{"id":571,"date":"2022-06-15T10:12:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T16:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/?p=571"},"modified":"2024-02-12T13:16:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T19:16:03","slug":"beyond-the-satire-why-did-god-sacrifice-himself-to-himself-to-save-mankind-from-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/?p=571","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Satire: Why Did God Sacrifice Himself To Himself to Save Mankind From Himself?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rock Solid Apologia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Note: This article was published by admin, but written by a guest writer here at Rock Solid Apologia<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Although at the surface this question appears baffling, it is not one that Christians should shy away from. Skeptics often pose this question, and it is purposely convoluted to make the notion of Christianity appear preposterous. To answer this question, we must first consider its phrasing to better understand how to respond. The phrases \u201cto himself\u201d and \u201cto save mankind from himself\u201d both refer to the same underlying idea and are thus repetitive. The question can be more accurately stated as \u201chow do we explain the fact that God had to sacrifice himself to save mankind from himself?\u201d Now that we have the question clearly stated, we can address the two areas of confusion that led to it: God\u2019s character and the nature of the Trinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s Character<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Justice and mercy are two vital attributes of God\u2019s character. God is perfectly just, which means that sin\u2014defined as moral crimes or acts of treason against God\u2014must be punished. It would violate God\u2019s nature to let evildoers go unpunished. Because God created us in His image, we feel moral outrage at evil deeds and long for justice. Because God is just, he cannot simply forgive us without a price being paid for our sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            God is also perfectly merciful and loves us, despite our sinfulness. How can God forgive us while maintaining justice? In his Thru the Bible Commentary, Pastor J. Vernon McGee addresses this question. He explains that \u201c[God] couldn\u2019t just open the back door of heaven and slip us in. He couldn\u2019t be righteous [that is, just] and do that. A sacrifice for sins had to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The penalty for moral crimes against God (sin) is death. So God sent His Son to Earth, and because Jesus lived a sinless life, His death was an acceptable substitute for our own. Thus, God\u2019s perfect justice was satisfied, and his perfect mercy saved us. Romans 6:23 summarizes this well: \u201cFor the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d The wages of sin have been dealt with through Christ\u2019s death, and now the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life are freely offered to us through Christ\u2019s sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trinity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            This question does not account for the fact that while God is one, there are three Persons within the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father sent the Son to Earth to die for our sins; and the Son willingly sacrificed himself because of His love for us. Jesus spoke on this topic in John 10:18 when he said, \u201cNo one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.\u201d All three Persons of the Trinity did not die to save us. The Son, Jesus, sacrificed himself to the Father for our sins, so the phrasing \u201c[God] sacrificed himself to himself\u201d is vague and inaccurate, which led to a confusing question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, God the Son mercifully chose to sacrifice himself in our place, satisfying the demands of perfect justice by paying the penalty for our sin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rock Solid Apologia Publisher’s Note: This article was published by admin, but written by a guest writer here at Rock Solid Apologia.             Although at the surface this question appears baffling, it is not one that Christians should shy away from. Skeptics often pose this question, and it is purposely convoluted to make the notion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rock-solid-apologia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=571"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1307,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions\/1307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidapologia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}