do nothing about the sins.

Then in Hebrews 10:5-10, the author indicates his understanding that the sacrificial system was never intended to take away sins, and that God Himself never wanted such sacrifices or took any pleasure in them. Again, God is a God of life; not death. What God did want, however, was a life lived in obedience to the will of God, which is exactly the “offering” which Jesus brought. This understanding of “offering” and “sacrifice” as the life of Jesus rather than His death is critical for the rest of the chapter. While it is true that Jesus died a bloody and gruesome death on the cross, it is critical to recognize that the death of Jesus on the cross was for sin, while the life of Jesus was for God. God did not want nor desire the death of Jesus. God always and only wants life.

Building upon this truth, Hebrews 10:11-18 moves on to compare and contrast the covenant enacted by Moses and the covenant enacted by Jesus Christ. After explaining that the sacrifices and offerings of the priests could never do anything about sins, Hebrews 10:12-13 shows that Jesus not only dealt with sin once and for all through His death, but actually perfected forever those who are in Him. The author then makes the absolutely shocking statement that God (and Moses) knew from the very beginning that the Law of Moses was obsolete and useless for doing anything about sin.

The author of Hebrews points at what the Holy Spirit said through the prophet Jeremiah about the new covenant (Jer 31:33-34), and then ties this together with the word “remission” (aphesis) which was used in Hebrews 9:22. In so doing, the author indicates the truth that Moses knew from the very beginning that his law was temporary, obsolete, and ineffective for doing anything about sin.

In Exodus 20, after God had given the 10 Commandments, God wanted to speak to the people of Israel Himself. But they were too scared of God, and declared that they would rather have Moses to speak to God for them (Exod 20:19). What follows in Exodus 21 through most of the rest of the Pentateuch is called “the Mosaic Law” for good reason.

It was how Moses believed God wanted the people of Israel to live out the 10 commandments. But forty years later, Moses saw that what he had given to the people was a complete failure. He had been with them for forty years (Deut 29:5), and knew that the law would be completely ineffective in helping them follow God and live rightly (cf. Deut 31:16-21).

As a result, Moses knew that what he had given to the people would be replaced by what God had wanted all along. Before Moses died, he prophesied that his law would pass away and would be replaced with the law of God written upon men’s hearts (Deut 30:6-20). Long before Jeremiah ever prophesied that God would do away with the written law and write His law upon our hearts and minds, Moses had said the same thing (cf. Deut 30:6, 14). Paul understood Deuteronomy 30 in this way as well (cf. Rom 10:7-8). In fact, in a recent book on the Pentateuch,

John Sailhamer has argued that one of the central points of the Pentateuch is to show that the law was ineffective, obsolete, and not what God had wanted for His people at all. God wanted faith, humility, mercy, and righteousness, which are the things the law could not provide.

But Jesus provided what the law could not, which brings us back to Hebrews 10. Jesus lived the way God intended, and in so doing, accomplished several things.

First, Jesus crucified the law of sin and death (Hebrews 9:26-28).

Second, Jesus revealed what God had always wanted for His people (Hebrews 10:16-17).

Third, Jesus revealed how God’s people could live for love and life instead of sin and death (Hebrews 10:20-23).

In Jesus, we learn that God no longer wants death, and He never did. God always and only wants life.

Hopefully, all this provides a deeper understanding of what Hebrews 9:22 is actually teaching (and not teaching) about the shedding of blood and the forgiveness of sins.

God always forgives sins freely. He does not need or want blood.

Note: This article by Brad Jersak on Hebrews 9:22 is also helpful.

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

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My book won a gold medal!

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Well this is fun… The book I published last year, The Atonement of God, won a gold medal from the eLit awards in the “Religion” category.

If you haven’t read it yet, you really should. The first 70 pages are slightly more “technical,” so if the book is rough going at first, don’t let that put you off. The rest of the book is intensely practical. In it, I give you 10 areas of your life and theology that get turned upside down with a proper understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Atonement of God eBook

To celebrate the gold medal, I have temporarily lowered the eBook price of The Atonement of God on Amazon to $2.99 (It’s only $0.99 if you previously purchased the paperback). Go here to buy it today.

If you are a pastor or lead a Bible study, the 10 chapters in Part 2 of the book would make a great sermon series or Bible study. If you just like to read for personal growth and development, this book will help you understand God, Scripture, and yourself in new ways as well.

