Minor point. You called it my statement. I listed it as a statement. Not mine.
No, nobody had to die to forgive your sins.
What if, it was humans that thought somebody needed to die to make up for their sins? What if God didn't need anybody to die to forgive anybody?
What drives me nuts once we get to this part of the conversation, cuz you can imagine I've had this conversation before, people start going down bizarre conversational path.
At this point in my life, after studying scripture for 45 years, I'm fully convinced that God being so mad about sin, that he demands Justice because he is a holy and righteous God. He can almost hear the lightning in the thunder booming in the background as the huge hairy man sits on his white throne amongst the white clouds.
I just don't see that's how it is. I think God's been trying to forgive people from the beginning. All the way back from the story of Adam and Eve. If you read the highlights in a Bible, it'll let you know that there was punishments and cursing after they ate the fruit. But there wasn't really punishments and cursings as much as there was simple results from their own actions.
So to say it very concisely. I think guys are very forgiving guy. He hasn't been holding the sins against us from his point of view. On the other hand, sin by itself comes with a cost. Not much different than touching a hot stove leaves a burn. Falling off your bike leaves the skin knee. And touching it a live electric wire can kill you. Sin has consequences. But not from God.
Sin does have a consequence in how we, emphasis on the word we, a consequence on how we are able to relate to God. Nothing like little bit of sin, for us to not be able to be able to enjoy God's presence. But scriptures clear that God doesn't leave us or forsake us. You can always count on a human to turn their back on God. I see that happen all the freaking time.
A lot of people left a lot of good scriptures in this thread. I agreed with everything that the scriptures they left said. And none of the scriptures that were left, indicated that it was God who needed Jesus to die to atone for the sins of man. All the scripture I read, seems to indicate that Jesus died to get the idea of sin out of the mind of man as an issue that stands between man and God.
Anyway. I sure hope you're having a freaking awesome Wednesday!