I needed someone to wash my sins away...

The term paying a debt comes from Jesus final words on the cross, "It is finished". In Greek, he said, "Tetelestai". It is an accounting term that means the accounts are balanced.

The world was created and given to Adam. Adam gave the world to Satan by choosing to listen to him rather than God. We have been in debt ever since. Satan is the accuser. He goes before God and says, "Clay sinned. He needs to be punished."

When one is sent to prison, we say that they are paying their debt to society. When that prisoner is released, we say that the debt has been paid.

I was a prisoner of my sin. I had to pay my debt to God. Jesus released me from that prison. He paid my debt.

Ahhh.. The good ol' Substitutional Atonement theory--this outta be good! But i got some work to do now, so I'll check in later! :thumbsup:

No matter how you look at it, Jesus substituted His death for ours. He became sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us "God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.". The footnote [a] says, "or sin offering".

That statement indicates substitutional atonement to me. Jesus became sin and died so that I don't have to die in my sins. The time of darkness - God's light is absent in sin. When all the sins of the world came upon Jesus, God's light did not shine on Him.

"Why have you forsaken me?" When God's light was absent from Jesus, He felt the absence of His Father. He was in agony - not only from the cross, but also from bearing all the sins of mankind so we don't have to.

"Behold the lamb that takes away the sins of the world" John the Baptist was speaking of Jesus' place as a sacrificial lamb - not to appease an angry God, but to fulfill the Law that God had put into place.

"I saw a lamb, looking as if it had been slain" John the Apostle spoke of Jesus this way. The Lamb had been introduced as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David. This is the Christ. Christ had been slain.

Christ was crucified for our death. He was raised again for our life. That is a substitution. Without Christ's death, we must still offer sacrifices. With His death, we no longer need to offer sacrifices.

Was it to appease an angry God? No. Was it so that God, loving us so much, desiring to free us from the bondage of sin, sent His Son to be sin for us? Yes. The Law prescribed sacrifice. Blood for sin. Not an angry God, but a God who wanted sacrifices for His children's deviation from His path.

Thank you Clay.

I think we agree.

God is not subserviant to any Law, as He is the originator of it. The reason Christ's death was necessary was to free mankind from the corruption of evil. This circumstance required Christ die as a sacrifice for us, so that He could destroy death.

Evil cannot exist in the presence of God, because if it did exist there, it would be eternal like God Himself, but God is all-good. Adam and Eve were sent out of Paradise, as a natural consequence of their sin, because evil could not exist in the presence of the Eternal God, which is Whom they abided with, in Paradise. To protect the sanctity of Paradise, they had to be expelled from it, and angels placed at its gates with flaming swords. To return us to paradise, our bondage to death had to be destoryed; otherwise, we could not enter back into the presence of our Holy God.

Christ was a sacrifice . . .
He bore our sins . . . .
He took suffered for us . . . .

. . . so that our bondage to death would be broken.

Basil

That's a good point that people often overlook when summing up the christian faith to nonbelievers, just get's outed for the short version.

But I don't think people really dissagree with eachother here.

Yes we do! And don't take that away from us!

J/K!

:rolf:

I'm like the Romans Road for sharing with unbelievers.... only I don't use the verses word for word, but the concept, and later.... the verses :thumbsup:

It goes like this
Romans 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9-10

Lots about the death part in there....

Many take substitute to mean that He took our punishment from God for our sins, because God was bound to not forgive sins withouth the remission of blood, which is false.

He was a substitute, more like a substitute teacher, who takes punishment from students in place of a teacher, so that the teacher take a vacation to paradise. In this analogy, the principal is God, who doesn't want to punish the substitute teacher (Jesus), but knows she must suffer the punishment of the students (death), so that the teacher (everyman) can leave for vacation to paradise (paradise or heaven). Yeah, I know it's weak in places, but I'm using it anyway.

Basil

DWT

I've gotta disagree wit Basil a bit here, in the OT God required blood as an atonement for sin. Yes I agree Jesus substitued Himsef for us, but His blood still had to be shed. He did pay the debt of our sins in His blood.