Here are some reviews of the book that have been left on Amazon:

Most Christian’s are usually taught that God is constantly disappointed and disapproving of us and we have to fear him. This book teaches instead that God loves us. It isn’t a book that teaches God loves us unconditionaly, so just do whatever you want. It’s a lot more complicated than that, but it does teach that God has always loved us and we in turn must love, forgive and care for others. It’s a great book, and it will transform your view of God.
–imani42

OUTSTANDING BOOK! Thank you for helping me understand “Crucivision” and the “Non-Violent Atonement”. Together, they help it all make sense and fit so well into my personal thinking about God. I am encouraged to be truly free to love and forgive, because God has always loved and forgiven without condition, because Christ exemplified this grace on the Cross, and because the Holy Spirit is in the midst of all life, continuing to show the way through people like you.
–Samuel R. Mayer

If you have the same resolve as Paul, to know nothing but Jesus and Him crucified (2 Cor 2:2), then this book is for you. I read it the first time from start to finish on Father’s Day… no coincidence. This book revealed Father God’s true character; not as an angry wrathful God, but as a kind loving merciful Father to us. Share in Jeremy’s revelation concerning Jesus’ crucifixion, and how this “vision” of the crucifixion (hence “crucivision”) will make you fall in love with Jesus all over again, in a new and deeper way than you could imagine. Buy a copy for a friend–you won’t want to give up your copy because you will want to read it again and again until the Holy Spirit makes Jeremy’s revelation YOUR revelation.
–Amy

I’ve always been a curious mind and searcher, and many of the mainstream theology answers felt a little out of place. Now I know why I was dissatisfied with the explanations, not because they were wrong, but rather they were incomplete. Reading Jeremy’s book has shed a much needed light as it explores the character of God, who He is and how He acts towards us humans. It is the same, but different in a very comforting way. It presents God as ever loving and freely forgiving, needing no payment for sin, and explains the Non-Violent view of the redemption. Beware.. it might change your life!
–ThePilgrimm

This is a great read to say the least. The Atonement of God is one book I couldn’t put down. Ive been a follower of Christ for decades, reading this book has led me to be very reflective of what I have been taught about the atonement, Jeremy’s careful and insightful teaching from Gods word has caused a revolution in my thinking. Importantly, it showed me just how much of my understanding had been heavily influenced by past incorrect teaching without realizing it . This book has blown away my thinking that God is both angry and filled with wrath towards us and sin. Jeremy’s call for us to Interpreting Gods word through the lens of Christ is a startling experience and one we should all embrace. Thank you again for such a great read.
–Careful

This book gives another view of the doctrines we have been taught all of our lives. And this actually makes more sense than what we have heard. I myself have had some of these thoughts but couldn’t quite make the sense of it all by myself. J.D. Myers helped me answer some questions and settle some confusion for my doctrinal views. This is truly a refreshing read. Jesus really is the demonstration of who God is and God is much easier to understand than being so mean and vindictive in the Old Testament. The tension between the wrath of God and His justice and the love of God are eased when reading this understanding of the atonement. Read with an open mind and enjoy!
–Clare N. Brownlee

You can read the other review, learn more about the book, and even read a free sample of the book by visiting it’s product page on Amazon. And take advantage of the temporary price drop as we celebrate the gold medal award. (And if you don’t have a Kindle, that’s no problem … Download the free Kindle Reader app here for your computer, tablet, or smartphone.)

Here is how you can start reading my new book for free

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My new book is out, and I want as many people to read it as possible, which means I want to make it as easy as possible for you to read.

So here is what I am going to do … First, I am going to include the first chapter of the book below. And then I will share with you two steps you can follow on how to start reading the rest of the book for free. This will allow you to know whether or not you want to buy the book. I’m allowing you to “Try before you buy!”

Start Reading my New book for Free

Nothing but the blood of Jesus ebookI intentionally created a way for you to start reading Nothing but the Blood of Jesus for free. Here are the steps.

1. Have a way to Read Kindle books from Amazon
If you have a Kindle eReader, then you’re already set. Move to step 2 below.

If you don’t have a Kindle eReader, that’s no problem. Just download the (#AmazonAdLink) absolutely free Kindle Reading App from Amazon. You can put it on almost any device, including a computer, smartphone, or tablet. There’s no charge for it!

Once you’ve done this, Step 1 is done!

