AI explains why Jesus had to die. ✝️
(media.greatawakening.win)
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AI is off the mark (imo)
"It is better to obey the Lord than to offer sacrifices to him. It is better to listen to him than to offer the fat from rams." 1 Samuel 15:22
There are always two ways it could go. This is why the in the Old Testament era ("For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.…" Matt 11:13) God gave two types of prophesy about Jesus path. One, to be the Lord of Glory, accepted, and two, to be rejected and become the Lord of Suffering. In Matt 11;33, Jesus himself tells us that all of the prophecies before John were only for times up until John (when Jesus lived).
Everything Jesus did in his public ministry for the first two years was focused on getting the people of Israel to believe in him, and to NOT reject him. ("This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." John 6:29).
If the Israelites had recognized and received Jesus, THIS would have atoned symbolically for the sin of Adam and Eve, who rejected God's word. Unity with Jesus was the necessary offering (obedience).
And recall, Jesus could forgive sin BEFORE he went to the Cross.
So how or why did the cross become necessary? It became a necessary, secondary path because the Israelites rejected him.
God had chosen the descendants of Abraham to be the representative of all humanity. If Israel accepted and united with Jesus (doing his will and following his word), then this would lay the foundation for ALL humanity to receive Jesus. Not just in spirit, but also in the flesh. On this Earth.
With Israel as a people united with Jesus, and then the rest of the world following, the Kingdom would have arrived both in spirit and in flesh, and the ruler of this world (Satan) would have had no where to stand.
But what happened? Israel, as a people, rejected Jesus, and eventually murdered him (by proxy, via Rome). Jesus lamented this situation. ("O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!" Matt 23:37)
This was the gravest of sins. Adam and Eve fell in the garden, in their spiritual immaturity, but humanity rejecting God's son was a far more terrible sin. And therefore, a price had to be paid. The price? The most precious, precious thing. Jesus flesh was the most precious thing in the universe. It took God the creator thousand and thousands of years to bring Jesus' in the flesh. God's own body, recreated in the world. His body was more precious than all humanity.
So a price had to be paid. This is why the cross had to happen. Sacrifice became necessary, because obedience wasn't forthcoming.
At the pivotal time, when Humanity experienced the advent of the Son of God, something God had been preparing for for thousands of years, Israel and humanity as a whole failed, and fell into faithlessness. Again.
So, at this juncture, a second path forward had to be opened. This is the meaning of the Cross. Jesus paid the price for the faithlessness of Israel, who represented all the nations of the world, by sacrificing his flesh. He offered his flesh in lieu of the sin of rejection. Sacrifice, because obedience was not forthcoming. "Believe in him who he has sent..."
What was necessary before that point was simple faith and unity. Obedience. In unity, Jesus could forgive all humanity, even without the torturous path of physical suffering.
And that's why the second coming had to then happen. On the Mount of transfiguration, after two years of endless effort to get Israel to accept and unite with him, Jesus consulted with Moses and Elijah in spirit, and only from that point on did he talk about the cross and the necessity of death and suffering. That was the turning point.
And because Jesus' hand was forced in to a situation where he would offer up his flesh for the faithlessness of the people at that time, the flesh of all faithful believers who follow Jesus is STILL subject to Satan's attacks and influence, even though in spirit, we are saved to a realm in spirit with Satan is not longer master.
Paul cited this situation: (Rom 8:23 "Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.")
Jesus could have adopted us when he was alive, in both spirit and flesh. But when his flesh became a sacrifice, that path was no longer open. This is why Christ must return. To adopt us as his children, in both spirit and in flesh, to redeem our bodies.
The second coming became necessary because God the Father and Jesus had to pay the price for Israel - chosen and prepared Israel - rejecting Jesus Christ. The flesh was offered up as the price for redemption of the spirit, but the flesh still has not been redeemed, because Christ's own flesh had to become the offering. Sacrifice, not obedience.
People forget that Jesus could forgive sins BEFORE the cross. If Israel had wholeheartedly recognized and accepted him, do you think that Jesus could NOT forgive their sins? Their unity with Jesus, in spirit and flesh, would have been enough to open the way to the kingdom both in heaven AND on earth. Right there.
Jesus accomplished spiritual salvation for us, through the cross, and opened up the kingdom in the spirit. But the physical salvation was delayed until the second coming. Clearly, this was NOT the path Jesus preferred.
Just as when the Israelites demanded a king, God reluctantly gave them one through Samuel, even though it was not his preferred way. Their faithlessness forced God to give them a lesser good.
