Burnt offerings

G.J.I

a non-believer asked me why were burnt offerings necessary in the old testement, why did something have to die or be sacrificed for a sin. and i couldnt asnwer, he said why couldnt thay just repent why did something have to be killed, hence why did Jesus have to be the ultimate sacrifice, how can some one answer that?

karfaw

Hi G.J.I.,

This is a good question. I will try to answer it as I can.

First, these offerings were necessary because it was a symbol of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins. God had to prepare the people that without blood there is no remission of sins. If Jesus would come in a sudden and die for our sins, people were not going to accept it. That's why God was preparing the people thousands of years before Jesus with these offerings to understand the work He made for us on the Cross.

To answer the second part of your question : Why was it necessary for Jesus to die and why couldn't we just repent and be saved?
The answer is : God is infinitely merciful and infinitely fair. If He just forgives the men for their sins when they repent He would work according to His mercy but it's in contradiction with His fairness. On the other hand, if he condemns the human kind to eternal hell, He will have fulfilled His fairness but would contradict His mercy. That's why the only thing He could do which fulfills His mercy and fairness is to condemn the men and then to save them.

I will give you an example : Suppose a fair judge has to
judge in a case of a person who drove being drunk. If according to the law, the condemned has to pay 1000$ or being imprisonned and this condemned is the Jury's son whom he loves. What would he do?
a) If the Judge just releases the condemned, he will be merciful to the condemned but he would not be fair and could be fired.
b) If the Judge condemns the person, he will be fair but not merciful to his son whom he loves.

That's why the only thing he could do is to condemn his son to pay the fine and then take 1000$ out of his pocket and pay it to his son fine. In that case he will have acted according to his fairness and his mercy towards his son.

I hope this helps.

Thank you and pray for me.

KF

PrincessMary

"without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin" (Heb. 9:22).

The animal sacrifices commanded by God to atone for sin, had no real power to do so (Heb. 9:9; 10:4-11) but they signified and represented the sacrifice of Christ. Sin alienates us from God, causing us ultimately to experience eternal death., “for the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). The animal became the substitute for the sinner, whose guilt was symbolically transferred to the animal, whose death was the ransom price paid to release the sinner from the guilt of his sin

egyprincess

just as mary said, it repesented christ and his sacrafice for us. also, God had to come to save us from eternial torture and fire. he loved us very much. here is a story that deals with this topic although i have no clue how it goes with wat im saying. :-\
one time there was a father, a son, and the boy's freind on a boat on a fishing trip. the father and son were christian, but not the friend a storm came and capsized the boat. the father could only save one person. the son told the father, save my friend because he is not christian and will go to hell if he dies
but i will go to heaven. so the father was greatly pleased and did as his son wanted. the freind became christian after that.
hope this makes sense

G.J.I

i understand all that u have told me, because i understand the concept, i believe in the bible, and God but my friend the non-believer still wouldnt be convinced about why death? not just because God said so, because he doesnt believe in God, he need to know why? hes very stubborn!
i guess the first step would be convincing him that God and the bible are true, which leads me to another question, wats the best way of doin that, by example, words..??
thnx again all of u, uve helpped me ;)