2. Get a 30-Day Free Trial to Kindle Unlimited on Amazon

Kindle Unlimited allows you read millions of books on Amazon for only $9.99 a month. But I have a way for you to get a free 30-day trial. (#AmazonAdLink) Just go here to sign up for your 30-day free trial of Kindle Unlimited.

Once you’ve done this, Step 2 is done!

3. Go download my new book and start reading

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No matter which option you choose, if you like the book, I would greatly appreciate it if you would buy a copy, since that helps encourage me and financially support my writing and online teaching ministry.

As you read, let me know what questions you have…

Now, here is the first chapter to get you started…

Nothing but the blood of Jesus book stack

How Precious is the Flow?

Have you ever stopped to listen to what we Christians say and sing about the blood of Jesus?

Try to imagine what you would think about a group of people who regularly sang songs about founts of blood, washing in blood, and needing blood to be made whole? Imagine you are walking through a forest on a dark night and as you stumbled along, off in the distance you saw the light of a fire with people dancing around it. As you drew closer, you heard them singing the following song:

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but this bloody sacrifice.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but this bloody sacrifice.

O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know; nothing but this bloody sacrifice.

I imagine that if you heard people singing this in the woods on a dark night, you would turn around and head the other direction. What if, however, you kept going, and as you drew closer, the song changed to this one:

Have you been to the altar for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of this man?
Are you fully trusting in his grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of this man?

Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul cleansing blood of this man?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of this man?

As your skin crawled with the implications of that song, the people then began to sing about plunging one another beneath a fountain of blood.

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from our victim’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

I think that instead of happily join this group of blood-crazed murderers, you would likely get out of the woods as fast as possible and then call the local police to report what you had heard. I can see the newspaper headline now: “Lone Hiker Discovers Ghastly Cult Bathing in the Blood of a Human Sacrifice.” When read outside of their Christian context, that is indeed what these songs bring to mind, is it not? These sorts of songs sound more like a gruesome and gory scene from a Freddy Krueger movie than from something to be joyfully celebrated. Yet when the words of the three songs above are sung as originally written so that they talk about the blood of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, we Christians happily sing them with gusto, and think that nothing is amiss.

Why is that?

ARGUING WITH MYSELF
If you have been brought up in the church as I have, you may not have ever stopped to consider what the songs we sing sound like to an outside observer. Just listen to yourself sing sometimes, especially around Easter, and ask yourself what the “uninitiated” might be hearing. I myself have done this, and here is how the conversation went in my head:

Me: What is this about washing in the blood of the Lamb? This sounds like some sort of ancient pagan ritual where the worshippers splashed blood on themselves as they went into the temple to worship their pagan god. Is this really what God wants from us? To bathe in the blood of Jesus. To swim in rivers of blood? To dance around fountains of blood? What’s the deal with all this blood?
Myself: Don’t take it all so literally! It’s only symbolic. It’s figurative. Nobody actually bathes in blood or dances in fountains of blood.
Me: I know that! But then why sing about it? Symbolic language must symbolize something, right? Figurative language points to some figure. So what is it? What does the blood of Jesus symbolize? And before you answer too quickly, if it’s only symbolic, are you saying that the death of Jesus was only symbolic? That He only died a figurative death?
Myself: Of course not. That would be heresy. Jesus died a real death in a real body. He shed literal blood. The symbolic part of those songs is in the washing and the bathing. We don’t literally wash and bathe in the blood of Jesus. We just symbolically imagine that His blood is cleansing and washing us from our sin.
Me: Okay … so we’re symbolically washing in literal blood? That still makes no sense to me.
Myself: Sigh. This is why I never debate theology with people who didn’t go to Seminary.
Me: What? You’re me. I’m you. We went to Seminary together.
Myself: Oh, right. Well, that must be why your theology is so messed up. What did they teach you at Seminary, anyway?

The conversation went on like this for quite some time—several decades, to be honest. During that time, Me, Myself, and I also read scores of books on the death of Jesus and engaged in numerous hours of conversation with other people about this subject. And do you know what I found? The books and the people that were most helpful and illuminating were those who were outside observers (even critics) of Christianity. They responded in horror to the Christian infatuation with the blood of Jesus. They view our songs and sermons about His blood in a way that is similar to how you or I might view a cultish sacrificial ritual deep in the woods on a dark night. It seems excessively gruesome and quite alarming to hear people celebrate the bloodletting of someone else.

