searching for insight

Tonight I was posed with a very difficult question. The queestion went something like this: "If the cross and Jesus death was the only way for our sins to be forgiven then how could Jesus have told people that their sins were forgiven before He was sacrificed?"

Many things went through my head. First I thought "well Jesus was God so He has that power, right?" This didn't satisfy me because that would deem His death on the cross useless. That would raise seriouse issues with God's character, why would a loving God watch His son be beaten and killed for no reason at least not for the reason of forgiveness of sin. He could do it anyway right?

I also thought that maybe there were circumstantial relations between the instances Jesus told people that Their sins were forgiven that made them special. Well, this simply raised the same issues as before.

I guess what I am doing in posting this is searching for insight. If you have any Ideas on the subject I'd like to hear them. I'll continue thinking about it and we'll come to some sort of conclusion.

Comments

wellis68 said…
Yeah I relate. I'm not closed off to there being some cultural difference that would give him merit to say such a thing without being deemed a "liar." But as long as we view it in our cultural context and assume they would be the same in comparrison, that just wouldn't really explain it.
wellis68 said…
dugall

You have no idea how excited I am to see you commenting on my blog.

To respond to your comment... I haven't yet thought of it that way. It does sustain that the cross is still about the forgiveness of sin, and I like that but I'm afraid im still a bit skeptical about it. I'm not sure if it's really consistant with Jesus normal language. Was it normal for Jesus to speak of things outside a "timeline" existance? Would it be possible that this is unique in that way? That Jesus just this once was speaking in this way?

I like your take on this. I'm willing to take accept this view but if I do it'll still be a little cloudy... like most theology. Thanks bro you got great insight!
wellis68 said…
Well in all honesty... my analysis of Jesus "regular" was of talking is not based on His method but logical content. Jesus would have had to be thinking on a totally different plain than the people he was taking to. I am willing to accept that Jesus was not concerned with logical consistancy, but that would be the only way to properly take on this theology. In fact I'm darn close to accepting it.

They hear "your sins are forgiven" He's saying "to me your sins are forgiven because of what I did on the cross" (even tho He hasn't been there yet on the timeline) This sounds good but does it make sense? I'm still deciding.
Thanks agin Dugall you're stretching me.