Herein lies the greater question: what was His reason for being here? What was God’s reason for having the person of Jesus be here? Was Jesus an observer, acting on God’s behalf? Or a teacher, a messenger, hoping to show humanity a corrected path, one more in accordance with God’s original plan? Was Jesus an entity separate from God, or was He an extension of God Himself, a vehicle through which God could come to a more full understanding of His creation?
This is foundational material and has to be dealt with before we can go any further.
Modern Christian teachings will say such things as, “Jesus came to die for our sins so that, if we only believe in Him, we’ll know everlasting life.” This is such an abstraction of the facts that no thinking person is going to make sense out of it, and is a good example of the very things that keep the average person from venturing deeper into Christianity. Christians take for granted for what we know it to mean, but rarely put themselves in the position of the non-Christian listener when speaking the words. Jesus died for our sins? What the hell does a statement that vague and preposterous actually mean? It doesn’t even come across as enticing enough to lure a person into deeper investigation. It sounds, frankly, ridiculous, and invites ridicule as a response. So let’s unpack this bit of seeming nonsense, from a non-Christian perspective.
“Jesus died on the cross for our sins”. So, Jesus came here to be among us, presented Himself as such an odd entity that we arrested, tortured and killed Him, and it was all part of a carefully crafted plan so that, by His death, we’re allowed to sin now with impunity? That the only requirement for everlasting life after leaving this world is that we say, “Yes, I believe in Jesus, and that He died for my sins,” and there is no sin great enough, or fresh enough in recent history, that would keep us from getting in? Really? That’s not much incentive to correct our evil ways or develop accountable behaviors, if we can be absolved at any time