To such critics, no answer we give, no verse we quote, no explanation we provide can ever do away with the fact that Christianity seems to worship a bloodthirsty deity who required the death of others in order to forgive sins and cleanse people of their iniquity. They complain that God is a cosmic child abuser who tortured His own Son in a twisted display of justice. They criticize God as being less loving and forgiving than regular humans, who can forgive others without the need for death and bloodshed. They point out that the Bible contains more commands for blood sacrifice and warfare against the enemies of God than any other religious book in history, including the Muslim Qur’an. They charge that no matter how much we claim that our God is loving and kind, He is really a God of bloody sacrifice, warfare, violence, and death.

CRITICIZING CHRISTIANS
I imagine you have heard some of the criticisms mentioned before. Most Christians have. And when confronted with these sorts of criticisms, we Christians typically make the situation worse by quoting Scripture. Forgetting that none of these critics consider Scripture to be authoritative, we sometimes think that a few Bible verses will solve the debate. We point out that since all have sinned and the wages of sin is death, everyone must die (Rom 3:23; 6:23). But God loves us, we say, and so He decided to pay the penalty for our sin Himself, which He did by sending Jesus, His own Son, to die in our place on the cross (John 3:16; Rom 6:10; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 3:18). After all, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb 9:22). We say that someone must die for the sins of the world, and it was either us or God. Since God loves us, He took the bullet on our behalf and sent Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of the whole world.

When the non-Christian response to our “biblical answer” is less receptive than we would like, we shrug our shoulders and quote another verse. We say, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” (1 Cor 1:18), and then head off to our Bible studies and Sunday services where we continue to talk and sing about the blood of Jesus while avoiding or ignoring the hard questions that the watching world is asking.

But if we stick around, the follow-up questions to our “biblical answer” get even harder to explain. For example, if we say that the death of Jesus was necessary to forgive sins, people want to know why Jesus had to die in such a gruesome and bloody way. If we say that the wages of sin is death and so God needed death as payment for sin, people want to know why God set it up this way in the first place (Isn’t He God? Can’t He do what He wants?) and even then, what would have been wrong with just letting Jesus die from old age? Did Jesus really need to get tortured to a bloody death on the cross? And if we argue that God needed the blood of an innocent victim in order to remove the stain of sin from the world, the critic wants to know how killing an innocent victim is not a sin itself, and how the blood of such a victim can actually do anything for the sin of all people throughout all time. And these questions keep coming, harder and harder at every turn.

DON’T ASK HOW IT WORKS?
Due to the number of difficult questions surrounding the death of Jesus and His blood shed for us, it might simply be best to accept that the death of Jesus did something to help restore our relationship with God, even if we cannot understand what it was. For many, rather than agonize over seemingly unanswerable questions, it is preferable to recognize that since we are not God and cannot really understand the nature or the depth of our sin or the character and breadth of His righteousness, we will never be able to understand exactly what Jesus did on the cross or how His death accomplished it. In other words, it is enough, for many, to simply know that Jesus accomplished something, even if we cannot know what it was or how He did it. If this seems like a cop-out, do not worry; this is the approach that C. S. Lewis argued for in his book, Mere Christianity:

The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. Theories as to how it did this are another matter. A good many different theories have been held as to how it works …

Theories about Christ’s death are not Christianity: they are explanations about how it works. Christians would not all agree as to how important these theories are …

But I think they will all agree that the thing itself is infinitely more important than any explanations that theologians have produced. I think they would probably admit that no explanation will ever be quite adequate to the reality. But as I said in the preface to this book, I am only a layman, and at this point we are getting into deep water. I can only tell you, for what it is worth, how I, personally, look at the matter. On my view the theories are not themselves the thing you are asked to accept …

We believe that the death of Christ is just that point in history at which something absolutely unimaginable from outside shows through into our own world. And if we cannot picture even the atoms of which our own world is built, of course we are not going to be able to picture this. Indeed, if we found that we could fully understand it, that very fact would show it was not what it professes to be—the inconceivable, the uncreated, the thing from beyond nature, striking down into nature like lightning. You may ask what good it will be to us if we do not understand it. But that is easily answered. A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works: indeed, he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it. We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. Any theories we build up as to how Christ’s death did all this are, in my view, quite secondary: mere plans or diagrams to be left alone if they do not help us, and, even if they do help us, not to be confused with the thing itself.