This is like the cross. God wanted all of Israel, and then the world, to accept, embrace, unite with and obey Jesus. When they did not, He had no choice but to offer Jesus's flesh as a sacrifice.
"It is better to obey the Lord than to offer sacrifices to him. It is better to listen to him than to offer the fat from rams." 1 Samuel 15:22
This perspective may conflict with some people's understanding of theology, but we have to remember: we have NOT had the full picture. As Paul said: "Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
Even Paul recognized that his perception and understanding of the truth was only partial. When Christ returns, he will raise us to a new, higher level. For this reason, we have to learn how to listen.
At least, that's how I understand it.
At the end of the day, however, I resonate with Maude's comment: It's not about religion, its about relationship. And the core of that relationship is heart. The Door of Faith is the doorway into the Realm of Heart where indeed, Christ is King.
Praise God. Thank you Jesus. You paid the price for humanities rejection, and opened up the door to spiritual salvation, and your heart shines eternal. Come soon, oh Lord. Come soon.
I wouldn’t say the explanation is off the mark, but rather, it's grounded in a long-standing Christian view that the cross wasn’t just a reaction to rejection- it was God's redemptive plan from the beginning. Jesus didn’t go to the cross reluctantly, He chose it, knowing what it would accomplish. The cross wasn’t the result of failure, it was the means of victory.
Some of Israel did believe. The Jewish religion rejected him and sought to kill him from the beginning of his ministry. Jesus brought the kingdom with Him, and sent the kingdom to all mankind by faith in His life and reign. There was not another option. The only way to have the kingdom on earth was with the king in heaven and his church ascended to him in the heavens through the Holy Spirit. The death was required so the life could be magnified. Faith in the life and reign of Jesus Christ brings the kingdom of God and Christ to all mankind.
Yes, realm is the same word as kingdom. In the Spirit we are saved. Revelation 14:1 shows king, kingdom, and church reigning over Babylon. Also Revelation 15:2.
Ephesians 2:1-3 shows the kingdoms of the world. The Christian is no longer subject to the kingdoms of the world. The church in Christ is subject to the kingdom in Christ, reigning over sin and dead. The church is righteous in Christ.
Sorry. It would be more accurate to say if the leadership had accepted Him. In Acts 2, over 3,000 Jews, from all over the world, came to accept Jesus after Peter preached, I strongly recommend anyone on this thread to read a book called The Olive Tree Connection by John Fischer . It's essentially an commentary on Romans 11, from a Jewish believer in Jesus' perspective.
Once Jesus made the offering and claimed the spiritual victory through the crucifixion course, he began a new providence completely. The 2000 years from Abraham to Jesus were to prepare a foundation for Jesus to be accepted and obeyed on the national level, by a nation of people. That's the meaning of the 'chosen people'.
But they failed, and in doing so, lost their position.
(“A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent them another servant, and they struck him over the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and this one they killed. He sent many others; some they beat and others they killed. Finally, having one beloved son, he sent him to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
"But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others.")
A new providence then began, centering on Christianity, whose fundamental premise is unity with Jesus Christ. After the 3-day crucifixion course, Jesus worked on Earth for 40 days to begin this providence, to lay a foundation of the worldwide level, not just national.
Many then united with him, but not as the Israelite nation, but now as Christians, which are the second Israel.
God's providence works in a precise manner, but a key factor always is the human aspect of responsibility. If humans unite with God, his will for that moment is accomplished. If they reject God and have faithlessnes, then God's purpose is prolonged.
This is why, for example, Moses did a 40-day fast, and why the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. Moses was responsible for raising Israel to the national level on the foundation of the victory of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob. Once Israel arrived in the promised land, then God worked with them leading them to build a foundation where one nation could unite with Christ when he arrived.
When that collapsed, not through God or Jesus failure in any way, but through the collective faithlessness of Israel, God began a new providence wherein a new foundation was being constructed centering on the resurrected Jesus. This is why Christianity is a worldwide religion, and the center of all religious accomplishment. What for? To prepare the foundation so that when Christ returns, the world, as a whole, will unite with him.
That's how I understand it. Yes, indeed, after the Crucifixion, many Jews came to unite with the spiritually active Jesus, but as Christians, not as representatives of the Jewish nation.
If the Jewish leadership had united with him during his ministry, indeed, the whole population would likely have come along. There were multiple failures, none the least, the failure of John the Baptist to fully support and unite with Jesus after his initial baptism of Jesus at the Jordan.
Yes, very well put.
I was simply thinking put loud with you on your great post. ❤️ in Christ