Pistoff: The idea of a sacrifice by Jesus is only valid if god
is in the background demanding blood and death.
Exactly. Shocking? Hardly. This is what God has stated as the price of life from the very beginning. It is no secret. God himself provided the first animal sacrifice to cover Adam in the form of animal skins. Adams pitiful efforts to cover himself were done with fig leaves. So we see both mans efforts and what God requires for sin to be properly covered right there in the Garden of Eden.
The wages of sin is death. Like it or not, that is the Law. But notice how that the death penalty does not necessarily have to be your own. That is a little loophole with big implications.
Now, before someone cries out in outrage, claiming unfairness and brutality; consider that there are inmates on death row right now where the State Justice system is "demanding blood and death", same as God does.
Predictably, the inmates many times are in disagreement with the justice system. They see that their life still has value. They reason that they are still capable of various forms of good works etc. However, what governs their fate is not their own biased reasoning, but what the Law states.
So, while we live in societies that mirror God's justice in the requirement of blood, and we willingly give our support to such law and order, God's requirement for perfection may seem unreasonable to us, the inmates seemingly running the asylum. Like the protesting inmate on death row, our biased reasoning is not what dictates our fate. The Law is what dictates our fate. A death must occur. But whose?
Jesus knew that to accept his substitutional sacrifice a person would have to FIRST atom bomb their own Ego, Pride, and personal estimations of justice. This would create a sharp divide in how Jesus was perceived, hence his prediction here:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10:34
So, while the Law "is what it is"; the ultimate response of God to sin is NOT JUDGMENT, but MERCY:
But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Hebrews 9:26
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6:51
“…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Titus 2:13-14
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” John 12:24-27
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:5, 9-10
“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” Ephesians 2:14-18
The purpose of Jesus sacrifice is abundantly clear.