If you are one who rarely asks “Why?” or “How?” something works, then the answer of C. S. Lewis regarding the death of Jesus might be enough for you. Yet as much as I love and admire C. S. Lewis (he is my favorite author), his answer is not enough for me. Prior to attending Bible College and Seminary my educational background was in engineering. I chose that field because my entire life has been consumed with pursuing answers to the question “How?” How does this work? How can it be improved? How can it be explained? How can it be fixed? While numerous people like C. S. Lewis are content with simply knowing that something works, I am never content unless I know how.

Nor is the answer of C. S. Lewis enough for the average critic of Christianity. Critics of Christianity will not accept Lewis’ logic on the death of Jesus. They will not simply jump with blind faith into worshiping a deity who, to them, appears to be bloodthirsty, vindictive, and cruel. They will not simply accept and follow Jesus because Lewis says we don’t need to know why Jesus died or how His blood works to save us from our sin. For many, including myself, the how is the critical question. If the how is not answered, then we cannot know why Jesus died, and therefore, what God is like. And if we cannot know what God is like, then we cannot know whether or not He is worthy of our worship.

For if the Christian God truly is bloodthirsty, vindictive, and cruel, it is more of an act of pure worship to reject such a God than it is to worship Him in blind faith. Why? Because people become like the God they worship. If God is bloodthirsty and vindictive, and if God cannot love and forgive unless He receives payment with blood, then this is also how His followers will live and act toward others. Rather than live in love and forgiveness toward others, we will cry out for the death of our enemies, and will demand that “justice” be obtained through the price of bloody vengeance upon all who oppose us. And sadly, this is exactly how some Christians behave, as they pray for bombs to fall on Muslims and for Gays to go to hell.

The watching world sees this behavior by Christians, and understands that such behavior is nothing more than a logical extension of our theological belief in a God who demands blood payment for the forgiveness of sins. But we Christians don’t know where to turn. Though we recognize, and even condemn, the bad behavior of some groups within Christianity, and though we see how certain passages from a bloody Bible and certain ideas from traditional theology can lead these Christians to think that calling for the death of their enemies in truly within God’s will, few Christians have actually found a way out of the dilemma posed by the blood of Jesus.

We cannot, after all, deny the righteous justice of God. Nor can we deny the reality of human sin. And we definitely cannot deny that Jesus bled and died. But as long as we fail to adequately explain how all of these truths fit together, the Gospel message will never be good news to a dying world. Christianity needs better answers to the questions the world is asking, and this failure to explain how the blood of Jesus saves us from our sin is one of the main reasons so many people have abandoned Christianity over the last few decades.

A BETTER ANSWER
My hope is that the book you now hold in your hands provides a better answer. This book shows how God can be both just and the justifier of those who believe. It shows how sin truly is the problem of the world, and how the death of Jesus—even the violent and bloody death of Jesus on the cross—provides the solution and the answer for sin that the world is looking for. This book also shows how the non-Christian rejection of a bloody and violent deity is right in line with what Jesus revealed about God. In other words, when the world rejects a bloodthirsty god as being unworthy of our worship, they are not following Satan into error and evil, but are instead following Jesus into what He revealed to us about God. Much to our shock and chagrin, the non-Christian who follows his or her own heart into love for all people might be doing a better job worshipping the God revealed in Jesus Christ than the Christian who quotes Scripture and prays to God for the death of our enemies.

I understand that what I have just written might be a shocking statement to some. But it is not a statement I make lightly. It comes as the result of decades of research, study, reading, writing, and prayerful consideration of the biblical text. It also comes more recently from spending time outside the institutional church with so-called “non-Christians.”

When I first read Mere Christianity about thirty years ago, while I fully agreed that how the death of Jesus works was not nearly as important as the truth that it works, I intended to do my best in learning how. This is, after all, how my mind is wired. So I embarked on my investigation. I read and studied everything I could about the death of Jesus, the atonement, and the gospel. I studied Scripture constantly. I attended Bible College and Seminary. I pastored churches, preached sermons, taught Bible studies, and wrote books. I engaged in conversations about these topics with numerous different people from dozens of different backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives.

