I established in another topic that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, and we need Him as a Savior because we're scum. Jesus wasn't a human forever, so what did people do for forgiveness of sins before He was born?
Before Jesus was born, the way to be forgiven for sins was by making sacrifices. You can read all about the fun sacrifices in Leviticus, but pay special attention to Leviticus 4-5, that talks about the sin offering. Basically, when someone sinned an animal without any kind of defect had to be sacrificed. That animal's shed blood made up for the person's sin. Why? I have absolutely no idea, it seems a little gory to me. That is how it was. There are probably reasons, but I don't know them yet. I just know that those sacrifices atoned for sin.
(Ok, this is just a side comment. I'll keep it brief. I think I just discovered why blood was necessary. It makes sense in my heart, but I haven't figured out how to word it yet, so here are the verses. Hebrews 9:16-18~"In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.")
You may have picked up on this, but humans screw up all the time. Even Christians. We continually make mistakes because we're not perfect. God helps us with those sins, He helps us to do better. But one slip of the tongue, and we've told a little white lie or kicked a dog or something. Even those little things are sins, and back in the day we would have had to sacrifice an animal because we're so stupid. God knows this now, He knew it then.
Finally, He said "Ok. I know the sacrifice thing isn't working. I've had this other great idea tucked away for awhile, check it out..." God knew that His little humans were going to keep sinning, so they were also going to keep sacrificing.
Enter...Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was born to a virgin named Mary. Jesus was perfect. He never sinned. Not once. Jesus is God's Son, He was fully human and fully divine. But the point here is that He never sinned while He was on earth. Remember how I said when people made sacrifices the animal couldn't have any kind of a defect? Well....since Jesus never sinned, He didn't have any "defects." He was pure, completely pure. Back in the day, the blood of a defectless animal atoned for sin. Now....the blood of the defectless Jesus would atone for sin forever.
When Jesus died on the cross, He was a sacrifice for us. For our sins. Not just the people who sinned that day, but for anyone who has ever lived on this planet, and for anyone who ever will. Since His blood was pure, He was the final, perfect sacrifice. That's why people say "Jesus is my Savior because He died on the cross!" He saved us from our sins because He was a sacrifice on the cross.
Then...He came back to life three days later. I've always kind of hoped that God has videotapes of all this stuff, so we can watch it in Heaven. Anyway. When He came back to life, that was His way of gaining victory over death. For Him...and for us. That's why He has the authority and the power to give us eternal life. No one else can, because no one else has risen from the dead by themselves. Jesus is just cool like that.
I hope that makes sense. Sometimes I'm not very good at explaining things. A brief summary....before Jesus was born, people had to sacrifice defectless animals to atone for their sin. Then Jesus was born, and since He was one hundred percent pure, He was a final sacrifice for all of our sins. Then He came back to life, so He's the only one in a position to offer us eternal life, and He's the only one who can give it to us. That's why He's the only way to Heaven.
Defectless. I wonder if I just created a new word.
Jesus died for more than just to forgive our sins. He died so we could be free, right here and now. My friend Ryan spoke at youth group this past summer, and that was the topic he spoke on. It was really swell. I may get him to make an outline or something for me, and I'll just put that on here, because he explained it really well.
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