Through it all, I followed a trail of breadcrumbs left by Scripture and the illuminating Holy Spirit so that every few months, I uncovered another piece of the theological puzzle. Many of these pieces were shocking or surprising, challenging everything I thought I knew. Some of the truths I learned were utterly inspiring, opening up whole new vistas of theological research and inquiry, and helping me see God in a whole new light. In the process of digging through the pages of Scripture for an understanding of how the death of Jesus saves the world from sin, I discovered a God I never knew existed, as well as some truths about Scripture, sin, and humanity that I never would have found in any other way. The quest for how led to some surprising discoveries about the who, the what, and the why.
If you are like me and want to know the how of things, the best approach would be to retrace with me the slow and steady slog through theological research of the last thirty years. But that would take too long and be too boring. It would read like the snippet of conversation I had with myself earlier in this chapter. Besides, I spent many of those years in theological missteps, exegetical rabbit trails, and, like Winnie the Pooh, retracing my own steps around and around in the snowy woods searching for a mythical beast of my own imagination.

So rather than take you on that long and circuitous journey, let me instead give you some of the central signposts which will point you in the right direction. This book contains those signposts. The ideas of this book are not everything I learned or discovered in the past thirty years of research, but they do explain where I am at now and what I have discovered. This book contains my best explanation so far for how the death of Jesus saves the world from sin.

And just as a preview, do you know what I have discovered so far? I have discovered that the blood of Jesus is more precious than I ever imagined. I have discovered that the blood of Jesus reveals certain truths to humanity that could never have been revealed to us in any other way. I have discovered that there is very good reason for the Bible to emphasize blood so much, that there is good reason for the New Testament writers to focus our attention on His blood shed for us. I have discovered that it was not just Jesus’ death, and not just Jesus’ blood, but that it was necessary for His blood to be shed violently.

I have discovered some truths that nothing but the blood of Jesus could have revealed to us. I have discovered how the blood of Jesus rescues and delivers us from sin like nothing else ever could. Once we understand how the blood of Jesus rescues the world from sin, we see why it was necessary for Jesus to suffer and die on the cross as He did, and how the entire bloody spectacle of the cross reveals a God who is more deeply in love with us than we ever before imagined. In the end, we see that there truly is something special about the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus truly does lead us to worship God and follow Him in love and forgiveness for the world.

If you join me in this journey by reading this book, you will discover the meaning of five words. These five words are Sin, Law, Sacrifice, Scapegoat, and Blood. If you understand these five terms, you will better understand the work of Jesus on the cross and how His death rescues us from sin. But as indicated above, these five words are not the only things I have discovered over the last several decades of research. As you learn about these five words, there are many related words that you might have questions about as well. Words such as salvation, wrath, forgiveness, justice, Kingdom of God, grace, world, satan, and gospel are also within the sphere of terms one might need to learn in the quest for understanding the crucifixion of Jesus. If you would like to learn more about these other words, all of them are found in my online theology course, The Gospel Dictionary, from which the ideas for this book were pulled. While this book only looks at five words, The Gospel Dictionary course looks at 52 key words of the gospel, all of which further support the themes of this present volume and provide greater understanding about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and how we are to live in response. Understanding these 52 key words of the Gospel truly help make the Gospel “good news” again.

So are you ready to learn how the death of Jesus rescues the world from sin? If so, the journey begins with a look at everybody’s favorite subject: sin. But don’t skip the chapter because you think you already know everything about sin (maybe from personal experience). When it comes to sin, the phrase made famous by Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride is quite appropriate: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

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Nothing but the blood of Jesus ebookThat is the first chapter in the book. Do you want to read the rest?

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We do NOT serve a bloodthirsty God

12 Comments

My new book on the atonement is almost out! One week to go…

I have about 30 people reading through portions of my book on the atonement right now. So far, the feedback has been encouraging. Nobody has the whole book (except my wife) and everybody who has read portions of it says they cannot wait to read the rest.

The atonement of God

Though there appears to be blood all over the cover, the message of the book is that God does not demand or want blood, and Jesus did not die to appease a bloodthirsty God. In fact, the cross of Jesus reveals that God has never required blood to offer forgiveness of sins.

If you are curious how God can forgive sins and rescue us from death without demanding the bloody death of Jesus, you will want to read this book.

I have been reading, teaching, and writing A LOT these past several years on the violence of God in the Bible, and this book also provides the beginning place for understanding these violent, bloody texts in Scripture.

If you want to read a brief excerpt, Brad Jersak posted a bit of it on The Clarion Journal, his online theology blog. Click that link to go read it.

The book officially is released on March 21, so stay tuned for more information as we get closer!

God is Redeeming Books, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: , , , ,

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